Now that the media's gotten their wish and Brian Burke's spent his first weekend as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the whispers have started as to whether he can be successful with the Leafs or not.
If success is at his fingertips in Toronto or not, well that depends on who you talk to.
Some think that Burke is the exact type of person needed to lead this team, and build a successful franchise in Toronto. Others, like myself, are a little more skeptical
The fact is, that each of his skills and attitudes that he brings to Toronto can go both ways, offering him an advantage over Toronto and the proper experience to deal with the scenario, or they can hold him back and his attitude is a fabrication.
Burke is a Stanley Cup winning General Manager
Pro: Burke is in fact a Stanley Cup winning General Manager. He acquired Chris Pronger, Teemu Selanne, Francois Beauchemin, Todd Marchant, Scott Niedermayer, Chris Kunitz (who was reacquired off of waivers from Atlanta), George Parros, and Brad May, and built a roster that could score and out-muscle the teams that they faced on their way to the franchise's first title.
Con: While he did acquire those players on his way to a championship, some argue that Burke was almost handed a championship. Andy MacDonald, Sami Pahlsson, Corey Perry, Dustin Penner, Ryan Getzlaf, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere were already there.
Also, while he did exercise the Sergei Fedorov contract from Anaheim's books and receive Francois Beauchemin in return and then nab a disgruntled Chris Pronger from Edmonton, but it's difficult to gauge the hand Burke had in signing Niedermayer and Selanne. It was widely known that Selanne wanted to return to Anaheim to finish out his career, and after a 30-point 2003/04 with Colorado the market wasn't hot and heavy for Teemu.
Niedermayer was also looking for a place to play on the West Coast, and while Vancouver was rumored as his first choice, Burke had the biggest bargaining chip available giving Scott the opportunity to play with brother Rob.
Advantage: Pro
This one is a little difficult for me to swallow, as I've been one of the people who've argued the point that Burke did have a lot to work with in Anaheim. Despite all this, Burke was able to unload the Fedorov contract, and, advantages or not, he did acquire the two best defensemen available not named Lidstrom in Pronger and Niedermayer.
Both the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks were turned into consistent playoff threats...
Pro: Burke built a regular-season juggernaut in Vancouver with some of the pieces who were already in place (Markus Naslund, Mattias Ohlund) and some whom he brought in (the Sedins). Following four-straight seasons of missing the playoffs (1996/97-1999/00), the Canucks followed that up with four-straight playoff appearances under Burke, a Northwest division title, and they featured one of the most vaunted offenses in the league, leading it in scoring in 2001/02.
With the Ducks, they made it to the Conference Finals in their first year under Burke following a disappointing final season before the lockout, and the very next season the Ducks won the cup. Their defense was short-lived though, losing out to Dallas in the first round last season.
The Brian Burke Saga Part 2: Pros, Cons, and Everything Inbetween
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7 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
Junior Nelson 7 months ago
Nobody mentions that Burke was mentored by Pat Quinn. What the Leafs are getting is the second coming of Quinn by hiring his disciple.
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Graeme Boyce 7 months ago
With respect to our new and wonderful manager, the other critical factors most people are overlooking, despite great trades and picks (in hindsight), are injuries, mistakes and bad bounces. Any team in any sport that gets into the playoffs, frankly, has a chance to win.
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Chris Wilson 7 months ago
I have never seen Burke as really a top notch GM in the NHL. He built a better team in Vancouver and yes the Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup. But I never heard anyone really say that the Canucks were top contenders any year he was there.
It is my belief that you are right on the Selanne front, he wanted to be back in Anaheim and with Scott Niedermayer, he wanted to play with his brother.
Those were big pieces. Yes he pounced on an opportunity for Chris Pronger, but how hard was it really for him to get the disgruntled player down south?
A lot of this team was built by Bryan Murray, in fact the players you mention above were a huge part of the team winning and he brought most of them in.
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Nelson Santos 7 months ago
Great article once again Brian.
But I think you missed one part of Burke's career that is a lot closer to his situation in Toronto. That was his days in Hartford. They were a perennially bad team and he took over and did little to nothing to ever get them to succeed at much at all......Both his stints in Vancouver and Anaheim he had some level of proven NHL talent.....that is not the case in Toronto.
Making trades will be what I measure his worth by most....as far as I'm concerned every time he dials a phone he will be on the difficult end of the call/trade offer because quite frankly he will be offering little in terms of anything the other teams require. Yes the Leafs have a decent goaltender, Kaberle is a quality puck moving Dman and Stajan has shown he can produce some offense at least early on....but even if Burke decided to trade these players, what could/would he get in return...not a heck of a whole lot....and we know that trades are a huge part of turning a team around whether immediately or in the near to distant future. He really will have to be David Copperfield to make any trades that see an impactful player returned to the Maple Leafs. Even Warren Buffet can't make millions if he has zero dollars to start with.
There's a lot of talk about his ego or his way of dealing with the media...sure I agree he is able to stand by his decisions and doesn't appear to be swayed by the media (although at times that is a negative......see the Cloutier fiasco in Vancouver. he simply held on to Cloutier it seemed to simply spite the media in that city) but the reality is doing great interviews won't produce 2 points in the win column or build infrastructure with the TML org.
In actuality I feel for BB as he has in my opinion a gig he can't succeed in, but alas here is where his ego took over.....he thinks he can succeed....at the end though he will be $16M richer but that maybe the only measure of his success...but it won't mean much to the die-hard fan in this city!
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Jeremy Wark 7 months ago
Well balanced article, good read.
But, please give Burke the credit he deserves for simply competing in Vancouver with an annual salary budget of $25-35mil right up until the lockout. Vancouver is a market that has a tough time attracting Free Agents, thus most of the "star" players must be drafted or traded for. All while competing with teams like Detroit, Colorado and St. Louis who all carried budgets >$60mil.
The notion of him leaving Anaheim in Cap trouble is a silly notion IMO. It's a capped league, every team has the same constraints - any team with 2 Norris winning defencemen and a top 10 goalie collectively eating up $19mil (30%) of your annual cap-space is going to have trouble filling in the rest of the roster. The salary cap requires some tough choices, it will also amplify your mistakes ie. Bertuzzi - but at the end of the day the Ducks were a Cup winner. There are 29 teams that would love to have had the exhilaration of watching their team hoist the Cup, and still be able to squeeze the leagues best defensive pair, two young star forwards and a Conne Smythe winning goalie on the same roster.
Jer
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Spencer Callaghan 7 months ago
The issue I have isn't so much with Burke, he's an above average GM, but with the hype surrounding him.
Is Burke better than any of the recent GMs the Leafs have had? Absolutely.
Is Burke the second coming of Ken Holland? No.
Leaf fans would be wise to temper their expectations, which to be fair most seem to have done.
However the media hype building up to this was simply over the top.
If I were to rank GMs in the NHL right now Burke would probably be top 10 but not top 5, so for that alone Leaf fans should be happy, but his track record is not as exemplary as most would have you think.
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Off The Air 7 months ago
Pro: Burke is an old school no pussyfooting around hardass
Con: The NHL is becoming a girlieboy league
Advantage: LEAFS FANS
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