Brian Burke - A Review

November 20, 2008 at 8:22 pm · Filed under Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs

With all the fuss about Brian Burke, who seems all but certain to takeover the reigns of the Leafs, I felt it appropriate to go over the highlights of his career in Anaheim.  The obvious one is the Stanley Cup victory, although I’m skeptical about how big a hand Burke played in that.  I don’t want to dismiss the contributions of Chris Pronger, acquired from the Edmonton Oilers by Brian Burke, but the core of the team, Pronger aside, was not put together by Burke.

So, some points to highlight Burke’s tenure in Anaheim.  (The following is by no means guaranteed to be accurate.)

• Key Additions - Bobby Ryan, Brad May, Brendan Morrison, Chris Pronger, Francois Beauchemin.  This list does not include those who have since moved on.
• Key Departures - Andy McDonald, Dustin Penner, Ilya Bryzgalov, Joffrey Lupul, Ladislav Smid, Petr Sykora, Sandis Ozolinsh, Sergei Fedorov, STeve Rucchin, Vaclav Prospal, Vitaly Vishnevski.  These were either from free agency, trades, or lost via waivers.
• The careful reader will have noticed a theme above; jettison the Europeans.  During his tenure, Burke acquired European players in 3 transactions; 2 of thsoe were Joakim Lindstrom.  None of them (the other being Maxim Kondratiev) have made a significant contribution.  He did, however, ship a lot of non-North American players out of town.
• Burke’s worst move was easily the waiving of Ilya Bryzgalov.  Bryzgalov has since gone on to become a star for the Phoenix Coyotes.  Burke could certainly have received something in return for the goalie had the team been willing to showcase him in more than just spot duty.
• There are a couple of contenders for best move.  Obviously, adding Chris Pronger put the Ducks over the top and led them to a Stanley Cup victory.  Moving Sergei Fedorov and his gigantic salary was a huge win for the team.  In my mind, Burke’s best move is one he didn’t make.  Faced with the prospect of losing playoff hero Dustin Penner, Burke refused to blink and let Penner walk to the Oilers.  Penner has since become a pressbox victim and is nowhere near the player the Oilers thought they were getting.
• During his tenure, Burke acquired 3 1st round picks.  He also traded away 4 of them.

Given this, how does Burke fit in with a rebuilding Leafs team?

I don’t see a whole lot of young talent being added by the Ducks during Burke’s tenure.  In fact, one might argue that Burke has hurt the long-term potential of team by consistently brining in veterans.  That said, it’s hard to blame him for doing so when the team had already found young stars like Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry long before his arrival.

His track record in the draft is far from stellar, and that doesn’t bode well for a Leafs team set to rebuild.  Should he come to Toronto, I’d like to see him acquire more draft picks rather than spare-part veterans.

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Schenn To Stay Put

October 28, 2008 at 9:06 pm · Filed under Toronto Maple Leafs

Before I get going about why keeping Luke Schenn for the whole season is an atrocious mistake, let’s talk about the elephant in Leafs Nation’s corner.  Luke Schenn is not a very “nickable” name.  The Leafs need to hold some kind of contest fo find a nickname for their newest defenseman.  Until such time, I hereby dub him “Skywalker”.

Coming into training camp, one of the biggest questions facing the Leafs involved Luke Schenn.  Nobody knew how Schenn would perform coming out of juniors and into the NHL at such a tender age.  Most people would have been happy merely to see Schenn hold his own through camp and return to his junior club.  Not Skywalker, however.  He had to go out and impress everyone, making it impossible for the Leafs to send him back to the juniors.

No big deal.  After all, Skywalker would spend his first 9 games with the big club and be sent packing before the 1st year of this rookie contract kicked in.  Or so we thought.

Through the Leafs first handful of games, Skywalker was the Leafs best defenseman.  Some would argue he was their best player, period.  A rock on the point, he was logging big minutes and playing in key situations.

So the Leafs elected to keep him.

Before I explain why this is a boneheaded move, let me explain how I think teams need to approach this situation in the salary cap era.

In a system in which rookies are subject to a lower salary cap than everyone else, they can play key roles on contending teams.  If a contending team can get a top-6 forward or top-4 defenseman contribution out of a player on a rookie contract, that frees up some serious money to bolster another position.  On a team without one such rookie, your top-6 forwards will all be making north of $2M per, at a minimum.  The benefits of having a rookie (contract, not necessarily 1st year player) in one of those spots are enormous.

