Four-time All-Star Tomas Kaberle may be playing his last game as a Toronto Maple Leaf in front of the hometown crowd tonight at the Air Canada Centre. The 32-year old Czech made his debut with the Leafs in 1998 after being drafted 204th overall in 1996, and has been one of the mainstays on the team since. His no-trade clause expires after the season, and many are expecting him to be shipped out in favor of draft picks before this year’s Entry Draft, as Toronto is in desperate need of getting some.

Kaberle has arguably been Toronto’s best defender during his stay. Current blue-liners like Dion Phaneuf and Luke Schenn just haven’t been around long enough to really say whether they’re in the same conversation as Kaberle. The criticism about him is that, as a first-line power play defender, he doesn’t take enough shots. That’s fair. He’s a pass first, shoot second kind of guy, and that has just as much potential to harm a power play as it does to help it.

He’s spent the last 12 years with Toronto, his entire NHL career. He’s played 817 games and has 80 goals and 402 assists to show for his efforts. However, it’s everything else he does as a blue-liner that makes him so valuable. The thing which frustrates many fans is that they seem to think he could be much better offensively, and they may be right. But that’s never been his style, and regardless where he ends up after the summer, it never will be.

As one of the longest-lasting members of the Blue & White, the comfort and leadership that Kaberle brings will be sorely missed. For a team that has been slowly rebuilding over the last half-decade, the loss of an influential defenseman will be a yet another setback for a team that has seen more than its share of setbacks. As the team gets younger, losing Kaberle would continue in the same vein, but the team, and more importantly the fans, can only take so much. There are barely a handful of recognizable names left on the Leafs, and Kaberle’s, for at least one more home game, is one of them.