Step two of the hiring process was to find the right person to replace John Ferguson Jr.  Apparently unable to locate a person with the right credentials on a permanent basis last spring, the club turned to Cliff Fletcher and asked him to act as steward of the club’s fortunes during the initial stages of the rebuilding process. In doing so, the Leafs successfully managed to put one foot in front of the other. (Again, yay!)  Fletcher has, it must be said, acquitted himself quite well since his appointment: he made a deal on draft day that got the Leafs into position to pick up Luke Schenn;  he signed Niklas Hagman and Jeff Finger; for every questionable acquisition (Ryan Hollweg), there has been a great pickup (I’m looking at you, Mikhail Grabovski); for every Jamal Mayers, a Mike Van Ryn. It is too early to say whether these players, and others (such as recently acquired Lee Stempniak ) constitute the necessary pieces of the puzzle, though it is unlikely that they form the core of a Cup winning team.  To get there, some of these assets will have to be moved elsewhere, and fresh talent added to the basic building blocks at a later date.  At this stage, as we’ve been told by team officials, it’s not about wins and losses:  it’s about changing a culture of entitlement that had settled over the dressing room – a debilitating malaise that somehow begun interfering with the players’ performance.  At step two, Cliff Fletcher earns the MLSE another passing grade.

So much for sticking a warm body in the chair to answer the phones for the short term.  What of step three, making the decision to hire the person who will be general manager of this team in the long term?   It would appear that the organization’s focus has been on Brian Burke in that regard for some time;  reports emerged yesterday that it’s essentially a done deal.

So what of Brian Burke?   Assuming the reports to be true, how did MLSE do at this final stage of the decision-making process?  It seems to me that the answer to that question is inextricably linked to one’s assessment of the other candidates that were available for the job.

The case for Burke, as ably put by Sean from Down Goes Brown, is basically as follows:

• Cliff Fletcher, although performing well in his current role as the interim GM, is not a viable option in the long term due to his age (I have observed elsewhere that Fletcher is so old, he once appeared on a game show where the grand prize was “fire”);
• Burke is the best candidate that is now available, and there is an urgency to get started on a long-term rebuilding plan;
• Burke’s strong personality and industry cachet will position him well to countermand the interfering tendencies of the non-hockey people who fill the boardrooms at MLSE.

Sean also points out that the oft-repeated knock against Burke – that his one Cup win came with a team built by Bryan Murray – ignores the fact that Burke did add some significant pieces (Pronger, Niedermayer, Beauchemin) to that team, reminding us that success always has many fathers.

Meanwhile, mf37 of Bitter Leaf Fan fame puts the case for the nays. That argument turns out to be more of a case for the “not quite yets.”  He points out that Burke is far from infallible, having had what the British education system calls a “deferred success” (something you and I would recognize as a “failure”) at the draft table in his years with both the Canucks and Ducks.  He also describes Burke’s struggles adapting to the salary cap constraints under which all NHL clubs now operate as follows:

Desperate for cap space, he also waived Ilya Bryzgalov (think about this: Wade Belak was worth more) and dealt Andy McDonald (who provided much needed second line scoring, disciplined play and 14 points in 21 playoff games during the Ducks’ run to the Cup) to St. Louis for Doug Weight, who was a healthy scratch in the playoffs. MacDonald outscored Weight in the regular season 2:1.

Clearly, cap management has not been Burke’s strong suit to the point that the franchise’s top prospect remains in the AHL awaiting Anaheim to clear the salary space so he can play with the big club.

He points out that there are other established hockey management professionals who will be available at the end of this season, including David Poile of the Predators, Darcy Regier of the Sabres, and Doug Wilson of the Sharks.  These other options suggest to the naysayers that it would be best for the Leafs not to act hastily;  to explore the possibility of hiring these others before hitching our wagon to Burke’s train.

Essentially mf37’s argument, though cogent,  is incomplete.  It basically amounts to an assertion that the Leafs ought to wait because something better than a Burke-o-Matic™ may soon be available.  What isn’t included in his argument, however, is any discussion of the relative merits of Burke’s supposed rivals for the job.