Another stipulation of this system is that a player can become eligible for unrestricted free agency after just 7 years.  That would put a young superstar into an amazing position as he enters the prime of his career.

How does this apply to Skywalker?

Simple.  The Leafs are not contenders this season.  If, by some curse, they manage to squeak into the playoffs, they’ll get steamrolled in the first round.  The Leafs, therefore, do not benefit from having Schenn in their lineup this season, from a financial perspective.

Furthermore, let’s look at the Leafs 3 seasons from now.  Maybe they’ve struck gold with some well planned free agency moves and/or trades, maybe their young talent has developed into superstar caliber (hah!).  Whatever the reason, let’s just assume that they’re contenders.  Would it make more sense to have Luke Schenn in his 3rd year, making $750K, or Luke Schenn in his 4th year, making $5M+?  Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Fast-forward a couple more seasons.  Skywalker has just completed his 7th season in the NHL, and, at 25, is not only about to entire the prime of his career, is about to hit the jackpot on the unrestricted free agency market.

Moves like this will serve to placate those who are craving a playoff appearance of any kind.  Personally, I would rather suffer another season or two of failures if it meant 10 years of being a contender afterwards.

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Point Percentage

October 28, 2008 at 1:57 pm · Filed under Toronto Maple Leafs

After hearing the sad news about Luke Schenn, I was persuaded to publish a new feature here at Holy Puck; the Point Percentage rankings.

Due to the NHL’s whacked schedule this year, we have teams with as many as 12 games played and teams with as few as 7.  Those figures make it difficult to compare teams with a quick glance at the schedule.  While a full-fledged system compensating for strength of schedule would be much more interesting, it’s also much more work and I’m not willing to do it.

The goal for the Leafs, or any non-contender for that matter, is to hover near the bottom of the standings.  Unfortunately, right now the Leafs are closer to their state of perpetual mediocrity.

Without further ado…

Let us hope that the Leafs can plummet down these standings.

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Game #6 - Careful

October 21, 2008 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs

Careful…as in, if the Leafs aren’t, they may actually sneak in a few victories.

We’re about to start the shootout here, thanks to Nikolai Antropov’s heroism against the Anaheim Ducks.  The Leafs will be employing the tried and true strategy of switching goaltenders for the shootout.  Makes sense; if you leave the guy that’s been playing in, he may actually stop the puck.

Nikolai Kulemin misses for the first time in his young career, and it’s 0-0.

Setting the record for oldest combined age between shooter and goalie, Teemu Selanne beats Curtis Joseph.  1-0 Ducks.

Kaberle, who I recommended for the shootout, misses.  That’s why I recommended him.

Corey Perry now, off to a dismal start.  But he scores to win the game for the Ducks.

Fabulous.

I knew it was going to be a long year, but this could be harder to get through than anticipated.

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Slow Starters

October 14, 2008 at 11:34 pm · Filed under Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche

One of the few certainties of the fantasy season is the slow start.  Certain players bring the kind of consistency that owners love; while others can almost be counted on to get off to a slow start.

Sidney Crosby is taking some heat for his lack of production; he sits with just 2 assists through 4 games.  Fair?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  Crosby owners are certainly not impressed.  While this is somewhat unexplored territory for Crosby, there are a couple of NHL veterans that are notorious for getting off to slow starts.

Patrik Elias is my favourite example of this, though he may have uncovered the immunity stick this season.  In a typical fantasy season, some owner is enticed by Elias’ strong finish to the previous season and reaches on the veteran star.  A few weeks into the season (and a few pointless, minus performances later), the aforementioned owner has become disgruntled and attempts to move Elias.  Obviously, the lack of production makes his trade value essentially nil.  A few more weeks pass, and Elias is on the waiver wire.

Another Devil, Brian Gionta, seems to follow the same path.  I was able to pick up both off waivers at the midway point of last season, just as they had turned the corner.

Another fine example of this phenomenom is Flames goalie Miika Kiprusoff.  Kipper seems to take about a month to get going.  During this time, his fantasy value plummets.  It seems to happen without fail.  By the midway point of the season, however, he’ll have assumed his position as a top flight fantasy goalie.

