Well, it finally seems like all this waiting is over. Brian Burke has been named the 13th General Manager in Toronto Maple Leafs history. Don't forget, he also gets the title of President; that's not too shabby if you ask me.
The deal that Burke reasoned from Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment is reportedly worth approximately $18 million for the term of 6 years (the rest of this season, and then five more).
But, the big topic as of late is whether or not Burke has the capabilities to live up to all the hype that has accompanied him on his journey from Anaheim to Toronto. In my opinion, yes indeed he does. Burke is the man to get the job done in Toronto, and that job needs to be started immediately.
Now in the title of my article, I used the word savior. Yes, I know this might seem like a bit of a stretch, but right now, when it comes to the Leafs, I am willing to take Burke as my Lord and personal savior. Let's face it, the Buds need all the help they can get right now.
Burke has a track record of signing the big name players and making the blockbuster deals, two skills which the past Leafs' GMs tended to lack.
For example, with the Anaheim Ducks, he was able to bring in such talent as Teemu Selanne, Scott Neidermeyer, and Chris Pronger to name a few. It was these players that paved the way to the Ducks' Stanley Cup win in 2007. It is pretty easy to see that Burke has the ability to make the deals, and make a difference.
In my personal opinion, it won't take him very long to do just that. Indeed, by the end of the season it will be very different Maple Leafs roster.
Some might point out that the current Leafs roster is very different than last season, and those same people might ask "how can he make any more changes?" But the answer to that question is pretty simple: Brian Burke does not care about fan popularity.
This means that fan favorites such as Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Nik Antropov, and Alex Ponikarovsky will be moved if the right circumstances arise.
Also, don't think that No. 1 goalie Vesa Toskala is safe either, especially because he has been terrible as of late. The only player on the team that should consider himself safe is Luke Schenn.
Much of this may seem drastic, but that is exactly what Burke has been brought into to do: make changes. It won't take long for these changes to take effect. So, brace yourselves Leaf Nation, you may be in for a bumpy ride.
Lets just hope its all worth it in the long run, because 42 years is a hell of a long time, and I am getting tired of waiting.
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about 1 month ago
Scott Neidermeyer wasn't brought in by Burke, he was brought in by his brother Rob.
Chris Pronger wasn't brought in by Burke, he was brought in by an Edmonton TV host who Pronger's wife wanted to get away from.
90% of the Ducks Cup roster was put in place by Brian Murray the other 10% was largely a very fortunate series of events beyond Burke's control.
Just watch to see the mess Burke has left the Ducks in, next year they are screwed.
Burke's record in Vancouver is no better where he never made it past the second round if I'm not mistaken.
So he has one year of success on his resume and it was largely not even his doing.
Have fun Toronto.
about 1 month ago
I like Burke and wish him well, but I don't think he would know a starting goalie if one bit him on the ass. I guess he drafted a goalie early in his career but since then his record is spotty.
Also, I boldly predict that this is what Sundin was waiting for.
about 1 month ago
Spencer:
Here are the defensive corps Burke inherited when he took over the team
Vitaly Vishnevski
Lance Ward
Ruslan Salei
Kurt Sauer
Fredrik Olausson
Sandis Ozolinsh
Chris O'Sullivan
Niclas Havelid
Keith Carney
Here are the defensive corps Burke won the cup with
Beauchemin, Francois
Di Penta, Joe
Huskins, Kent
Jackman, Ric
Niedermayer, Scott
O'Donnell, Sean
Pronger, Chris
Rome, Aaron
Salcido, Brian
Wilson, Clay
They are very different lists no? Please stop refering to comments made initially by Al Strachan because he is an extremely unreliable resource.
Truth is, Burke made alot of changes to the Ducks.. maybe he had a couple stars there already, maybe a couple fell into his lap, but he rebuilt the core of the team and its the core of a team that wins a championship, not the stars. Just ask the almighty Bryan Murray in Ottawa, the great team builder everyone is trying to give the Ducks championship credit for is doing wonders there.
about 1 month ago
Comments made by Al Strachan? Strachan is a hack!
I am capable of forming an opinion without listening to the words of uninformed media hacks.
The two pillars of the Ducks championship defence fell into Burke's lap, you can't deny that.
