Brian Burke

In trading the prospect Dec. 3 2009, fellow general managers Brian Burke and Jim Rutherford agreed 2006 first-round pick Jiri Tlusty would not thrive in Toronto.

VIA The Toronto Star:

"(Tlusty) is a player who has a better chance to flourish in a smaller market," Hurricanes general manager Rutherford said in 2009. "It takes a certain type of character to flourish in Toronto. Some guys like it, some guys don't. It's something (Burke) and I talked about when we were making this deal."

The Maple Leafs gave Tlusty little time to develop - trading the Czech forward before his 22nd birthday - having played 74 games for the buds over a span of three ...

Next Saturday, the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs will face off in the final match of the season at the Bell Centre. It's an annual tradition that these two teams open and close their seasons against each other, and usually, the game has some sort of playoff implications, either for positioning or even clinching. We all remember the years where one team or the other played spoiler in that final game, and it always made the affair a little special. But this year, this match is a little different. Both the Habs and the Leafs will enter the game eliminated from playoff contention. In fact, they might even both be competing for a lottery pick when the puck drops on Saturday ...

The Mix Up

On the “breaking news” that Joffrey Lupul and Phil Kessel had been split up to balance out the line up, it might be time to consider that this team needs more than a little spark to reach the post season dance. The Toronto Maple Leafs have failed to qualify for the playoffs since the 2003-04 season. Fans have been tortured with “quick fixes” which have been just as effective as get rich quick schemes. With Brian Burke at the helm, this team has undergone a large, quick, and incredibly effective thus far rebuild, although you’ll never get Brian Burke to call it that.

When Phil Kessel was acquired, Leaf fans cringed at the loss of two first roun...

 

Brian P. Burke was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 30, 1955. He was raised in the affluent southwestern Minneapolis suburb of Edina, Minnesota. Historically, Edina was a predominantly Irish farming and milling community comprised of immigrants landing in the Richfield Township during the Potato Famine, between 1845 and 1852. The son of Irish-Catholic parents, Brian grew up with nine brothers and sisters, in a close-knit family where education and accountability were of paramount importance. A commitment made would be a commitment kept. This sense of personal integrity would later become a defi...