So let’s take a look:

• David Poile:  Currently the GM of the Nashville Predators, Poile has a contract that expires at the end of this season.  He gets consideration, so the theory goes, because he’s been able to put together a team that has had some regular season successes with resources that amount to a stinky equipment bag and some used shinpad tape.  This is true, so far as it goes.  One ought not to ignore, however, Poile’s previous fifteen years as GM of the Washington Capitals – a period in which the Caps won seven playoff rounds.   Adding in four first-round exits by the Preds in Poile’s ten years in Nashville (and six did-not-qualifys) leaves Poile with seven playoff rounds won in 25 years.   I’m not bashing the guy – neither Washington nor Nashville, in Poile’s time with these teams, provided him with the resources to really take a run at excellence – but doesn’t the case for Poile boil down to an assertion that he’s got 25 years’ experience keeping teams alive in non-traditional hockey markets with little or no money and less talent?   In sum, although Poile gets points for no doubt learning a little bit about efficiently deploying dollars to build towards success in an expansion/rebuilding environment, he loses points for failing to actually translate that knowledge into any playoff success to speak of.  He might be the ideal candidate for a job with the Panthers, but he doesn’t seem to fit the bill for the Leafs’ job.
• Darcy Regier: Currently the GM of the Buffalo Sabres, Regier’s contract is also up at the end of the year.  Another exec perenially hamstrung by low budgets, Regier’s Sabres missed a Stanley Cup in ‘99 (his second year on the job) by the distance between Bill McCreary’s whistle and his mouth (on Brett Hull’s foot-in-the-crease winner).  In the grand scheme of things, Regier is probably entitled to take about as much credit for that run as Burke is for the Ducks’ Cup victory.  Since then, the Sabres (under Regier’s direction) have carved out a little niche for themselves at being the little team that could, frequently making spirited runs late into the post-season.  Regier, to his credit, has managed to find players that skate hard for one another and play an exciting team-first style of offence.  Somewhat troubling is the team’s history, on his watch, of getting into nasty and destabilizing negotiations with the team’s marquee players (see Peca, Michael, Hasek, Dominik and – to a certain degree – Vanek, Thomas who was almost lost to the Oilers on an offer sheet as a result of the Sabres’ refusal to negotiate contracts during the regular season).  Also troubling:  last year’s first to worst slide, following the departure of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere;  if resource issues were going to prevent the Sabres from re-signing these guys, Regier has to take some heat for either (a) not getting them the support they needed during the window of opportunity the Sabres had to win; or, in the alternative (b) realizing that the window wasn’t realistically open at all and disposing of those assets in a way that returned something to the Sabres for the future.  Regier seemed to me to hang on to goalie Martin Biron too long as well (having that talented a backup to Ryan Miller is a luxury the Sabres could not afford). More compelling:  although the Sabres’ draft record in the first round isn’t stellar over the last ten years , they have done an excellent job of stocking their own cupboards under Regier’s direction:  there are only six players who have played for the Sabres this year who were NOT drafted by the club.  Put him down as a maybe.
• Doug Wilson:  According to mf37, Wilson’s contract allows him to receive offers from other teams during the upcoming summer months.  Wilson is an intriguing possibility;  his Sharks have consistently performed well in the regular season (finishing first or second) but have failed to advance to the big dance, losing middle round playoff series, first to  Calgary (’04) and Edmonton (’06) (both of which were the eventual Conference Champions) and then (more recently) to good teams from Detroit (’07) and Dallas (’08).   Wilson gets huge points for totally hosing the Bruins and getting Joe Thornton for Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart.  Wilson’s draft credentials also seem relatively solid:  a fair number of the Sharks’ current players were drafted either while he was serving as GM or during his tenure as Director of Player Development with the team.  The only question mark I can think of is last year’s acquisition of unrestricted free agent Brian Campbell at the deadline:   the Sharks gave up Steve Bernier and their first-round pick in the ‘08 draft for Campbell and the Sabres’ seventh rounder.   The Sharks didn’t win the Cup and Campbell didn’t re-sign;  he’s currently playing his trade in Chicago.  From the “that would be awkward” file, Wilson is of course the GM who fired present Leaf coach Ron Wilson from his previous post as coach of the Sharks.  This last reason alone wouldn’t be a good reason not to hire DW.   It seems to me, though, that there is substantial doubt about whether he will actually be available at the end of the coming season.  To begin with, it’s unlikely he’ll be fired or not re-hired, given the Sharks’ success over the last few years.  The only way that seems possible at all is if the Sharks absolutely flame out, Ottawa-style, from this point on in the season and miss the playoffs entirely under first year coach Todd McLellan.  Wilson, having gone off the board and hired McLellan, a coach with no previous NHL experience, would be vulnerable in that disaster scenario because he could be said to have chosen to hire the wrong coach at a time when the Sharks’ window of opportunity to win has to be considered open wide.  As of this writing, however, the Sharks are 17-3-1 and in first place in their division.  They have scored the most goals (80) and allowed the second fewest (49) of any team.  It seems unlikely that they are headed for such a festival of fail, so Wiilson isn’t going to be forced out.  The Leafs would have to hope that they could simply drive a dump truck full of money up to Wilson’s doorstep and smile sweetly, contract in hand.   They would also have to hope that the dump truck full of money would be enough to convince Wilson to leave a spot where he seems to have a decent chance to win a Cup in the near future – a place close to his family (he has a daughter at school in Southern Cal) – for a fistful of money and a nightmare rebuilding project.  It might be different if Wilson had historical ties to the Leaf organization, but somehow I just don’t see it happening.

