The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded veteran 27-year-old defenseman Mark Fraser to the Edmonton Oilers for a pair of forward prospects. Fraser, who signed a one-year contract with the Maple Leafs in the summer for $1.275 million, was a healthy scratch in 19 of Toronto’s last 20 contests.
He played in a total of 19 games with the Leafs this season, having zero goals and one assist. He accumulated 33 minutes in penalties, was a minus-eight and played an average of 15:12 minutes per game.
Fraser was seen as one of the Leafs’ most consistent and dependable blue liners last season, but he struggled this campaign. Injuries didn’t help him either as he suffered a facial fracture during the fourth game of the playoffs last season and then suffered a knee injury in the second game of the current season.
Fraser was sidelined for a month after hurting his knee against the Philadelphia Flyers back on Oct. 2 and also sat out a pair of games in November due to a knee injury.
The native of Ottawa, Ontario played in 45 games in the shortened 48-game NHL season in 2012-13 and had eight assists along with a plus-eight rating. He missed the last three playoff games of the Leafs series against the Boston Bruins after being struck in the head in the fourth fame.
Fraser has played in 162 career regular-season NHL games and has three goals and 14 assists for 17 points. He also has one assists in five postseason games. Fraser was originally drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the third round of the 2005 NHL draft with the 84th overall selection.
Fraser played in 91 games with the Devils in parts of three seasons and he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in December of 2011. He never played for the Ducks though and Toronto acquired him from Anaheim in February of 2012 in a trade for Dale Mitchell.
The Leafs felt they could afford to trade Fraser because of the fine play of youngsters Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly in defense. They also acquired veteran Tim Gleason earlier this season from the Carolina Hurricanes in a deal which saw fellow blue liner John Michael Liles head the other way.
In return for Fraser the Leafs received forward prospect Cameron Abney as well as the rights to forward Teemu Hartikainen. The 23-year-old Hartikainen was chosen in the sixth round of the 2008 NHL draft with the 163rd overall pick. He played in 23 games with Edmonton last season and had a goal and two assists.
He has played a total of 52 games with the Oilers in parts of three seasons and scored six goals and seven assists for 13 points. He’s currently playing in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in Russia with Salavat Yulaev. He has scored 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points in his first 43 games.
The 22-year-old Abney was chosen in the third round of the 2009 draft with the 82nd overall pick. Abney was taken for his size as he stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 219 lbs. He’s currently playing in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) with the Bakersfield Condors and has played in 20 games with a goal and three assists to his name.
Abney has also played in the past with the Oklahoma City Barons, which is the AHL affiliate of the Oilers.
