Making trades to pave the way for new 6-year deal of GM in Toronto?
UPDATE: BURKE SIGNS WITH LEAFS (NOV. 27th/2008)
L.B.D. made a great post about the Anaheim/Toronto trade situation and the one thing that came to mind was that if Burke makes this deal with Toronto and accepts the reputed 6-year position as the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, then is he in a conflict of interest?
Perhaps he will pull a trade off with Toronto and accept this position loaded with his prospect (possibly Bobby Ryan) and a 1st round pick, the 4th overall courtesy of Edmonton (likely to be Luke Schenn (D), Zach Bogosian (D) or Michael Del Zotto (D) for Sundin and Antropov. He starts his new position in good stead, loaded with 1st round picks and a proven prospect. Would he mind getting his short term results with Sundin and Antropov in Anaheim and knowing that they are immediate favorites with Sundin looking to be on a line with Selanne and Bertuzzi (Yikes!) and then move to his post in Toronto with youthful picks and prospects?
A week ago it looked like it will be hard to take Detroit in the Western Conference. Anaheim has much depth at defense, debatably the best in the league. Adding Sundin to that team takes them into another category. The injury to Lidstrom in Detroit has to make Burke smile and believe with all sincerity that Anaheim will repeat as Stanley Cup champions and that in just a few short days, the tables have turned.
Former Leaf GM, Bill Watters said today that Toronto has a GM that is NOT currently employed in the NHL, which lead to speculation that it is one of either Anaheim Assistant GM Dave McNab, Detroit assistant GM Jim Nill, Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson, or the director of NHL Discipline Colin Campbell. This would go against the mission statement of Richard Peddie, Gord Kirke and Cliff Fletcher of going with a GM with a proven track record, as these potential candidates have no GM experience. Toronto would be put back into a similar situation that they had with John Ferguson Jr. – a hockey executive with no GM experience being moved into the most public and scrutinized job in hockey.
Interesting fodder for the coming days and months here in Leaf Nation.
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