As for your lists, you have 10 people listed in each one but generally only the top 4 get meaningful ice time so I'm not sure why I should care that Burke acquired Clay Wilson.
Just watch, the Ducks are in the process of falling apart right now because Burke seriously messed up their cap situation. He has had to practically give away the likes of Bryzgalov, MacDonald and Scheider in order to get under the cap.
He also badly overpayed for Bertuzzi, an experiment that failed miserably.
Burke is overhyped and overrated making him a perfect fit in Toronto.
from about 1 month ago
First off, the other 2 players that got "significant" ice time on that Anaheim defense were Sean O'Donnell and Francois Beauchemin.
Now you are telling me that when Burke got them, that everybody knew that Sean O'Donnell would turn into a solid defensive defenseman and that Beauchemin would turn into a very solid third defenseman. I don't think so.
He got Joe DiPenta from the AHL and got Kent Huskins from god knows where to all play solid roles on the defense.
Scott Niedermeyer may have come to play with his brother, but Brian Burke did bring Rob there and he played amazingny that year in the playoffs.
Finally, all teams that are successful have to trade away good players in the salary cap era because when teams do very well, they have to sign players who stepped up for more money. The trick is to keep the right players and let go the ones that are expendable. Sorry but Giguere is better then Bryzgalov, Schneider can't play defense to save his life and McDonald is injured for the next 8 weeks.
Good to see you have that great hockey sense that everybody else seems to be missing :S
from about 1 month ago
First off, the other 2 players that got "significant" ice time on that Anaheim defense were Sean O'Donnell and Francois Beauchemin.
Now you are telling me that when Burke got them, that everybody knew that Sean O'Donnell would turn into a solid defensive defenseman and that Beauchemin would turn into a very solid third defenseman. I don't think so.
He got Joe DiPenta from the AHL and got Kent Huskins from god knows where to all play solid roles on the defense.
Scott Niedermeyer may have come to play with his brother, but Brian Burke did bring Rob there and he played amazingny that year in the playoffs.
Finally, all teams that are successful have to trade away good players in the salary cap era because when teams do very well, they have to sign players who stepped up for more money. The trick is to keep the right players and let go the ones that are expendable. Sorry but Giguere is better then Bryzgalov, Schneider can't play defense to save his life and McDonald is injured for the next 8 weeks.
Good to see you have that great hockey sense that everybody else seems to be missing :S
about 1 month ago
burke admitted his mistake with bertuzzi by buying out his contract the following year
neidermeyer was an easy find yes i will give you that
however just cause pronger had to get out of edmonton doesn't mean he had to go to anaheim.. there were 29 other potential destinations and burke was the guy who landed the deal
burke takes chances.. and learns from his mistakes, and anaheim isn't as bad off as everyone says, cap space becomes quickly available with the inevitable retirement of selanne and neidermeyer
as for the anaheim defense i was trying to point out that regardless of how good your top two are, you need 4 other guys to fill out the remaining 35min or so; and Burke brought them all in.
Burke is only over hyped cause its toronto, where everything from the top line centre to the guy who sharpens skates gets too much credit
I DO believe though that Burke is a good GM. His teams have always been competitive.. and thats what a GM needs to do, put a competitive product on the ice and then Wilson needs to do his job and get them to win.
It takes a "team" effort to win a championship, it cannot be pinned onto one guy, fail or succeed.
I also will apologize for the Al Strachan comment, but he is essentially the one that created the whole Brian Burke inherited the ducks BS in the media.
from about 1 month ago
Bruce, you must be the one wasting his time with Al Strachan. Pronger left EDM and SPECIFICALLY request Anaheim....his wife is originally from there and her extremely wealthy parents are still residents....this is why EDM got in return for Pronger, Lupul and Smid......do you not think if Pronger selected 28 of the other teams Kevin Lowe would not have received more in return??????
Brian Burke with his ego and some times comical retorts and bashing of media has convinced many viewers of the great game how great HE is!!!!....the reality is his stint and cup in Anaheim was remarkable timing...yes he made some moves....but the players that put Anaheim over the top and a cup winner were either there already or fell in his lap.
