CAN BRIAN BURKE DO THE JOB?

Well then, it’s pretty much official now. Brian burke will be the next President and General Manager of our Toronto Maple Leafs. All that is left is Burke’s signature on the contract.

Is this signing of Burke going to lead the Maple Leafs out of their current failures within his six years, or will things continue to be the same going forward?

Burke has been around in the NHL at various levels of employment and has done a decent job and at the same time left a few negatives.

With the state the Leafs are currently in, they were desperate for a GM and only wanted one man. Before it got to Burke, others topped the list, such as Ken Holland, Lou Lamoriello, Jim Rutherford and Scotty Bowman.

All four gentlemen declined, didn’t want to leave their current jobs, or they didn’t want to get involved in the mess that MLSE has created. It would’ve taken a lot for Ken Holland to leave his post as President and GM of the Detroit Red Wings. The team he has built took a while, but has paid off with four Cups, and probably more to come.

Why would Lou Lamoriello want to leave his job with the New Jersey Devils? It’s in a low key hockey market, he is one of the highest paid hockey executives, and is just coasting along fine. A lot of that coasting should be credited to Martin Brodeur though, because without him there would be no Stanley Cup banners hanging in New Jersey. Once he leaves, Lou will have some work to do, but again, in a low key hockey market where he’ll be getting PAID.

Then there was the possibility of Jim Rutherford coming to Toronto, who was born and raised in Southern Ontario. That would’ve been some kind of match up. He too, is in a low key hockey market and has a good job.

Scotty Bowman was down for the job, but wasn’t promised to be ‘the guy’ because he still had to answer to the idiot Richard Peddie and his bonehead board of executives.

That reason right there, is basically why and probably the reason, why Holland, Lamoriello and Rutherford didn’t want to come to Toronto.

Now, why was Burke so eager to get the hell out of Anaheim, where he was offered a nice contract, which he could’ve lived off of and retired. The Ducks also have two young superstars in Cory Perry and Ryan Getzlaf.

We all know family was one of his main reasons why he left the Ducks. But again, why Toronto, there were other teams interested in him and in the region Burke wanted a job in.

Chicago, Boston and Ottawa were all said to be interested in Burke. I doubt he would’ve gone to Ottawa, because well, who would go to Ottawa?

Chicago or Boston would’ve been great fits for Burke. Both teams have good young teams on the rise, and both teams have a young nucleus in place. The Bruins have Patrice Bergeron, Phil Kessel, and Milan Lucic and have Zdeno Chara locked up. The Blackhawks have Jonathon Toews, Patrick Kane, Brian Campbell, Brent Seabrook and Cristobel Huet. Both cities are desirable and good places to live.

There were rumblings that Chicago owner Rocky Wirtz was going to go after Burke aggressively.

Still, Burke wanted Toronto, and the Leafs wanted Burke.

There are so many things wrong with the Leafs right now. MLSE is just stupid, bad ownership right there. There really is only one true building block in Luke Schenn. There are trade possibilities to bring in some youth. But no trade clauses stand in the way of that. The Leafs only have five draft picks each, upcoming in this seasons draft and the next.

With all this and more, why did Burke still want Toronto?

Here are a few reason why: 1) to get a rich contract, which he did at six years worth three million dollars (US) a year. 2) family reasons. 3) to have the most high profile job in the NHL. 4) to add to his already large ego.

Excluding his family reasons, Burke coming to Toronto was for himself to add to his career resume and make his name bigger.

The only reason the Leafs wanted him, was this year was the final year in his contract with the Ducks. Burke was the only one who responded well at the prospect of being the GM of the Leafs. And other high profile executives turned them down.

It looks like these two sides hooked up for all the wrong reasons.

There is some upside to this deal as well. Burke’s interest in coming to Toronto could also mean he wants to win and change the direction of the Leafs. It also has been reported that Burke will have autonomy, and whatever he says goes. Finally, no more answering to the monkey’s upstairs.

Here is Burke’s history with his past teams, what he did, what the team did, and in what state he left the team.

He began his career with the Hartford Whalers, and was the GM who drafted Chris Pronger second overall, after some trading was done. He was fired one year later.

Burke really made a name for himself when he was hired as the Vancouver Canucks’ Gm back in 1998, and turned the franchise around. First he brought in Marc Crawford, and made a smart trade by dealing away Paval Bure to the New York Islanders for Ed Jovanoski. In his first draft with the Canucks, he drafted the Sedin twins second and third overall. He also gave up a lot of draft picks to draft back-to-back. He traded away Alex Mogilny to the Devils for Brendan Morrison, which made up one of the most dominant lines in hockey with Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi.

In those 7 years as GM, Burke’s Canucks finished above .500 five out of the seven seasons. Won one division title, made four straight playoff appearances (2001-2004), but only won one playoff round out of five.

Before he left, he wasn’t able to re-sign Ed Jovanoski or trade, and Jovanoski signed on with Phoenix. Burke in his 7 years was never able to find a good goaltender and never saw the Sedin’s fully develop which they have done now.

The Canucks really don’t have a solid foundation, and expected a lot out of the Sedin’s, something that never happened.

Overall, Burke had an opportunity to make some real noise with Vancouver, but when it counted most his teams were never built to do any damage.

This brings us to his stay in Anaheim, as the Vice-President and GM, for whom he took over from Brian Murray. His reign as GM lasted from 2005-2008. In those four years Burke won a Stanley Cup in 2007, but he had inherited a team that Brian Murray had built. Burke did improve the roster by adding head coach Randy Carlyle. He dumped aging veterans Sergei Fedorov and Petr Sykora. He took a gamble with Teemu Selanne which paid off big time, and signed marquee free agent Scott Niedermayer. Brought in Chris Pronger through a trade, where he paid a hefty price giving up Ladislav Smid, Joffrey Lupul, and a first and second round draft pick in 2008.

In three season with the Ducks, Burke won a Stanley Cup, a division title, won 6 of 8 playoff rounds and the team finished above .500 three times.

After winning the Cup, Niedermayer and Selanne sat out half of next season and Burke signed Mathieu Schneider, and took a chance on Todd Bertuzzi by giving him a two year contract worth 8 million dollars (US). Bertuzzi failed miserably, and was bought out. When Burke left, he left the team with salary cap issues, and has five players signed to five lengthy deals, worth an excess of over 5 million dollars (US). The Ducks now are hardly competitive due to cap issues and level of talent.

Overall, Burke has seen the highs and lows. Has put franchises in good fortunes, but only to see them vanish, and leave the team in trouble.

Another problem that has risen with the signing of Burke is the organization has two people with big egos. One is Burke, and the other is head coach Ron Wilson. These two really have to check themselves and put the team first.

It will be interesting to see how Dave Nonis will do his job, because he did a fair job in Vancouver. He has one real accomplishment to his name, when he traded for Roberto Luongo, and gave up next to nothing.

Burke will have a huge job in front of him now and better make some smart moves because he is in one of the most demanding sports markets in North America and that’s what he wanted. His only option is to tear this team apart and start fresh. I just hope he doesn’t take any short cuts and plan on making the playoffs within a year or two. Looking back at his days with the Canucks, he turned that franchise around in three years and had them competing. Over the years Burke has shown he is aggressive and is willing to take risks.

For sure things will get shaken up and the culture will change, which is needed. We’ll just see if Burke came to help the Leafs or came for himself, only time will tell. And within that time something major will be done or close to it. And that ‘something major’ could either be bad or good.


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