Has Brian Burke Lost His Mind?

[dooman14]

Major Shake-up for all you leafs backers out there.

GM Brian Burke has lost it after blowing a 3-0 lead to the Vancouver Canucks on Hockey day in Canada he has pulled the trigger on 2 major deal that leave more questions and holes in the leafs line-up than they had before.

1st off the leafs aquire Dion Phaneuf, forward Fredrik Sjostrom, and prospect defenceman Keith Aulie in exchange for forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and defenceman Ian White.

Lets look at this 1st
In Phanuef the leafs get a hard hitting sometimes scoring defenceman who has been on a downturn the past 2 saeson. Yes he is young enough to comeback but i believe he needs a solid team to accomplish this something Toronto is not. I exchange leafs give up top line centre a solid second line scorer in Hagman tuffness in Jamal Mayers and what i think is the steal in Ian White a defenceman who plays like Phaneuf and is a 5 million less of a cap hit.

Burke did not stop there:
The Maple Leafs also acquired veteran goaltender Jean-Sebastien
Gieguere from the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. In exchange, the Leafs shipped netminder Vesa Toskala and veteran forward Jason Blake to the Ducks.

This May be a good deal if Gieggy can stay healthy and there new found Defence but in total the leafs gave up 46 goals in offence and 2/3rds of their top line and key peices of there 2nd and 3rd line for 2 players.

IMO Brian Burke has pushed the panic button and is trying too hard to build a winner in Toronto where the ownership does not care about winning because reguardless of the product on the ice the Leafs will continue to sell out the ACC and be the 2nd or 3rd team in overall league revenue until that changes the ownership would not care about winning.

Your native hero

dooman14

[whatsgood5]

I saw this as well. I don't know too much about hockey and don't pretend to, but as you said, it seems like he's hit the panic button...

[icemaster47]

He got rid of Jason Blake and that horrid contract. Major Plus.

Toskala is done, UFA at end of season who will in all likelihood be playing in the KHL next year.

Stajan - who cares, UFA at end of season - he is going to get paid, might as well be somewhere else. White is good but not 2.5-3M per good which is what his next contract will look like next year.

I did like Hagman though.

IMHO, this does not add up to 'Panic Button'

[blittydeuce]

He got rid of Jason Blake and that horrid contract. Major Plus.

Toskala is done, UFA at end of season who will in all likelihood be playing in the KHL next year.

Stajan - who cares, UFA at end of season - he is going to get paid, might as well be somewhere else. White is good but not 2.5-3M per good which is what his next contract will look like next year.

I did like Hagman though.

IMHO, this does not add up to 'Panic Button'

Anaheim got blake for 2 more years at 3 million, ill take that contract any day. The guy was a 40 goal scorer a few days ago. Have fun with giggy. and paying him twice as much as blake. btw he sucks.

[keyboarding]

Anaheim got blake for 2 more years at 3 million, ill take that contract any day. The guy was a 40 goal scorer a few days ago. Have fun with giggy. and paying him twice as much as blake. btw he sucks.

Blake's career is done. Anyone who doesn't see that is suffering from mild retardation. Toskala's career is also done. Guy is barely capable as a backup.

As for the panic button? Hard to say. Giguere's upside is much, much more than anything you'll get from an aged Blake and inconsistent Toskala. As for the other mixed bag trade, you get a stud defenceman with offensive upside for Ian White, a liability in the defensive end, and a bunch of fringe third and fourth liners.

With all that said, every team involved in these trades will not win the Stanley Cup this year.

[ochenta y cinco]

Burke has done a fairly good job of ridding himself of upcoming UFAs and unwanted salaries, but he has hardly made his team better, both short and long term.

Giguère is not the answer to any NHL team's goaltending problems IMHO. At 32 yo and a 7M salary, he's far from a bargain and he's clearly on the down slope.

As for Phaneuf, will he ever be the awesome two-way defenceman he was predicted to become? He's clearly regressed over the past 2 years in CGY. Maybe he can turn his career around in TOR, but I highly doubt it. The guy's a solid in-your-face guy with a wicked slapshot, but that's about what he brings to any organization. He doesn't have a particularly good passing game nor is he able to move the puck up ice as well as he was expected to.

[dooman14]

Well didn't Mr. Burke say he wanted to buld thru the draft now he has close to 21 million committted to 3 players and neither will win games by themselves those 3 players kessel (i bet boston is happy for the 1st rd next yr what if they get taylor hall out of the deal) Giggy and phanuef all for nearly 21 mill cap hit good luck building a team around that

[mathdotcom]

Good deal for Toronto

Phaneuf was a franchise player for toronto. When Iginla gets old in a year or two they will have no one except maybe Bouwmeester and Kiprusoff.

Giguere I dunno.

[Busterflywheel]

Burke has done a fairly good job of ridding himself of upcoming UFAs and unwanted salaries, but he has hardly made his team better, both short and long term.

Giguère is not the answer to any NHL team's goaltending problems IMHO. At 32 yo and a 7M salary, he's far from a bargain and he's clearly on the down slope.

As for Phaneuf, will he ever be the awesome two-way defenceman he was predicted to become? He's clearly regressed over the past 2 years in CGY. Maybe he can turn his career around in TOR, but I highly doubt it. The guy's a solid in-your-face guy with a wicked slapshot, but that's about what he brings to any organization. He doesn't have a particularly good passing game nor is he able to move the puck up ice as well as he was expected to.

Point said!

[THE_LOCKSMITH]

Burke is doing what he did in anahiem, building the best team he can. In Anahiem he traded players like Federov and Sykora, and was able to sigh and trade for players like Niedermayer, Beauchemin and Pronger.

Toronto is now loaded on the backend, so another trade is coming up with a D-man on the way out

[vikingsfan]

i guess time will tell if this was a good move for toronto

[lakerboy]

no one ever accused burke of being smart. he inherited bryan murrays team in anaheim and did nothing in vancouver and wont do anything in toronto. him and wilson are angry pricks who both need an ass whipping

[iceminers26]

Mayers

Great guy and a hard worker, got to interact with him on a daily basis when playing juniors in St Louis and him playing for the Blues, we shared the same practice and workout facilities.