Truly the situation he is coming into here in TO will be far more similar to Hartford and somewhat like Vancouver....Hartford was perrenially bad and Burke didn't change much of that...as a matter of fact once Rutherford took over and headed out to Carolina it was only then that the 'Canes hoisted Lord Stanley's mug.
In Vancouver he came in and at least had Naslund and Ohlund (TML has no players of that quality currently) and he made an astute play to draft both Sedins....but other than that the Canucks were mainly underachievers during his tenure.
He is not Scotty Bowman nor Jesus Christ.....both of whom I'm not sure could bring TML a Stanley Cup either!
from about 1 month ago
Nelson -
I'm afraid you're facts are a bit off here. Pronger's Wife was born and raised in St. Louis, as was her father. He's a Lawyer turned Investment Banker who's lived in St Louis all his life, and his Father is a Dentist from St Louis as well. Pretty well established Missouri society types. Not sure where you're getting this Anaheim stuff, but it's pure fiction.
Pronger requested a list of approved teams. The Ducks were on it, yes, so were the Leafs. JFJ botched the deal by refusing Lowe's request for Steen and Kaberle. Burke had to outbid JFJ and he did. Not that out-negotiating JFJ is a real feet, but he still had to make the better deal, and Burke did just that. Pronger's NTC gave him restriction to a few teams, after that he had no say. If JFJ wasn't an idiot, Pronger would be a Leaf right now.
from about 1 month ago
and while I'm at it - Burke was only in Hartford a year - not like he had time to accomplish anything. He got in a fight with ownership over team direction and that was all she wrote.
Vancouver would not have a team today without Burke, and most of their fans realize this. He quite literally saved the franchise with a number of off-ice financial moves that dramatically increased the revenue stream in the years before the lockout. The magic he pulled to enable the Nucks to draft the Sedin's was pure genius. The only thing missing from his Cannucks teams was a top 5 goalie, but sadly Burke was too loyal to Cloutier and stuck with him - again, that was his only real error there.
about 1 month ago
Simple answer the title of the article?
NO!
Spencer be careful I have found whenever you provide a negative comment to a Leafs related article, no matter how accurate. You are immediately attacked and called a Leafs-Haters.
I guess not winning a cup or having any measureable amount of success since before colour TVs is still not reason enough to rarely be confident that any move MLSE makes is a good one!!!!!
from about 1 month ago
I am a Leafs hater, I don't hide that :)
Actually that's not true, it's just so much fun to antagonize them.
about 1 month ago
is burke the saviour? NO
is burke more competent than the MLSE brass? YES
regardless of my apparant ignorance of the Pronger deal, you gotta give me that much Spencer, at least we have a genuine hockey man calling the shots now.
from about 1 month ago
Yes I'll give you that, and I'm not even saying this isn't a good hire, I just get so tired of the incessant hype. You would think Jesus was being resurrected to run the Leafs.
Last night after the Sens-Leafs game on Sportsnet they barely talked about the game at all it was all about Burke...WHO CARES!
To be fair to Leaf fans, they seem to be more realistic about this hiring than the media, having the suits at MLSE out of the hockey operations process is definitely a win for Leaf fans.
about 1 month ago
I feel sorry for everyone who thinks Burke is the Leaf's savior. There are many reasons for this, but i'll start from the top.
1)in vancouver, his draft record was horrible - the only good move he made was getting the Sedins. You can argue about bieksa, kesler etc, but they only made the team cuz of their hard work. Kesler only now is coming on strong. There were way better players available when he was drafted.
2)if he's such a good GM and knows how to put up a competitive team, then explain to me why his goalie of choice was dan cloutier. all the fans in vancouver had already spotted him to be the weakest link on an offensively gifted team, but burke did little to trade him away for additional help. He instead got us Noronen for our second round pick - who left for europe after not being given ample opportunity to be a starter. PS noronen was def starting material.
3)He is known for signing his star players for a crap load of money. This happened in vancouver when he gave markus and bert massive contracts (well deserved contracts) at the time. but in the cap era, this has to change, but has it? no. with the Ducks he did the exact same thing, and ended up having to give away bryzgalov (a goalie who is probably top 10 in the league and carried them through much of the playoff when the won the cup), he gave away schneider, and andy mcdonald for peanuts just to stay under the cap. Signed Bertuzzi to a long expensive contract he didn't deserve, which he had to buy out, and I have a feeling that brendon morrison will suffer the same fate.
