Video: Brian Burke hired by Calgary Flames (Sept 5)
Brian Burke has a second chance at rebuilding the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only catch is he’s going to do it in Calgary.
No, Tim Leiweke didn’t beg Burke to take back his old job in Toronto after the largely Burke-constructed Leafs made the playoffs in a lockout-shortened 2013 season. Instead, Burke is getting a chance to rebuild the Calgary Flames, a team in as sorry a state as the one Burke inherited in Toronto. Much like when he took over the Leafs in 2008, Burke is arriving to a team with plenty of bad contracts, few quality players under 25, a shallow (albeit improving) prospect pool, and an immediate future that likely ends in a lottery finish.
As the president of hockey operations, Burke will work above GM Jay Feaster, so won’t be involved in the day-to-day grunt work of a GM, but will act as an advisor and provide Feaster with guidance.
The question is whether Burke learned anything from his time in Toronto to help him avoid the mistakes that plagued his rebuild with the Leafs.
The first major test will be finding a goalie, a task made even more pressing with Miikka Kiprusoff’s retirement. Burke eventually found James Reimer in Toronto, maintaining his support even as Reimer struggled to recover from a concussion in 2011-12. But he also spent too long determining if Vesa Toskala and Jonas Gustavsson were NHL calibre, and whether J.S. Giguere could stay healthy over a full season. Failing to properly address the goaltending year after year doomed much of his rebuild.
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The second major test will be in free agency. Plenty of cap space lies waiting at the end of year one in Calgary—over $34 million, in fact—and with very few important pieces to retain, the majority will be available to splash around in free agency. The list of potential impact free agents is long, although it always looks a whole lot better in September than in June. Not that Burke ever managed to spend cap space wisely in Toronto, giving multi-year deals to players like Mike Komisarek, Colby Armstrong and Tim Connolly.
The third, and most important, test will be whether Burke has learned patience, something he burned through in a hurry in Toronto, dealing three high draft picks in his first year for Phil Kessel. When two of those picks turned into Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton, many Leafs fans turned on Burke and his rebuild, losing their own patience. Even though Kessel turned into a dynamic player, he wasn’t enough, and Burke lost the license to patiently build the Leafs in the eyes of the fans.
But if Burke’s first press conference is any indication, maybe he has learned a thing or two. Gone was the bluster and grand promises, instead a subdued and relatively mild Burke.
“I think fans can be patient as long as they see a plan that’s in place and being executed and faithfully stuck to,” Burke said. “I think where they lose patience is when they don’t see a plan.”
The question isn’t whether the fans can remain patient, but can Burke.
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