A few lazy mid-summer laps around the rink hardly seems an accomplishment for a professional hockey player. 

But after months of anxiously wondering when that moment would arrive — sometimes fearing the answer would be never — the slicing sound of metal on ice in Prague last week represented a new beginning for defenceman Karel Pilar. 

And half a world a way, for a Maple Leafs team trying to cobble together a legitimate NHL blue line, the relief from that 20-minute skate was likely just as palpable. In what will likely be a sink-or-swim season for some young Toronto defenders, Pilar represents the ace of those wild cards.

With veterans Robert Svehla and Jyrki Lumme gone from the Leafs defence, coach Pat Quinn will take a hard training camp look at the likes of rookies Carlo Colaiacovo and Brendan Bell. But it is Pilar who has played, and played well, at the NHL level before.

The 25-year-old was very good for Toronto in the stretch drive and playoffs in 2002. And he was solid again last season — in his last appearance Dec. 28, he scored the overtime winner against Edmonton — until he was felled by a mysterious virus. It was so serious that it impacted how his heart was pumping blood to his brain, causing headaches and dizziness.

"I was getting worse and worse," Pilar recalled yesterday in a telephone interview from Prague. "I knew there was something wrong with me. I was scared. A lot of times I wondered (if my career was over)."

The team finally found a cardiologist who was quick to diagnose the problem. The doctor's own son had contracted a virus that hampered the muscles of his heart in a similar manner. The cardiologist told Pilar to stop on-ice workouts and, more importantly from the defenceman's perspective, he assured him that his body would battle back to normal without long-term complications.

But it's been a tedious rehabilitation. Tough two-a-day workouts, while closely monitoring his own heart rate, until he could reach the once-taken-for-granted joy of skating again.

"They said I'm healthy and I can start building up my strength again. I'm not scared any more about coming back."

Pilar, of course, still needs a contract — which agent Mark Stowe and the team are negotiating — but he said his sole focus is on workouts that involve a great deal of cardio work.

Pilar ran into Svehla at a charity tennis tournament at Bratislava, Slovakia, two weeks ago and departed convinced that the veteran will stay retired He knows there are big opportunities on the blue line.

"I know there's a good chance to be there," he said.

"I know I can be in the top four defencemen again. I believe in myself. It's going to be hard to replace Robert but maybe I can have a good season. Maybe Carlo can have a good season. You probably can't expect us to play like Robert right away but maybe in two or three years, they'll have a couple of really good defencemen if they play us and believe in us."

And the Leafs are viewing camp as a clean slate for Pilar.

"I think you have to write his last season off," said Mike Penny, the Leafs' assistant general manager. "He ended up with something that neither he nor anybody else had a clue about. It was rare. But he's over that now and he's clear."