4)He is in love with the players he drafted and if given a chance will acquire them for picks or prospects which are worth more than his fav players w IE: jason king for ryan shannon. He's made numerous attempts at getting sedins from vancouver for various first round picks but the trades never worked out as not enough was being sent back in return.
all i know is leafs need to get better by drafting well and retaining their assets and investing in them. Burke's track record shows he is not interested in young players but veteran overpaid players (which is what the leafs had before). good luck to leafs...i hope i'm wrong but i know i'm not
about 1 month ago
i think kaberle will be traded once Van Ryn and Frogren return.
from about 1 month ago
Assuming he'll waive his NTC of course
from about 1 month ago
yas - assuming...
about 1 month ago
Naveed,
I cant disagree with you cept for one point. Is it not the coaches decision on who plays in goal? Noronen did not start becasue of Marc Crawford no? Correct me if I am wrong but the GM has to rely on his coach on putting the right players in the right scenario.
I am not saying Burke is going to bring a cup to toronto, all I am saying is that Burke in charge is far better than Peddie and the suits calling the shots..
As for Bryzgalov, Burke just kept his word. Burke said he would release him if there were no trade takers so he could find himself a starting job.. the mistake Burke made there was letting that lil piece of info become public, so no one was going to trade because they knew Burke would put the goalie on waivers anyways. If Burke would of played his cards a lil closer to his vest he prolly could of gotten something in return. Though since he didn't, he kept his word and paid the consequence of his mistake. Honourable really and lesson learned.
Burke maybe a loud mouth who does ludicrous things.. but he is still a good hockey mind, and so is Nonis, who, according to the rumours will be coming along for the ride as well? Can anyone confirm that? Cause then, the leafs hockey department is starting to look real strong, with Coates, Joey N. Nonis, Burke, and especially if Fletch stays on as an advisor.
Its a good hire that is getting way too much fanfare. At least it took everyone's mind of the Sundin drama for awhile, well, for a couple minutes til the Toronto media started suggesting that Burke wants to sign him before Burke was signed himself.
about 1 month ago
Saviour or not the "Anaheim is screwed next year" statements don't make much sense to me.
Assuming the cap stays the same Anaheim are $25 million below the cap for next season with Giguere, Pronger, Ryan, Selanne, Carter, Getzlaf, Kunitz and Perry all signed.
How exactly is that "screwed" ?
about 1 month ago
so there is one defenseman, one goalie and 6 players all signed for next year.
now go out there and sign me one more top 2 defenseman, 2 top four defenseman, 2 top 6 defenseman
6 bottom 6 forwards who aren't complete plugs and depth defensemen, and players that can fill in adequately, all within the 25 million dollar budget constraint. then on top of that, go ahead and buy out morrison because he is well past his prime and no good to anaheim. THEN continue to pay for bertuzzi's contract.
oh and before you start, keep in mind that a top two d-man will cost you anywhere between 5 - 7 million. top four d-men will cost you 3 - 5 million each. so that's 11 - 17 million already spent on 3 d-men. that leaves 8 million to sign 2 more decent top 6 d-men, and 6 bottom 6 forwards.
Decent third liners will cost a team anywhere between 1 - 2 million. there goes another 3 - 6 million. hmm can we get ourselves another 3 plugs to fill our 4th line, along with 2 more plugs to fill our bottom 6 d-man roles with 2 mill? maybe. so lets spend that...oh wait..now we're at the cap...we have no depth on d-man and wings...you see where i'm going with this?
Leafs needed a GM that can build from picks and prospects. DAVE NONIS was that guy. he was very patient with vancouver all two seasons after burke left and saved the picks and prospects which helped vancouver retain a bunch of good prospects. sure those years were brutal for vancouver fans but now we actually have players who we didnt give up on and who can step in to our lineup. not to mention we're below cap and actually can cope with the salary cap even if it drops next season...currently you can't say that about anaheim
The only results Burke has shown in the last few years is ONE stanley cup and two teams left in shambles.
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