Yake Struggles to Find His Role in Toronto : Hockey: After leading the Mighty Ducks in scoring last season, he has to battle again for ice time.

It was January, the lockout was finally over, and the Toronto Maple Leafs were together again, greeting each other and catching up.

There in the middle of them was Terry Yake, officially a Maple Leaf for 3 1/2 months, but still a stranger.

“I was saying, ‘Nice to meet you,’ ” Yake said. “That was weird. It made it a little tougher.”

The Ducks traded Yake--their leading scorer last season--to the Maple Leafs on Sept. 28, but Toronto General Manager Cliff Fletcher had a pretty good idea what was about to happen. Welcome to the team, he told Yake, and uh, don’t worry about getting here.

A week and a half later, Yake was still in Anaheim, playing in a Ducks’ charity golf tournament with his former teammates. Eventually, he and his wife, Tanya, shipped their belongings to a storage facility in Toronto, then went to Yake’s hometown near Winnipeg, where Yake did a little coaching for local teams while the labor dispute dragged on.

For 3 1/2 months, he was a man without a team. Now he’s a man trying to find a role with the Maple Leafs--and hoping to get back into the lineup tonight against his former team after being scratched three consecutive games. His teammates already have pinned a photo of Yake in a Duck uniform to his locker, as if he wouldn’t be inspired anyway.

Yake started the season watching from the press box, then became a regular for a while, working his way all the way to the first line, where he played one game with Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuk. Along the way, Yake scored two goals, both game-winners, added one assist and was getting time on the power play. But Coach Pat Burns didn’t hide his disappointment in the performance of Gilmour, Andreychuk and Yake in a 4-1 loss to Edmonton on Feb. 15, and Yake found himself out of the lineup again.

He has played in nine of the Leafs’ 18 games, and is hoping Burns will acknowledge the revenge factor and play him against the Ducks tonight.

“Right now, all I want to do is play, and play as much as possible,” Yake said. “It doesn’t matter where it is, whether it was Anaheim or here, I want to play, and play a lot.”

The Yake trade is one that’s easily second-guessed.

He had 52 points last season to lead the team, edging Bob Corkum by one point. But after watching rookies Paul Kariya, Valeri Karpov and John Lilley in September training camp, management decided Yake’s role was disappearing. He had a poor exhibition season and his production had tailed off dramatically at the end of the previous season.

Officially, Karpov and Lilley beat out Yake. But Karpov hasn’t produced as much as the team expected, managing only a goal and two assists, and Lilley has been crowded out of the lineup and sent to San Diego. David Sacco, for whom Yake was traded, also is in San Diego.

Just as important, Corkum hasn’t been able to pick up where he left off last season, scoring only one goal so far. And the Ducks haven’t exactly been wearing out the back of the net, averaging 2.3 goals a game.

Yake, who was deeply disappointed to leave Anaheim, is staying quiet.

The quickest way to prove the Ducks wrong, of course, is to beat them. But Yake can’t do anything unless Burns puts him in the lineup.

“I would sure hope so, but you never know,” Yake said. “It’s been all right here. It’s a transition and a learning experience. It’s been everything from frustrating at times to great at times.”