Busy Offseason For Burke Gives Hope To Leafs Nation

April 10th 2010 marked the end of yet another disappointing season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as the team had failed to qualify for the post-season for a franchise record 5th straight season.

With less than two months until the June 25th Entry Draft in Los Angeles and the beginning of Free Agency on July 1st- Leafs President and General Manager Brian Burke, along with his front office staff of David Nonis and Cliff Fletcher, had quite the task ahead of them of turning around the moribund franchise.


First thing on the Leafs agenda was to address the lack of leadership the Leafs suffered from with the departure of Mats Sundin, and, on June 14th, recently acquired Dion Phaneuf was named the 18th captain in franchise history. With a new captain, a new era for the Toronto Maple Leafs has begun.

Burke and his front office brass knew at the outset of the off season that they had to rely on impeccable scouting to acquire top end talent at the draft as the Phil Kessel trade with Boston stripped them of valuable 1st and 2nd round draft picks, one of which was dubiously used to select up and coming superstar, Tyler Seguin.

Burke made a splash the day before the draft by acquiring versatile forward Kris Versteeg from the Chicago Blackhawks, weeks after they had won their first Stanley Cup in 49 years. Burke brings in a proven forward who can score, kill penalties, and will rarely take a shift off. Burke has addressed several key problems with acquiring Kris Versteeg, who will undoubtedly improve our atrocious penalty kill and put a few needed pucks in the net.

Next for Burke was trading up at the entry draft and selecting agitating forward Bradley Ross with the 43rd overall selection. Ross has been compared to former Toronto fan-favourite Darcy Tucker for all the good reasons: an in-your-face pest who can put the puck in the net, a player you hate playing against but love having on your team.

“Free Agency will be our draft” is how Burke addressed the media when asked of his off-season plan. On July 1st, as expected, Burke went out and acquired bruising forward Colby Armstrong with a 3 year, 9 million dollar contract. Armstrong will be a stud on the Leafs third line as he brings leadership, grit, and a slight scoring touch (15 goals in 09/10 season) to the table. Armstrong offers a diverse skill-set that Burke loves to have on his team. As well, Burke signed Clarke MacArthur (16 goals, 19 assists in 09/10 season) for a bargain of $ 1.1 Million, MacArthur will bring more depth to the 2nd or 3rd line.

Still, after all these transactions on behalf of Burke, the biggest story line of the Toronto off-season was reaching its climax, and that was the seemingly inevitable trade of long-time Leaf and all-star puck-moving defenceman, Tomas Kaberle. Previous General Manager John Ferguson Jr. cleverly included a window in Kaberle’s contract which dictated that Kaberle (who had a no-trade clause in his contract) can be moved without his consent beginning July 1st up until midnight on August 15th.

Kaberle was appealing as trade bait for several reasons: his value can fetch Burke a valuable top-6 forward to boost the depth up front and speed up the Leafs re-build, and he does not play with the passion and “truculence” that Burke craves in his players- often losing defensive battles and causing untimely and costly turnovers in his own end.

Now, Burke has quipped that he “wont make a trade for the sake of making a trade” and will trade Kaberle “only if the deal is right.”. The clock struck midnight on August 15th and Burke stuck by his word and chose to keep Kaberle with intentions of resigning him in the near future to an extension. Although the Leafs missed out on swapping Kaberle for a scoring forward, his presence will undoubtedly increase production from a hulking blue line that is stock full of shut-down defenders.


Looking ahead at the 2010/2011 season, Toronto will see a vastly improved team from a season ago that finally gives hope to a Leafs fan base that has been starved of a play-off team since before the 2004/2005 lockout. Burke stabilized our once shaky goaltending with the acquisition of Jean-Sebastien Giguere on January 31st, who will form a tandem with up-and-comer Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson- who is expected to emerge and take the number one job away from Giguere.

With the recent acquisition of Dion Phaneuf and the signing of defenseman Brett Lebda, Tomas Kaberle staying put, and improved seasons from Luke Schenn, Carl Gunnarsson, Francois Beauchemin and Mike Komisarek, the Leafs have one of the best defense on paper and surely will be a tougher team to score against.


Questions will arise with the lack of scoring depth up front, as the Versteeg, Armstrong and MacArthur acquisitions wont address all the teams needs. Burke is hoping that sophomore centre Tyler Bozak can continue his chemistry with Phil Kessel and Nikolai Kulemin, and that a rebound season from centre Mikhail Grabovski will produce enough offense to carry the load.

Expect rookies Marcel Mueller, Nazem Kadri, or Jerry D’Amigo to push for the remaining spots at forward as all 3 players had stand out performances at the recently held rookie tournament.

Leafs Nation is hoping Burke’s offseason transactions can yield significant return, and it is safe to say that this franchise is on the path back to respectability.