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Leaf Rumours

Burke is close to quitting I think, but not before he does close to terminal damage to the team.

It really sounds like the MLSE pedophucks have muzzled his chequebook. So look for even more bizarre behaviour.

I sort of hope that he trades Kaberle, that would enable me to quit following the Leafs. If I can quit drinking(did it) I should be able to drop these bums.
 
Don't like the "I don't believe in giving big money contracts to elite players" thing.

Big Fan of not wanting to give any of our UFA-to-be's significant money.
 
I think Burke owes it to us to express his reasoning for not "believing" in giving a big money contract to a guy who is pretty much a top 5 player in the game.

If it's just a matter of he doesn't like it, then **** that idiot already and get him out of here.

We're the Toronto Maple Leafs, richest and most powerful team in the NHL (with nothing to show for it). If anyone should be going after Kovy, it should be us.
 
Well I believe he said that is Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin money and no one else.

Which I don't completely disagree with. But Kovalchuk is a close as you'll get to those guys.
 
Yeah, that's the thing. He's asking for money that only Crosby and Ovechkin deserve. However, Kovalchuk is pretty close.

I'd be squeamish about giving this guy $10-11M for 10 years myself. But the funny thing about Burke today, though, is that he was complaining about the rumour that Ilya turned down $8.5 x 10, or $8 x 8.

I mean, he's turning that down because it's Atlanta. I'd sign him at $8 x 8 in a millisecond.
 
The thing is, you'll NEVER ever ever get your hands on Crosby, Ovie, or Malkin, so it's almost irrelevant.

There's no one now or likely later that will be like Kovy and UFA.

It's the best thing we can get other than those three guys, and Burke should throw all the cash at him as is necessary.
 
I listened to the interview. It has nothing to do with the money. Its the term. Burke said the longest deal he's ever given is 5 years, and he wouldn't give a 10+ year deal to anyone other than Crosby or Ovechkin.
 
I haven't heard the exact words yet, but even if term is his issue, it should be a non-issue.

We're talking about a guy who's 26, a guy whose low end potential is 40 goals going forward.

An 8 or 9 year deal is no problem.
 
I don't like those ridiculous long term deals either.

But the landscape has changed. Unless something changes again Burke will have to adapt.
 
leafman101 said:
I listened to the interview. It has nothing to do with the money. Its the term. Burke said the longest deal he's ever given is 5 years, and he wouldn't give a 10+ year deal to anyone other than Crosby or Ovechkin.
Click to expand...


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.
 
Nobody likes them in general, but when you're talking about a true elite player, you don't think twice.

This isn't Dipietro. He's not that far below Crosby and Ovechkin, he's really not.

Burke is the fool of the century if he doesn't go hard after him.
 
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
 
I'd love to know what Burke's plans are to make this team better for next year if all he's doing is giving offers to a couple RFAs and is trading the UFAs.

Where is the improvement going to come from?

I'm not sure what sort of contract he thinks a player like that gets...of course it's going to be longterm.

It would be disappointing to see the Leafs revert to their traditional fear of elite talent.
 
MindzEye said:
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
Click to expand...

In all honesty, is anyone starting to question whether there is a plan at all?

It seems to me that, based on the Kessel trade, Burke expected the team to be at least middle of the pack THIS YEAR. And probably expected higher.

He then figured that he'd shed a few UFAs at the deadline, recoup a couple of draft picks, and insert NHL-ready Stalberg, Bozak, and Hanson seamlessly into the lineup and compete NOW.

Then he'd fill in a hole or two with a couple of UFAs at the end of the year and really go for it officially next year.

The only problem is, Burke vastly overestimated his lineup, and more disturbingly, both him and Wilson have demonstrated either a total incompetence or an unwillingness to make changes to it.

So, now he finds himself with a basement team, with no top picks for two years, his star acquisition being far more human than he thought, and likely less than stellar returns for his UFAs at the deadline. In other words, epic epic fail.

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

And yet, with that compete now mentality, he still doesn't want to shell out what it takes to land a player of Kovy's abilities?? I mean, I really hope he's just saying that, because if he means it, there is nothing Kadri and Gus will be able to do next year to get us over the hump.

The worst part of all of this is that, if things do spiral downwards like this, he'll deem it necessary to trade Kaberle, and he'll get squat back for him because we've already seen this guy can't trade to save his life.

I really think Burke might be the worst GM in the league, and it's no shock that he's strongly endorsing the leading candidate for worst coach in the league too.

I don't know what we ever did to deserve this.
 
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.
 
That's all true, but he did say (from what has been relayed here) that he's not interested in giving out long term deals - which would be necessary to get Kovy signed - effectively disclaiming any interest in a player LIKE Kovy, and thus Kovy himself.
 
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.
 
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