Mar 31, 2012; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Maple Leafs center Matthew Lombardi (15) skates against the Buffalo Sabres at the Air Canada Centre. The Maple Leafs beat the Sabres 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Maple Leafs have dealt Matthew Lombardi to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for a conditional draft pick. TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting that the Leafs will receive a fourth round draft pick in 2014 which would turn into a third rounder if Lombardi re-signs in Phoenix after this season.

Lombardi came to the Leafs in July of 2011 with Cody Franson from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Brett Lebda, Robert Slaney and a conditional draft pick. The speedy forward had eight goals and 10 assists in 62 games last season with Toronto.

This will be Lombardi’s second stop with the Coyotes as he played there from 2008-2010. Lombardi recorded a career best 53 points in 78 games during the 2009-10 campaign with Phoenix. The 30-year-old was originally taken in the third round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Calgary Flames.

Lombardi has always been a solid skater and a pretty good penalty killer, but things just didn’t seem to work out for him in Toronto. In 2011-12 Lombardi was a minus-19 and has become the odd man out of a crowded Maple Leaf forward group. This might be a sign that Leo Komarov has a good shot to make the team now in a checking role.

• The penalty kill. 35 games, 36 powerplay goals against, and a league-worst 73.9%. Even just an average penalty kill success rate around 82.5% would mean 13 less goals against, and who knows how many more points/positions in the standings. Fix that and this team would be in real good shape.
• Injuries. There’s obviously a lot of teams that have suffered some major setbacks from injury this year, and the Leafs are no exception. Colby Armstrong was recently revealed to have suffered a concussion, Matthew Lombardi, Mike Komisarek, Mike Brown, Philippe Dupuis all remain on injured reserve, and James Reimer has finally seemed to shaken off the concussion-like symptoms that held him out for most of November. Tim Connolly has missed time as well. It’s something that has to be dealt with through the rigors of an NHL season, but it’d be nice if the Leafs didn’t lose any more key players.
• While Reimer has 110 saves in his last 3 games, and Jonas Gustavsson has played better of late, the Leafs’ goaltenders haven’t been exactly All-Star worthy (Although Reimer may be headed to Ottawa for the ASG, that’s more a product of some dedicated Leaf fans than his play). Reimer is 28th in the league in GAA, Gustavsson is 42nd out of 45.
• Not a real grievance here, but for a team that’s supposed to be so truculent, the Leafs have just 12 fights on the season. Colton Orr has just one.