The Toronto Maple Leafs have been left at the Batchelor Party. They never got to the altar with Brian Burke, who has chosen to remain with the Anaheim Ducks, rather than take a a lot of dollars and grief and come to (his words) "The Vatican" of the hockey world.
The fans and the media in Toronto will feel forever jilted that the caustic Burke has chosen not to come to their perceived epicentre of the hockey universe. Burke would have been entertaining during a time period when the hockey club won't be. Burke's a smart man. The extension he is currently negotiating with the owners in La-La Land will undoubtedly have a larger yearly stipend than it might otherwise have had, had not Toronto papers started bandying about a potential $5 Million dollar annual stipend. My guess is that Burke moves a lot closer to that figure than the $2-3 Million figure he might have been getting before.
And money is the least of it. Burke's not stupid. The Toronto GM position is a bad one for about two years. The contracts of the Muskoka Five and a few other serfs don't allow for much leeway. There isn't going to be any Philly Flyer turnaround with this team. The talent pipeline is dribbling out a player or two, but nothing like the Flyers' Junior Team Canada graduation camp. There are NO easy solutions for the John Ferguson Junior-created conundrums. And seeing how Glen Sather's star fell after taking his successful Edmonton act to Broadway, Burke is aware of how fast public reputation can fall. Losing will do that for you.
On the other hand, when did Burke suddenly become Sammy Pollock? A healthy portion of his talent was obtained by Bryan Murray (speaking of falling stars). He had the salary cap room and the draft choices to steal Chris Pronger, but Murray provided a good part of that and Pronger's wife did the rest. He DID ditch Sergei Fedorov and his salary, but the one-time Red Wing star had more in the tank than Burke believed. Might Fedorov have provided scoring this year's Anaheim team needed?
Certainly Andy McDonald would have, but he was sacrificed due to Burke's mishandling of long-term finances and the return of Scott Niedermayer, to an already-stacked blue-line.
No, Burke has worts. He has the same number of Cups as Jimmy Rutherford (well-regarded) and Jay Feaster (not). If winning a Cup bestows infallability, it's news to me. I don't get impressed until you do it a couple of times. To me, the summit of hockey poobahs is a tie between Ken Holland of Detroit and Leo Lamoriello of the Devils. Leo's not moving from the Swampland, and he's the kind of guy that wins, but doesn't thrill. I think Toronto fans would prefer a little entertainment with their winning.
Holland, on the other hand, is exactly the guy Burke was SUPPOSED to be. He's successful long-term and his winning isn't built on a few years of top draft choices finally coming of age. He, and his management team, have thrived and then continued to thrive, taking talent passed over by needier and poorer teams.
THAT is the route to respectability and then success.
Burke should NEVER have been choice one. Holland should have been. But the assumption was that Holland was not available. And with Burke 'just around the corner,' that assumption was not put to the test. Can it be?
Steve Yzerman is the newest Sather/Bob Gainey in the making. He knows his time is coming. He and Jim Nill, with able guidance from consigliere Jimmy Devellano, would make a good to great management team, leaving Holland to return to his roots back here in Canada. If this was next year and Yzerman getting antsy to start making decisions rather than having input in them, I'd say the movement would be a given. It JUST might be a year early.
I know Holland feels beholden to the Detroit owner, Mike Illitch. He's been a good owner, not watching pennies and letting his management team make decisions rather than micro-managing. Illitch, wouldn't like to see Holland go, but I'm sure a Gary Bettman "In the Best Interests of the sport" phone call would resolve the permissions issue. Holland HAS to feel Yzerman's need to shine coming from behind. And really, Nill should have been a GM long ago. HE would be great for Toronto, except for the idiotic stance by Peddie that the new GM HAS to have a successful GM career on his resume already.
All in all, Holland is the guy to lead Toronto out of the cold winter night. Even if the Leafs have to wait a year under caretaker GM Cliff Fletcher, it would be worth waiting to bring in a GM that WOULD make a difference. Not just in the press.
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