What of any other candidates?  One name that came to my mind is Washington Capitals GM George McPhee;  he’s been through a teardown/rebuild project once already in Washington, and with the help of a fellow by the name of Ovechkin, he seems to be moving in the right direction.  I don’t know anything at all about his contract status.  It struck me that McPhee has already been through some of the issues currently afflicting the Leafs, though not in anything like the media fishbowl that the Leafs operate within.   Of course the Caps haven’t won a lot of playoff series in the recent past, and they do compete in the perenially undercompetitive Southeast Division, so any success they’ve had has come a bit easier than, say, that of the Sharks (see above).  Another worry is the fact that he’d take the risks involved in the Alex Ovechkin deal, as James Mirtle has very capably pointed out.

Are there any other alternatives?  According to James Mirtle, the Leafs “tried” to talk to Ken Holland and Jim Rutherford too¹.  That sounds to me like their attempts were rebuffed;  in any event, I have to assume that if Holland were realistically available, he would have the job already.  How could he not?  As much as it pains me to say, the Red Wings have been a model organization since the late 80s;  their stick-boys are probably eminently qualified to teach a class on responsible hockey management.  As for Jim Rutherford, as much as the childhood Spitfire fan in me would love to give Jimmy a shot at running the show, as has been pointed out by Sean, the Leafs have already been down the road of one-shot wonders from Carolina (hmmm…Paul Maurice had a Spitfire connection too, come to think of it).

That’s it, I think, for proven hockey folk.  The only other option for the Leafs, it seems to me – and it’s a choice that I haven’t seen discussed very much, if at all – is to go off the board entirely and hire a proven general manager from another sport:  someone who has experience negotiating contracts and dealing with a salary cap and the marketing/promotional end of the business, but who would delegate hockey decisions to an underling.  That option likely isn’t politically very viable – there would be a real risk of a riot at 40 Bay, I’d say, if a non-hockey type took over the post – and ultimately begs the question anyway:  who’s going to make the hockey decisions?

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, then, the decision to hire Brian Burke comes down to this:  a judgement by MLSE that he is likely better than David Poile or Darcy Regier, two guys who may be available at the end of the year.  I would suggest that it says little about MLSE’s estimation of Doug Wilson or Ken Holland’s worth or suitability for the job, and much more about the practical reality that they are not candidates because they’re not available.   As stated above, I don’t find Poile’s credentials that compelling, with all due respect to the man.  Although Regier’s draft work in particular is interesting, I can’t say that MLSE is obviously wrong in making the choice that they have.

