Leaf Rumours

[runninglow]

WHICH TELLS ALL OF US WHAT????? WHAT???


It tells us that we are officially fawked. He is cutting a deal obviously when he gets hired wherever he goes, to get a PC deal on money saved for the franchise. This is ALL ABOUT MONEY.

This confirms what I already figured to be correct. That Toskala has been marched out there, day after day, to SAVE money. To mabye showcase himand get rid of him and TO AVOID signing another guy, who could play with Gus.

This franchise should be renamed the Toronto Maple Pharisees. No question about it.

All I need now is for this guy to trade Kaberle, and I am officially a full time Anti MLSE.

I tried pointing this out in 17's "Letter to Burke" thread, but was shot down pretty quick. MLSE may have loads of cash, but this is REAL money with someone's bottom line/return on the line. Peddie will protect that return as much as humanly possible, even if it means our tandem is Toskala backed up by some kid from the GTHL.

 

[JaysCyYoung]

Tha theory still doesn't make sense given that Toskala will be collecting his salary no matter where he plays.

 

[MindzEye]

Lets be honest here for a second.

Burke couldn't say "oh yeah, we are going to go after Kovalchuk."

He just can't say that.

He flew to Sweeden with a couple of big deals for the Sedins last July 1. He signed Neidermayer to a big deal on july 1.

He is not afraid of putting out big money, for big players on July 1st.

agreed....but there are a bunch of ways to dodge the question that doesn't include a veiled bad mouthing of Kovalchuk (only Crosby, Malkin, & Ovechkin deserve those kind of deals)

He's a ****ing lawyer, he could have easily worded that differently had he wanted to.

 

[ForeverTML]

Well, if he's not interested in Kovalchuk, I'd really like to hear his plan on how he's going to turn us into a contender what what we have in house, non elite free agents, and trades that don't include taking on long term contracts like Vinny's (which he must be against if Kovalchuk is out of the question)

Really ****ing interested to hear what the plan is then

The angry Fort-McMurryaian is wise.

 

[LeafOfFaith]

Maybe, maybe not.

What do you think Kovy would rather? A 6 year $55-$60 million deal, or a 10 year $80 million deal, where he makes next to nothing the last 2 years.

Good point, there could be something there.

But there is something to be said for Burke favoring the $8M/10 yr deal over the $10M/6 year deal for cap reasons.

I just don't see Burke as a guy who wants to be known as giving out a $10M per deal.

 

[leafman101]

He didn't say that. Kypper asked if he'd only give those kinds of deals to Crosby or Ovechkin kind of guys and his answer, word for word, was "yep."

All he said was its known around the league that Kovy turned down a shit load of money for a long time from Atlanta, and if he wants more than that he's not interested. The number he put out there was 8 years @ $8.5 per. All he said was he wasn't interested in giving more years than that essentially.

I think more is being made of it than what it actually means. But we'll see I guess.

 

[axlsalinger]

And he's STILL talking about maybe being a buyer at the deadline! This is stupidity on a whole new level.

I'm wondering what you're referring to here. All he said was that if a team was desperate to unload a contract (because they need to save money), he is willing to absord it in exchange for draft picks / prospects. We can send that player down and absorb the cost if need be.

 

[MindzEye]

The angry Fort-McMurryaian is wise.

The anger is all Toronto bred. You can only get that shit imported up here.

 

[LeafOfFaith]

agreed....but there are a bunch of ways to dodge the question that doesn't include a veiled bad mouthing of Kovalchuk (only Crosby, Malkin, & Ovechkin deserve those kind of deals)

He's a ****ing lawyer, he could have easily worded that differently had he wanted to.

All he needed to say is that he's not going to discuss UFAs until the time comes to discuss them. For all he knows, they could re-up with their teams and make the whole conversation moot.

Why he has to add the commentary about just not believing in long term deal, who knows. It's plain stupid, almost signaling to Kovy NOW that, hey, the Leafs aren't going to throw a max contract your way, so you might be better off re-signing in Atlanta or whereever you get traded to!

