November 29, 2008 was a day filled with hope and excitement for fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, as Brian Burke was hired away from Anaheim and signed to a six year deal to as the club's new president and general manager.
That day, the former Whalers, Canucks and Ducks GM was brash about the type of hockey he wanted his team to play and appeared confident that with time he could turn the Leafs, who had missed the playoffs the previous three seasons, into a consistent playoff club and eventually a team that would compete for a Stanley Cup.
Four years later, the Leafs post-season drought has reached seven seasons, the club which Burke has assembled is not structured to play the truculent, testosterone-filled brand of hockey he envisioned, but are in the midst of being transformed from the fast-skating, smallish group that fit the blueprint of ex-coach Ron Wilson to a more combative, defense-minded philosophy under new bench boss Randy Carlyle.
An objective look at the state of the franchise would have to acknowledge that the club has improved in his four years at the helm, with a group of young prospects like Morgan Rielly, Matt Finn, Tyler Biggs, and Stuart Percy in junior, young pros like Nazem Kadri, Matt Frattin, Jerry D’Amigo and Ben Scrivens on the precipice of having some impact at the NHL level.
His record in making trades has been very good, acquiring All-Rookie blueliner Jake Gardiner and All-Star Joffrey Lupul from his former club for veteran Francois Beauchemin, filching Dion Phaneuf from Calgary for a package of journeymen and moving Tomas Kaberle for former first rounder Joe Colborne and two high draft picks, but his legacy will be defined by the 2009 deal for leading scorer Phil Kessel, which in spite of the young winger’s scoring prowess is vastly unpopular, as the cost turned out to be young sniper Tyler Seguin and junior star Dougie Hamilton.
Free agency has been another story altogether. Additions like Clarke MacArthur and Tyler Bozak have been modest successes, but they are outweighed by multi-million dollar mistakes like Tim Connolly and Mike Komisarek.
In spite of Burke’s philosophy of building from the net out, his tenure has consisted of inheriting the horrid Vesa Toskala, to trading for the oft-injured Jean-Sebastien Giguere, to signing the hot and cold Jonas Gustavsson, to promoting young James Reimer, without finding one that could provide consistent front line goaltending.
The expectation is that with new ownership in place and the fans growing more restless, that Burke’s club must make the playoffs for him to remain at the helm, but the extended NHL lockout may have altered that conventional wisdom. The league and Player’s Association continue to wrangle over the particulars of a new collective bargaining agreement and even if negotiations begin to find common ground, an abbreviated season will not get started until Christmas or the New Year and will likely be between 50 to 60 games.
The opinion of many experts is that Toronto is still not likely to make the post-season with the roster as currently constructed. That may change if after the CBA agreement is reached the rumors of a deal for Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo come true, but if the disaster scenario occurs and the two sides cannot agree on a new CBA, there will be no basis on which to fire Burke. He would then have an opportunity to go into the last year of his contract with the salaries of Connolly, Lombardi, Lupul and MacArthur dropping off and free agents like Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry potentially on the open market.
The shortened season may also provide Burke a good chance of surviving, as it may not provide enough evidence of how the club has progressed with a new coach in his first full year on the job.
Come November 29, 2013, will Brian Burke still employed by the Maple Leafs???
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