Is Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke the Most Overrated GM in the NHL?

Brian Burke took over the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 29, 2008.  The team was a mess after John Ferguson Jr.'s  reign as GM and needed a shake-up. 

Burke provided a shake-up, but the team hasn't progressed, and Burke seems to have just replaced mediocre players with different mediocre players.

Burke was hailed as a great GM and the man to turn the team around.  He may well be, but he always says how the team is better now and is improving, yet there is no evidence of that.  I understand that he has to build his team up, but what team is he looking at?  He did win the cup in Anaheim, but at the time of his appointment he was being called one of the best GMs around. 

I never really bought into that, but was interested to see what he would do. 

He's done a lot, but there has been very little impact, and the team hasn't progressed at all. It may even be worse considering Toronto had the No. 2 pick in the previous draft, but more on that later.

Goaltending has been an issue in Toronto since Ed Belfour left in 2006.  Vesa Toskala was brought in by the previous management and failed to impress.  Burke has brought in Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Jonas Gustavsson, and neither goaltender has greatly impressed and taken the starting position.  There are no goaltending prospects to speak of in the organization, so that situation won't change any time soon.

The defense has been heavily invested in, but they aren't a great set of players.  The biggest flop has to be Jeff Finger receiving a four-year deal at $3.5 million a year.  He was signed by Cliff Fletcher, but it's taken Burke just over two years to send him to the AHL.  Finger only played 39 games last year. 

Why wasn't he gotten rid of sooner?

His deal might not be as bad as Wade Redden's, but it has to be up there as an absolute shocker.  He got that deal after a 19-point season in Colorado.  Most people surely said "Who?" when that deal was announced.  Burke should have got rid of him sooner and put his salary to better use because he clearly hadn't done enough to earn a full time spot on the roster. 

Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin were signed by Burke to large deals, both too large. Komisarek was injured for much of last year, which is not Burke's fault, but even when healthy $4.5 million a year for Komisarek is too steep. 

Unfortunately, that is more of a league-wide problem since the lockout, with ownership jacking up salaries even though they were the ones complaining about money problems.  Then they go and hand-tie themselves with albatross contracts—any Rangers fan will confirm that.

Luke Schenn, Keith Aulie and Carl Gunnarsson are promising players, and Burke has them playing a fair bit.  Only Aulie was acquired by Burke, though, in the Dion Phaneuf trade.

His handling of Tomas Kaberle is farcical.  He always comes out and says Kaberle won't be traded.  Why do that?  Make him available, and explore trades for him.  The chances are Burke is doing that, though, as any good GM should, so him saying he won't trade an asset like Kaberle is nonsense.

The acquisition of Dion Phaneuf, whose game has really declined, was still a good deal.  The Maple Leafs now have a captain who is imposing and should lead the team well.  Throw in that Burke rid the team of mediocre players like Hagman and Stajan and it seems that Toronto won that trade, even with a diminished Phaneuf. 

Recently Burke has come out and chastised Maple Leaf fans who have booed their captain this season.  The team is in an eight-game losing streak and have only won one of their last 12 games.  That is appalling, and the fans have every right to boo their players.  For Burke to come out and say that's wrong is crazy.

Does he really expect the fans to pay good money to see their team lose most nights? 

The forwards read like a who's who of nobodies.  Zigomanis, Caputi, Brown and Brent.  These are players only the most devout hockey fan would know.  I'm sure most Maple Leafs fan struggled to recognize those guys, let alone NHL fans in general.  The problem is Burke has so much money invested elsewhere that he can't go out and sign an established player.

Burke's acquisition of Kris Versteeg, though, is a high point in the forwards.  I can't imagine how disappointed he must have been to be traded from Chicago to Toronto.  Viktor Stalberg was the main cog from Toronto, but it looks like it was a good trade for Toronto.  Versteeg is a solid player. 

Nazem Kadri also looks to be good and have a solid future ahead of him.  He's the premier draft pick selected by Burke.  The hope is that he won't get rushed, and Burke looks to be avoiding that at the moment, which can only be good. 

Phil Kessel is a real talking point.  Burke traded two first-round picks and a second-round pick for him.  One of those picks has become Tyler Seguin, the top prospect with the Boston Bruins.  The other first-round pick looks like it could be a top five player next year if the Maple Leafs' woes continue.  Sequin has the potential to match Kessel, and then you throw in another potential star, and Toronto has lost out big time. 

This is the second trade where Toronto have helped Boston massively.  The Andrew Raycroft-Tuukka Rask deal, done by previous management, is one that would like to be forgotten by fans.  At the time Raycroft had won the Calder Trophy and looked great.  But Rask was a premiere prospect—why trade him?  This shows the ineptitude that Maple Leafs management of recent years possess.

The Seguin-Kessel trade could be looked at in the same light soon.  Did Burke really think that the Maple Leafs would do well enough last year to not finish so low down?  Even if they had done marginally better the draft pick would still most likely have been a top 10 pick.  Kessel is a great player, but Burke overpaid for him.

Ron Wilson was hired by Cliff Fletcher, and is a close friend of Burke, but even with the lacklustre performances of Leafs, Burke supports him no matter what.  He seems to be untouchable.

Wilson had coached the San Jose Sharks previously and had done well.  But the team never did well in the playoffs.  They consistently underperformed.  Could it be that the Sharks were a very good team, but when a coach is needed most, the playoffs, Wilson could not deliver? 

San Jose always had great players when Wilson was coach.  Now it looks like he can't coach players who are not stars and a team that is in turmoil.  Surely it is time to change coaches now.  The players clearly don't listen to Wilson.  In this year's Hockey News annual Burke says that he was "begging" and "shaming" the players to play and that they'd been there too long.  That's a pretty poor endorsement of your coach.

Quite a few of those players Burke had brought in as well. 

How can he say they'd been there too long when he'd brought them in or they had arrived the summer before he turned up?  It seems that the same is happening now.  Surely this is a red flag over Wilson's coaching.  He's lost them two years in a row now.  Burke's excuses seem to show that he and Wilson are both to blame.

Brian Burke promised greatness from the Maple Leafs.  They have stood still and some might say gone backwards.  Ron Wilson has to go now.  He is doing a terrible job.  He could say that it's because he hasn't got the players.  If that's the case, then Burke is to blame.  And he is. 

The team he assembled is no better then the one he inherited and promised to improve.  He criticises the fans.  That's ridiculous, given the context. 

He should boo his own team.

He handles the team poorly—the Kaberle situation is one example, and his spreading rumours before the 2009 draft and Wilson saying they would pursue the Sedin twins are others.  He derides the media.  The media are always going to stir and criticise.  When Burke reacts to that he's doing exactly what the media want and makes himself look foolish by being so mouthy. 

He is not the worst GM in the NHL.  He has done some good things but he is without a doubt the most overrated GM, but he believes he is as great as some people say.  He's arrogant in interviews and in the way he talks about this team.  They're bad, though, and there's no two ways about it.

Maple Leafs management needs to can Wilson, and Burke should be given until the summer at the latest to prove he can turn them around.  But really he should be gotten rid of soon.  Dave Nonis is waiting in the wings and I think deserves a shot if Burke is fired. 

The next month could be very interesting.