Burke fails to build from the net out

Cliff Fletcher: stop holding out! Share your secrets with Brian Burke. 

I remember when Cliff Fletcher came aboard back about two decades ago. Leaf land was dull, baron and hopeless. Suddenly, the Silver Fox swept in and over night restored dignity to the blue and white. He did it quickly by recognizing that one player could change everything. The goalie.

I remember the trade. Vincent Damphouse (our young centre! our future! gasp!) gone to Edmonton for the aging Grant Fuhr. Suddenly we had goaltending. And a perfect complement to nurture the rising star of Felix Potvin.

Cue the play-off runs.

Later, when Ken Dryden was at the helm, he stole the move from Fletcher's handbook and brought in superstar goaltender Curtis Joseph.

Cue more play-off runs.

Just when you thought the old trick was tired and could never work again, Pat Quinn gave it a shot and recruited Eddie Belfour.

Three more rounds of play-offs for Leaf fans! Yay!

Then, darkness descended on Leafland as John Ferguson Jr ushered us into an era of goaltending mediocrity.  Hopelessness returned and we went season after season with no playoffs. He extended Belfour when he should have been put out to pasture. He traded Rask away to bring in Raycroft. Then he tried to fix things the mess by turning to Toskala. None of these was a bad bet, but the trick with goaltending is not to take chances, it's to get the absolutely best possible goaltender you can get at that time. Just make it happen!

Which brings us back to Mr. I Build From The Net Out.

Pulheeze. Gustavsson and Giguere? How does that stack up against other goaltending in our conference? Let's take a look:

* six teams are incomparably better than Toronto in net

Buffalo (Miller)

New Jersey (Brodeur)

Carolina (Ward)

Pittsburgh (Fleury)

Florida (Vokoun)

NYR (Lundqvist)

* three teams are somewhat better than Toronto in net

Boston (Rask, Thomas)

Ottawa (Leclaire, Elliot)

Washington (Varlamov, Theodore)

* five teams are around the same as Toronto in net

Atlanta (C. Mason, Pavelec)

Montreal (Price, Auld)

NYI (DiPietro, Roloson)

Philadelphia (Leighton, Emery, Boucher)

Tampa Bay (Smith, Ellis)

This does not look good! Maybe Gustavsson will improve, but at best he could be in the Rask / Varlamov category. He will never be an elite. Despite this, and Burke's contention that he builds from the net out, he seems to be satisfied with the Leafs' mediocre bottom-feeding goaltending.

This is where Cliff Fletcher needs to pass on some sage advice to his boss. That advice? Land the goalie who just won the Stanley Cup. We have a rare opportunity created by Chicago's cap crisis. Burke could pursue Antti Niemi, and possibly land him for $4 million per season. Check out the 26 yrs old's stats:

Regular: GP 39, W 26. GAA 2.25, SO 7, SV% .912

Playoffs: GP 22, W 16. GAA 2.63, SO 2, SV% .910

Combine them and the kid has 9 shutouts in 61 games. That and the whole winning-of-the-Stanley-Cup-thing is kind of impressive. So is Burke going to pursue him?

No. Likely, Burke wants a little more depth at D first. C'mon Cliff, share your secret handbook with our GM. You know that just one player can turn a team around. And that player just might be Antti Niemi.