To be honest I like most people have been confused by Brian Burke's plan to rebuild the Maple Leafs over the past 4 years. It seems there is no real plan. At times he is trading draft picks for what he describes as building blocks and other times he is collecting draft picks. He dips in the free agent market for second or third tier players to avoid a mega contract.
To date his biggest success has been trading for Joffrey Lupul and Jake Gardner. Despite avoiding the long-term contracts, he has still burdened himself with bad contracts. The team is younger but necessarily better and not a single Burke draft pick is regular on the Leafs.
After watching the NHL playoffs I wonder what direction Burke will go. The game seemed to have evolved into a terrible place. The fast, skilled offensive teams were pretty much swept aside by the clogging, blocking defensive teams. It seems Burke has been focused on increasing the skill level of the Leafs with the likes of Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, Clarke MacArthur, Matthew Lombardi, Mikhail Grabovski, John-Michael Liles and Jake Gardner with little success.
So will he switch gears? Isn't Randy Carlyle more of a defensive-minded coach anyway? All I know is that Burke has just one year left to make things happen. He claim that he can't be held responsible for 45 years of disappointment but the past 4 years are all his doing.
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