Burke will need some time

Pat Hickey, Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - The question shouldn't be whether Brian Burke is the man to turn around the Toronto Maple Leafs, but rather: Can any man turn around four decades of bumbling incompetence?

For most of that time, the biggest problem has been the ownership from the crusty Harold Ballard to the current corporate crowd which seems more interested in real estate and the bottom line than the product on the ice.

Burke has the knowledge and the experience to do the job, but the key to his success will be the willingness of the owners to give him total control and let him get on with the job. This will no doubt be a condition of his employment, but it my be difficult for the egos at the top not to interfere because they all think they know hockey.

The folks at Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment lucked in when they hired Bryan Colangelo to be the Raptors' general manager because nobody above him knew anything about basketball and he was given a free hand. That's what Burke needs.

He needs some time. As competent as he has been in Vancouver and Anaheim, he's not a miracle worker and he has to correct many of the mistakes of the past.

The good news is that he has a shade more than $7 million US in cap room if the Leafs can somehow move into contention for a playoff spot this season. The bad news is that he's saddled with more than $44 million in cap commitments for next season and that includes a lot of dead wood.

In Ron Wilson, he has a solid coach he can work with, but  Burke's biggest task will be to find a goaltender, because Vesa Toskala makes long-suffering Leafs fans nostalgic for Andrew Raycroft and Mikael Tellqvist.

Get ready for a ride, Leaf fans

Dan Barnes, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Get out your lawn chairs, Toronto Maple Leaf fans, because you'll need to stake out a front-row seat for the Stanley Cup parade.

Oh, it might not happen this spring. Maybe not even in 2010.

But the man who invented hockey already coaches your team and he will now report to the man whose brilliant insights improved upon that blueprint and made the game what it is today. How on earth can 29 other National Hockey League teams hope to compete with the dynamic duo of Ron Wilson and Brian Burke?

That they will turn around this sorry franchise is a no-brainer. Never mind that the current cupboard is horribly bare; look instead at what Wilson has already accomplished. The Leafs, as of this writing, are 7-9-6, a formidable 12th in the Eastern Conference, blazing along at a 2-5-3 pace in the past 10 games.

Burke's hiring, while sure to evoke dynamic performances from Jason Blake and Jamal Mayers, really isn't necessary at this time. Wilson obviously has it under control.

But the Toronto brain trust has snagged Burke from the free agent market anyway and he will no doubt work some of his managerial magic in short order. Perhaps he will deal the underpaid Blake for a scoring centre and a top prospect. Burke's body of work suggest he could trade the equally underpaid and underrated Jeff Finger for Adam Foote or Colby Armstrong or David Legwand. Or convince Cup-hungry Mats Sundin to come back and relight that competitive fire under this team and lead them to the playoffs like he has done so many times before.

Because that's what Burke does. He's smarter than every other general manager and he flexes that mental muscle with no regard for the well-being of his rivals. And he also signs Todd Bertuzzi. And Brendan Morrison.

So, Leaf fans, get ready for the ride of a lifetime. Get ready for the best hockey team ever assembled. It is just a matter of time.

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