Those are the facts, folks.  It seems to me that – unless you disagree and feel that either Poile or Regier is a demonstrably superior choice, to the extent that would justify putting off the decision until after the trade deadline – then I think you’re forced to admit that this decision is the right one for the Toronto Maple Leafs.  There are no guarantees that Burke will bring a Stanley Cup to Toronto.  That doesn’t mean, though, that hiring him is the wrong decision.  In fact, it has to be seen as the right one, for now.

As an aside, I am hopeful as a fan of the team that Burke’s ego won’t prevent him from reaching out to fill out the hockey department at MLSE with some folks who can help him in those areas with which he has stuggled (cough the draft cough).  It’s probably not realistic to think that he could manage to lure someone like Regier to jump on board in a subordinate role, but – if I were in charge – no expense would be spared to hire away folks from the Sabres’ (and Sharks’ and Wings’) scouting and talent evaluation system.  In the new NHL, you can’t spend your way to success by putting more dollars into hockey players than the next guy, but you can spend more than him on all of the activities that help identify, select and train new talent (as well as on things designed to make the players you have in the organization healthier, more focussed and more productive).

—————–

¹ Mirtle says that the Leafs “tried” to talk to Doug Wilson too; I take this as supportive of my conclusions about Wilson’s likely unavailability.

Hang in there.  Meantime, get ready for the Brian Burke era in Toronto by reading this excellent review of Brian Burke’s resume to date.  Can’t spare the time to read it?  Here’s a hint about the thesis:  “Canucks” and “Ducks” both rhyme with “sucks”.

Hello Mr.B.Burke.

Am Mr.G.Kirke, I work with a HOCKEY TEAM here in CANADA as an SEARCHING officer. I have just found out that a foreign customer with us WAS FIRED last year without leaving a next of kin to his PLAYERS and he has no known family. The HOCKEY TEAM will keep the PLAYERS if it remains unclaimed which will only favor the HOCKEY TEAM, so I decided to look for a foreigner that will agree to inherit the PLAYERS while I prepare grounds for the claim.

I deem it important to assure you that this is legal and genuine and will be carried out officially too. The claim itself is overdue and will be given prompt attention by the HOCKEY TEAM upon your payment request while I’ll give you exclusive details and support from here. I am ready to give you 25% of the HOCKEY TEAM for your support and I also guarantee the safety of your name and details.

I’ll furnish you with more details upon getting your immediate response.

Thank you.

G.Kirke.

Obviously, this is waaaay funnier than what I wrote. It deserves a post of its own.  Voilà.

That was Monday. Apparently, the “inside sources” relied upon to give that story credibility were sorely, profoundly and rapidly mistaken; according to David Shoalts’ story in the Globe and Mail this morning, not only has Burke confirmed that he will be remaining with Anaheim pursuant to the terms of his existing contract,

Sources on both sides of the matter say no contact was ever made between the Leafs and Burke or the Leafs and [Ducks owner Henry] Samueli.

In other words, the lightning quick action that was characterized as imminent by Mr. Cox in his column evidently did not include so much as even a telephone call to seek permission to talk to Burke.

Wow, what a whirlwind!

This means Damien needs to change course with his columns, of course. No problem, when in doubt, Cox can simply go back to bashing Maple Leaf management with poorly-thought out complaints (which, I would point out, needlessly distracts everyone from the many legitmate complaints to be made) . This from the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” file:

All along, however, Burke knew there was a real chance that the Ducks’ hardnosed president, Michael Schulman, would not give the Leafs the chance to talk to him.

And he was proven correct, or at least Schulman made it clear no such permission would be forthcoming if such a request was received (emphasis added).

So the Ducks made it clear that they wouldn’t give the Leafs permission to talk to Burke if they asked for it, right? I guess that would explain why the Leafs couldn’t secure the Messiah’s services, right? Wrong, oh ye of short sight and no column space! Behold the wisdom of Cox:

What’s truly incredible is the MLSE board of directors doesn’t seem to have any sense of urgency here, or a particular game plan in place.

They’re just sort of meandering along, swimming in 23 per cent profits and imagining how nice it would be to have a front man who would attract all the attention and stop people from calling them unflattering names.

They would have loved for Burke to be that person.

But his current employer quite smartly decided he was too good to lose.