I mean, how stupid is this guy??

 

[runninglow]

Tha theory still doesn't make sense given that Toskala will be collecting his salary no matter where he plays.

The whole theory goes like this:

Play Toskala=crap.
MacDonald=crap, so no upgrade over playing Toskala.
Therefore, in order to improve the goaltending situation, we'd have to bring in someone from the outside, which=additional $$$ taken away from MLSE's bottom line, and take away from their overall return, plus pay Toskala to rot in the AHL.

It's for this reason that Burke's latest comments about taking on other teams salaries in exchange for picks is complete bupkis. He tried that before, and got slapped by the NHL brass, so why would it work this time?

 

[LeafOfFaith]

I'm wondering what you're referring to here. All he said was that if a team was desperate to unload a contract (because they need to save money), he is willing to absord it in exchange for draft picks / prospects. We can send that player down and absorb the cost if need be.

Over the weekend, on Sportsnet and I assume other media outlets, there was an article where he said he knows that people will laugh at him, but he's still looking to make the playoffs, if he could make a deal to do so he would, and he doesn't quite know if he's a buyer or seller yet.

 

[MindzEye]

"Hey Brian, what about Kovalchuk"?

"Well, Ilya is a fantastic player, but I can't comment on impending free agents, and I haven't had any conversations with Don about him, no"

 

[leafman101]

It's for this reason that Burke's latest comments about taking on other teams salaries in exchange for picks is complete bupkis. He tried that before, and got slapped by the NHL brass, so why would it work this time?

No he wasn't. He did it last year.

 

[axlsalinger]

"He isn't truculent."

 

[leafman101]

"Hey Brian, what about Kovalchuk"?

"Well, Ilya is a fantastic player, but I can't comment on impending free agents, and I haven't had any conversations with Don about him, no"

Please. We are talking about Brian Burke here.

He's not going to be JFJ when you put a microphone in his face. not now, not ever. We already knew this.

He blows wind. Thats all.

 

[LeafOfFaith]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/01/23/burke_on_trade_deadline/

"People can laugh all they want when they watch this interview, but that is our goal and that was our goal starting the season," Burke said. "If I could make a deal today that would propel us to the playoffs I am going to make it. That is still our goal."

The Maple Leafs sit 14th in the Eastern Conference heading in to Saturday night's game against the Florida Panthers, 10 points out of the eighth and final playoff spot. The team has lost two-straight and six of its last 10 games.

The winter swoon, however, has not kept Burke from assessing what might be available before the March 3 trade deadline and the Leafs GM is preparing for different scenarios.

"We are preparing to be a buyer and we are preparing to be a seller," Burke explained. "We have evaluated our internal assets and now we are evaluating the assets of the teams who may step up and offer us something."

Now, you may take his buyer comment to be in line with what he said today (about taking on contracts for picks), but given the context earlier, I really think he was saying that if the Leafs got closer to the playoff picture, that he's go out and bring in a couple of vets to sneak us in.

 

[leafman101]

He said the same thing last year. In the exact same words.

All he did was trade away players for picks.

 

[axlsalinger]

Well, I suppose the Leafs could win every game between now and the trade deadline. But as things stands, there's no chance we are buyers.

 

[runninglow]

No he wasn't. He did it last year.

And the pick was voided for the Frogren issue. However, since the Frogren issue was around from late 2008, and the League decided in April 2009 to do this "punishment" with the particular pick that they traded for strikes me as more than a little odd. It wasn't a Leaf pick they voided, but the Tampa pick.

If he gets MLSE's blessing to try it again this year, I'm really curious what the League will do.

 

[UWHabs]

Nobody wants to say they're giving up for the season. Even when the Habs traded Rivet and got back a guy who sat the next 10 games and draft picks, it was still claimed to "help the team out for this year and the future."