Leaf GM Brian Burke Could Do More to Help Franchise

October 3rd, 2011 - In two days my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs drop the puck on home ice for the start of the 2010-2011 season, and like many fans in Leafs Nation I am anxious to see if this is the year the Leafs get over the hump to join the Eastern Conference playoffs again. By any measure, it's been a brutal stretch that has seen the famed club set all-time lows for consecutive seasons without a playoff berth in its history. The point is particularly pronounced for me as I was in attendance at the last playoff game the Leafs played when Jeremy Roenick scored on a 2-on-1 break in OT to silence the 20,000+ crowd that was on its feet at the Air Canada Centre from the moment the Leafs scored 2 in the final 10 minutes of the 3rd period to send the game into Overtime.

The stretch of futility for the Leafs is even more startling from a statistics perspective. Consider this: all else being equal, if the chances of getting into the post season are 1/2 (15 teams in the East, 8 make it to the Post-Season), and there are only two outcomes (getting in or not), the Leafs have matched the least likely negative outcome in missing the NHL's second season all 6 years since the lockout. The odds of doing so are about 1.5% (1/64), which is what the Toronto Maple Leafs have done. The only other team to have missed the Playoffs since the lockout is the Florida Panthers, and even they made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996.

If there's a hint of light at the end of the tunnel it's that virtually all prognosticators will agree that the Leafs are headed in the right direction. And if you disagree, surely you'd concede that just like betting 'red' at Roulette will eventually mean you win (or lose), the Leafs can't continue on the path of one statistical anomaly to another, can they?! This stretch of futility cannot surely continue in perpetuity, can it!? Which brings me to the reason I wrote this entry.

I have a bone to pick with Leafs GM, Brian Burke. It seems to me that Burke is more interested in pandering to some egalitarian cause than in ensuring the Leafs use every means at their disposal to give themselves the best chance at the Post Season. Many readers are familiar with Burke's insistence that he will not use front-loaded contracts to attract stars to Toronto. Burke believes that the contracts recently signed by Richards with the Rangers, and Kovalchuk with the Devils amount to cap circumvention, and he certainly has a point. But Burke is losing focus on the bigger question: "so what?!" If other teams are structuring Free Agent deals in this manner and the league is signing off on them, then clearly the contracts are within the rules even if they violate the spirit with which the Collective Bargaining Agreement was negotiated in 2005. Need I remind Burke that he is first and foremost an employee of the Toronto Maple Leafs and his primary objective ought to be to use any and all means at his disposal to improve the on-ice product? If he decides to forego a free agent because he feels the price is too high or the player is not an ideal fit, I'm comfortable with that. Burke was, afterall, brought on board to make those kinds of decisions and, at the end of the day, his record will speak for itself. But I'm not comfortable with Burke declaring that the Leafs will not sign these sorts of contracts even when the Leafs have plenty of cap room and a fit makes sense with the organization. Burke: you're a NHL General Manager and not NHL Commissioner. Do your job: improve the Leafs however way you can. To say that you will not use front-loaded contracts to improve the team is like me saying I wont increase the number of hours I will work if my goal is to increase my income.

Now, onto this season. I'm generally a optimistic fan and anyone that knows me knows how much I love the Leafs. Every year for the last 6 I've hoped and prayed that this would be the year my team would play meaningful games in April and May. But my normal enthusiasm is tempered by a bit of pragmatism this time around. I'm not sure the Leafs have done enough to sufficiently improve to unseat one of the incumbents in the Eastern Conference. I don't see Tim Connolly playing even half of the season (he's already injured with an 'Upper Body Injury') and Reimer has not looked good so far in the pre-season. At this point the only real bright spots are Kuleimin and Grabovski, whom I believe will continue to mature and excel. I see 65+ point seasons for both of them. Grabovski, in particular, has looked amazing and if he surpasses the 70 point total I may actually consider naming my first born Mikhail. Of course, his middle name will be something easily pronounceable so that he's not bullied all his childhood and adolescent years.

Go Leafs Go.