Toronto Maple Leafs Rebuilding Slowly, But Surely

The difference between Brian Burke and the recent GM’s of Toronto, who created the mess that Burke is trying to clean up, is that this GM is not going to panic like the rest. He went out and tried to lure the Sedin’s. He inquired about all the big names out there, including Phil Kessel. But Burke has always built from the inside out, meaning that Toronto is building a foundation on the blue-line, and in net, that they can rest on in spite of offensive woes.

Offense was not the problem in Toronto. The Maple Leafs have always been a team designed to get the puck to the net, averaging 2.98 goals per game, good enough for a top-10 finish last season. The problem has always been defense, where the Leafs ranked dead last with 3.49 lamp lighters against. The Leafs finished one-game shy of .500, with a 34-35-13 SU record. At home, they were 16-16-9.

So what has Burke done in the off season? He’s secured a billion gritty defensemen. The biggest name is Stanley Cup winner, Francois Beauchemin and former Montreal Canadian Mike Komisarek. They will join Tomas Kaberle, Luke Shenn, Mike Van Ryan, Jeff “Give ‘em the” Finger and Ian White on the blue-line. Suddenly, the Leafs have a bevy of talent on the blue-line and guys who will make life hell for opposing teams.

The problem, however, is that you can’t carry that many blue-liners. Typically, Kaberle and Schenn would suck up nearly 25 minutes of hockey, and the rest is distributed amongst four more players (three lines of defense). This screams of “trade! Trade! Trade!” but Burke is not one to make moves just for the sake of it. He’s sat on goldmines for Luke Schenn and Tomas Kaberle since last season’s trade deadline.

Burke’s philosophies on hockey are about as old school as you can get in the modern era of the NHL. He refuses to just tank for a half-decade just to secure better draft picks, then wait for this picks to mature. And Toronto, a team entrenched in a Stanley Cup drought which began in 1967, doesn’t have the patience for a rebuilding phase. They never have, quite frankly.

But Burke is succeeding where he’s predecessors haven’t. He’s building the team with chippy, blue-chip guys. No Dany Heatley’s. No Marion Hossa’s. No big name softies. If you want to play with Burke, you have to be hard as nails.

And if you want to bet on the Leafs, you have to be as tough as an overcooked steak. The Leafs are +10,000 to win the Stanley Cup this season. A far cry from a “safe bet” by betting standards. In a league whose salary structure is as complicated as Fermat’s Theorem, but if anyone can build a serious contender in Toronto, it’s Burke. This is a club worth tracking, especially when our divisional and conference NHL odds are released in the NHL futures.