The Maple Leafs have reached the unreachable star: They've managed to trade David Clarkson.

Toronto sent Clarkson, signed to the league's worst contract ($5.25 million a season until 2020), to the Blue Jackets on Thursday for winger Nathan Horton.

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Horton's contract isn't particularly good itself; he counts $5.3 million against the cap until 2019, and his career is in jeopardy because of Steve McNair Jerseys a back injury. Still, the Leafs with e sentially limitle s financial resources can put Horton on long-term injured reserve and get his contract off the salary cap.

There was no such option with Clarkson. When the Leafs signed him in 2013, the deal looked bad straightaway; with the Devils, he was a 15-goal player with one luck-aided 30-goal season to his name. That's not how you want to spend $35-ishmillion over seven years under any circumstances.

The deal's structure made it particularly poisonous; more than 75 percent was to be paid out in bonuses, which made a buyout pointle s, andClarkson had a full no-movement clause. He waived that on Thursday, though.

; he was suspended during the preseason for leaving the bench during a fight, then managed 11 points in 60 games. He has Chance Campbell Jerseys 10 goals so far in 2014-15, but .

"It wasn't working out as well as we had hoped or he had hoped andhe recognized that," ."Sometimes players, for whatever reason, don't fit in a certain city or organization."

"He showed flashes. There were moments where we had the David we hoped to have, but overall disappointing for both sides."

Horton, meanwhile, was a productive-when-healthy winger for the Panthers and Bruins before signing with the Blue Jackets before last season. A degenerative back condition has e sentially ended his career; he hasn't played at all this season, and he's still pondering a spinal operation that would officially force him into retirement. It's a brutally sad situation.

I cant stand up like a normal person; I cant bend over, in a must-read story before the season. I cant run. I cant play with my kids. To get in and out of the car, Im like a 75- Dillon Radunz Jerseys year-old man so slow and stiff. I cant sleep at night. I try to lay down and my back seizes up and I cant move, so sleeping is out. Im like a zombie in the daytime.

The Blue Jackets' situation is, e sentially, the inverseof the Maple Leafs'; rather than pay a player to sit on the sidelines, po sibly forever, they're opting to spend a similar amount on a healthy bottom-sixer and not concerning themselves with the cap ramifications. That makes sense, too they're not a cap team. They're a budget team. If you're them, it's better to pay for something than nothing.

"We would have been paying (Horton) $26 million the next five years to sit in the stands," . "Our decision that David Clarkson fits our group of guys I dont think it was made by watching him play recently."

And Clarkson, for all the criticism, is still an NHL player. He can be effectively physical, score some goals and stand in front of the net on a power play.

"He's going to go there andplay well," Nonis said."He'll fit in with that group andhave the impact there that we'd hoped he'd have here"

Still, this seemed impo sible. The Maple Leafs, wisely, areat the start of what could be a full-on rebuild, but Clarkson's deal was D'Onta Foreman Jerseys a weight around their neck. That's somehow no longer true.