Eggs, basket. Basket, Eggs.

With the acquisitions of Owen Nolan, Glen Wesley, Doug Gilmour and Phil Housley, Pat Quinn and the Toronto Maple Leafs can deny it no longer: the future is now. Which is good, because the franchise's real future holds questions with answers that might not be to their fans' liking.

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For the first time in almost four decades, people are associating the Leafs and a Stanley Cup championship without burly men wearing white uniforms and carrying large nets coming to collect them. Ed Belfour's phenomenal goaltending has patched holes in a wobbly defense, Alex Mogilny's Lady Byng-caliber season has made fans around the league forget about the vaudevillian antics of Darcy Tucker -- OK, that's a lie -- and the deals for Nolan and Wesley have solidified Toronto as a genuine threat to emerge on top of the Eastern Conference, if not the entire league.

On any other team, this would be cause for excitement. For the average Leafs fan, it amounts to plucking the winning lottery ticket from your dead mother-in-law's hands.

You see, the closer the Leafs move toward a Stanley Cup, the more their followers resemble the soldier who walks back into civilization after 40 years hiding in the jungle: their return to once-familiar territory seems more like a dream the longer they stick around.

Leafs fans are used to Fred Boimistruck, not Nicklas Lidstrom. They wake up at night, grown men and women, scared the specter of former owner Harold Ballard is hiding under the bed. And they still root for a team whose soon-to-be former owner actually turned away Wayne Gretzky.

Even when Pat Quinn took over the reins as GM, the Leafs have been hesitant to improve their team via major in-season trades. He didn't bite on Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure or Keith Tkachuk when they were available. His biggest splash approaching the trade deadline prior to the Nolan deal brought over Aki Berg from the L.A. Kings in 2001, the reverberations of which are as insignificant today as they were then. And with every missed opportunity, with every significant free agent Toronto finished as a runner-up for (Bobby Holik, Darius Kasparaitis, Tony Amonte, Bill Guerin), the collective ulcer among Leafs fans grew exponentially.

So, when the Leafs lost out on the Alexei Kovalev sell-off, fans prepared themselves for another stretch of excuse-making from management. Rather, they got one of the league's elite power forwards in Nolan, Housley and Wesley, aging blueliners who can be counted on to keep the defensive miscues to a minimum, and an emotional boost of the highest order with the return of former captain Gilmour. Why the sudden strategy shift, you ask?

Two words: Father Time.

Put plainly, the Leafs are an aging team. With Nolan and Wesley on board, 18 players on the 23-man roster are at least 30 years of age. Belfour will be 38 in April. Gary Roberts will be 37 in May. As for the new guys, let's just say Gilmour has invested in a shuffleboard set, and Housley has developed a peculiar affection for Matlock reruns.

That the Leafs' sand is slipping through the hourglass was fully recognized by Quinn, so he made his moves before the window of opportunity became boarded up. Trouble is, the house may be zoned for demolition in the seasons to come.

For as much money as Toronto's owners crank out -- and with it, the increased ability to sign prominent free agents -- their scouting staff has never been among the NHL's elite. Yeah, they've plucked gems such as Tomas Kaberle and Danny Markov from the late rounds of the NHL draft, but, more often than not, Toronto has wound up with busts along the likes of Jeff Ware, Brandon Convery, and Eric Fichaud. Considering the teams which consistently finish at the top of the standings -- the Colorados, the New Jerseys, the Detroits -- have development systems that yield better-than-average NHLers year after year, you have to be concerned over the Leafs' futility in that area.

To wit: In The Hockey News' Future Watch rankings of team prospects, Toronto finished 16th, bested by teams such as Nashville, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Columbus. Two prospects, defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo and Brad Boyes, placed in the top 50 prospect ranking, but Toronto dealt Boyes to San Jose as part of the Nolan trade. In short, there are no Pavel Datsyuks on the Leafs' horizon, no Joni Pitkanens to build around.

The entire situation reminds us of another point in Leaf history: 1995-96, to be exact. Then, Fletcher pulled the strings on a number of deals to make a veteran-laden squad even more veteran-laden: Kirk Muller and Don Beaupre were brought in, as were Dave Gagner, Nick Kypreos, Wendel Clark and Mathieu Schneider. In return, the Leafs gave up defenseman Kenny Jonsson and a first-round draft pick that the New York Islanders used to draft Roberto Luongo.

Consequently, when Toronto fell to the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs -- and management decided to rebuild from scratch -- their cupboard was bare, and the franchise missed the playoffs for the next two seasons. If Quinn & Co. can't shape more of their prospects into pros, the Leafs could be in similar trouble.

Of greater concern is the ambiguity surrounding the league's labor battle, coming in 2004 to an arbitrator near you. If the owners show some resolve and demand a salary cap in any collective bargaining agreement, the Leafs will be hard-pressed to come in under one -- especially with Nolan's fat contract, which pays him roughly $13 million over the next two seasons.

What happens then? Does Toronto cut costs and jettison key players, as ownership did with the NBA's Raptors, in order to avoid a luxury tax? Do they become the Canadian version of the New York Rangers, stuck with a backbreaking number of un-tradeable contracts? The truth is, nobody knows.

Questions, but no answers. Certain uncertainty.

Such is the path awaiting the Leafs. And if their Stanley Cup dreams are dashed this season, you can bet Toronto fans will be passing the Pepto-Bismol. Again.

E-mail Adam Proteau at aproteau@thehockeynews.com.

Material from The Hockey News.
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