In other words, MLSE’s braintrust was:

• rightly interested in Burke’s services – he is after all, the personification of all that is godly in the hockey world;
• required to wait until the end of the Ducks’ season before even seeking permission to talk to Burke;
• made aware, almost immediately thereafter, that permission to speak to Burke would not be granted if sought;
• guilty of “meandering” and not having a plan because they did not then immediately get on the blower and – uh, do something, I guess – ask for permission to speak to Burke anyway.

Far be it from me to defend the likes of the MLSE board but come on, Damien, think it through: you’ve just assured us that they did have a plan, and that it was the right plan to have (how could it not be, involving a fellow who can walk on water and all?). When the plan falls through because of forces beyond MLSE’s control (i.e. the actions of Samueli and the Ducks), is it really fair to carp on about inaction?

For the record, I do agree with his point that Justin Pogge ought to be playing in the Marlies’ AHL series. How ’bout tracking down the justification for that rather than wasting my time with abject bullshittery.

What’s the over/under on how long it takes Cox to turn this little episode into the Leafs’ “failure to secure the services of Brian Burke”, another exhibit to be endlessly paraded in front of the readers as some kind of shorthand confirmation that there’s nought but clowns in the boardroom who, if they were only capable of reading the local newspaper, would be much better prepared to secure an immediate championship for the Leafs?

It begins today. Officially, that is. Unless Gord Kirke has presented the MLSE board with an entirely different game plan, Burke has been the No.1 target of the Leafs since John Ferguson was fired in January and he’s still the No.1 target.

This thing is now going to heat up quickly.

“It’s going to go from 33 1/3 rpm to 45 rpm in a hurry,” one source said.

Is that quotation really to be taken seriously? First, am I to believe that someone [the source] said “33 1/3 rpm to 45 rpm”? Ignore, for a moment, the astonishingly anachronistic (and not particularly compelling) metaphor. Even back in the old days (when people read newspapers, for example), if and when people made reference to long playing records, nobody added the “rpm” part in to the sentence, which means it’s likely that Cox just dropped it in there. How the heck am I supposed to rely on a quote that I’m fairly certain has been monkeyed with? Okay, you can stop ignoring the astonishingly anachronistic metaphor now: evidently , Cox couldn’t find anyone under the age of seventy willing to discuss the situation. “It’s going as rapidly as ye olde prunes through the digestion of King Henry,” quoth one scribe. Finally, I assume that in using this figure of speech the “source” (demanding anonymity for obvious reasons, given the incredible sensitivity of this most highly secret information) meant to suggest a sudden and substantial increase in the pace of activity. Is that sense of frenetic acceleration truly conveyed in this sentence? Would you be left with the impression of a sudden frenzy if the “source” had spelled out the metaphor in more arithmetic terms: “The lazy revolution of this LP is going to increase in frequency by somewhat less than 40%“?

What a great load of bollocks, I say. What is the story here? What is it, exactly, that is gathering such profound momentum that only an obsolescent metaphor will suffice to describe the massive approaching wave of Burke-mania speeding towards the parched hockey desert of Hogtown, at last joyously quenching the insatiable thirst for the Hockey Wisdom that only He (Praise be his Name) can bring?

Well, if you read the “story” closely, here’s what it actually reports: Brian Burke is the General Manager of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. He has been for a couple of years. It is generally believed that the Leafs are interested in hiring him as their General Manager. They became interested in January, when they fired the last unfortunate idiot who held that job. Burke’s team finished losing its playoff series last night. So now they can pick up the phone and call him. Y’know, to find out if he’s interested. Unless, of course, the source is wrong and Gord Kirke has a different plan. [Pause: sound of crickets chirping.] To be more concise: having thought about it since January, the Maple Leafs might call Brian Burke soon.

Invigorating, isn’t it, the chilling rush that comes with just being associated with the breakneck pace of this unstoppable coronation? Thank God – er, I mean, “Thank Brian Burke” that Damien Cox had that anonymous source willing to go out on a limb and share with him – and by extension, us – the thrilling and lightning-fast unseen front office machinations of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and the National Hockey League.

By Almighty Burke, I’m glad to be alive!