Look to pick up these guys on the cheap as their owners become less enchanted through the first few weeks of the season.

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Rayzor? I Think Not

October 14, 2008 at 11:12 pm · Filed under Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche

Catching the Flames / Avalanche game tonight on TSN.  The panel suggested during the 1st period that Avalanche coach Tony Granato look at giving Petr Budaj the hook after a less than stellar start to the game.

I can only imagine the horrors that went through Granato’s head when he looked down the bench, only to see Andrew Raycroft sitting there.

Can you blame him for not making the switch?

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Alexei Cherepanov Dies

October 13, 2008 at 4:28 pm · Filed under New York Rangers

TSN Story

This is absolutely shocking and horrifying news.  Unfortunately for friends and family of Alexei Cherepanov, this story is going to be turned into something it really shouldn’t be.  The TSN story linked above is just the tip of the ice berg.

I’m referring to sections of the article questioning the emergency preparations at the KHL arena.  Let’s hope that the NHL and it’s associated media can refrain from turning this tragedy into a roasting of the KHL.

For those of you not aware, Cherepanov was the top prospect of the New York Rangers.  Drafted in the 1st round a few years back, most people believed he was one of the top players outside the NHL.  His speed and scoring ability helped Russia medal at each of the last 2 World Junior Championships.

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Game #3 - Roller Coaster

October 13, 2008 at 3:50 pm · Filed under St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs

If you wanted a microcosm representative of what we can expect from the Leafs over the next 79 games, game #3 provided just that.  The Leafs showed flashes of brilliance, speed, stupidity, amazing goaltending, horrendous defense, and, of course, terrible decision making.

Case in point.  Pavel Kubina, he of the heavy slapshot, has an opportunity in overtime to finish the game.  Sliding off the boards and into the slot, Kubina was greeted with an open shooting lane.  Rather than shooting, however, Kubina borrowed a chapter from the Tomas Kaberle guide to goal scoring and elected to dish the puck off to the streaking winger.

From the bad decision making department, Ron Wilson then rewarded Kubina with an opportunity in the shootout.  You can imagine what happened next.

Luke Schenn continues to impress, providing ample reason for optimism where the future is concerned.  He’s poised with and without the puck, and has shown great decision making skills with regards to involvement in the rush.  Let’s hope the Leafs make the right decision with regards to Schenn’s immediate future.

In the shootout, the coaching staff decided to bench their leading shootout man from last year (Kaberle) in place of their slowest forward, a rookie, and a defenseman that doesn’t like to shoot the puck.  Based on Nikolai Kulemin’s early demonstrations, I’d pencil him in as a fixture in the shootout.  I’d also like to velcro Nik Antropov to the bench once regulation has finished; he’s completely lost in the open ice created by the 4v4 situation presented by OT.

Still, 3 points in 3 games isn’t a horrible start.  Especially considering the Leafs have started out with 2 of the NHL’s top teams.

—–

For the record, I’m sure glad we parted with Brad Boyes to get Owen Nolan.  That move surely shines out as one of the best from the Pat Quinn era.  May it continue to haunt Leafs Nation indefinitely.

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Hollweg’d

October 13, 2008 at 2:13 pm · Filed under St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs

If you look below, you’ll see a post at 2:00PM.  At that point, we were in the 1st intermission of a game where the Leafs were leading 3-0.

Roughly a dozen minutes later, it’s 3-3.

At this rate, the Leafs, with their unique combination of reckless abandon on offense and porous defense, could single-handedly be responsible for raising the NHL’s average goals-per-game numbers.

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Millen in the Rhubarb

October 13, 2008 at 2:09 pm · Filed under Greg Millenisms, St. Louis Blues, TV Coverage, Toronto Maple Leafs

A few years back, I started compiling a list of ridiculous Harry Neal quotes.  I dubbed these “Harry Nealisms”.  With Harry having moved on to senility Buffalo, we are now graced with the wisdom of Greg Millen.

[While showing a clip of Ryan Hollweg doing what Ryan Hollweg does (hitting St. Louis Blues from behind)]

…and that stirred up the rhubarb.

And thus, so was born the new category of “Greg Millenisms”.

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