Was Brian Burke being a hypocrite when he chimed on Dany Heatley's trade request? The facts say no.
It would be easy to tee up Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke for his recent slap at Ottawa Senators forward Dany Heatley, but it won't happen here for one good reason:
Burke has a good point.
To bring you up to speed on the latest developments you need to know (and likely already do) that Heatley has requested a trade from the Senators for reasons that have not been made public but appear to be centered around an unwillingness to work with his newest of new coaches, Corey Clouston.
It has created quite a backlash for the talented forward who has on more than one occasion topped the 50-goal mark in a season.
Fans, at least fans in Ottawa, aren't happy with the situation and Heatley has incurred the wrath of some columnists and commentators (yours truly included) who have taken him to task for what appears to be an attempt to force his way out of a multi-year contract because of a personality clash and perhaps because the Senators are no longer a true contender for the Stanley Cup and missed the playoffs outright this past season.
In recent days, several general managers have joined the chorus, the most recent being Washington Capitals boss George McPhee, and Burke.
McPhee said it's something Heatley "shouldn't be doing" and that "It's too bad he's done this to the club."
Burke, as is usually the case, was even stronger.
Speaking on XM Radio's NHL Live show on Wednesday, Burke said ""I'm not blaming Dany, this could be the agent," said Burke."For a player to quietly and professionally ask for a trade, that's fair ball for me.
"For a player to pop off and say he wants out, or leak it, in my mind now you're no longer interested in your team. If you've done that, you've handicapped them and handcuffed the GM.... As long as you're on that team, you owe them to maximize the asset, and once you've taken that step, sorry, I don't accept that."
For the record, the agent is J. P Barry and he may well have a hand in this but it's hard to imagine he would do anything along those lines without Heatley's full and undivided attention and permission.
But for the moment, this is an issue regarding Burke. He is after all the only general manager known to have had a valid and enforceable contract with one team (the Ducks of Anaheim) and is now sitting in the bosses chair of another club (the Toronto Maple Leafs).
On the surface it looks like a classic case of someone speaking out of both sides of his mouth, but if you examine what Burke actually said, he has a valid point.
He said "For a player to quietly and professionally ask for a trade that's fair ball for me. For a player to….." well you've already read that.
And there lies the subtle difference.
Burke didn't inform the Ducks that he wanted out, he told them that he would honor his contract to its conclusion but once that was done he would neither negotiate a new one nor accept the extension the Ducks had put on the table.
There is a difference; and Burke, in private conversations with the Ducks, didn't demand to be released from his contract (the equivalent to a player trying to force a trade), he said, repeatedly, that he would honour it until conclusion.
The result of that may well be what Burke ultimately wanted, to be set free before the contract expired. But it was the Ducks that made that happen. They released him early, but they did it on their timetable and only after they were certain that they had a successor in place and that they were comfortable with that successor.
It the rules were different, if teams were still allowed to demand compensation for hockey department people who wanted to go to other clubs, it's likely the Ducks would have demanded compensation from the Leafs, but those rules are no longer in place.
The fact of the matter is that Burke made a commitment to honor his contract even though he was determined to leave after it expired. He didn't handcuff the Ducks financially or professionally and though word of what was happening did eventually get out, it's difficult to argue that Burke said or did anything that hurt the Ducks in large part because there was to be no compensation or exchange of talent between the Ducks and Burke's current team, the Leafs.
Heatley, if what we are told is true, is a very different case.
Heatley signed a six-year extension worth in excess of $40 million, honoured one year of it and now wants out with some five years and $35 million remaining. The fact that he doesn't want to play in Ottawa -- and all of hockey is operating under that premise -- puts the Senators exactly where McPhee said they would be.
It truly would be easier to just see Heatley walk away as a free-agent than to try and strike a deal from a position of weakness. Whatever other teams are likely willing to offer for Heatley, it's likely not going to measure up to his value as a player or even the contract the Senators bestowed on him. That's a contract that handcuffed the Senators when they agreed to sign it because in committing that much money to Heatley, they had to let other players walk in unrestricted free agency, a decision that appears to have weakened the Sens.
It should be pointed out here that Burke misspoke regards the agent and that Senators GM Bryan Murray, through his hockey operations department, let it out that Heatley had made the trade request, but then Murray had a valid point to make as well.
He said he was not going to be put in the position of having a player ask for a trade and then deny it ever happened (something that has happened to him in the past and, quite frankly, happens far too often in the NHL and involves players even higher up the production line than Dany Heatley.
Buffalo GM Darcy Regier took a similar tack when goaltender Dominik Hasek demanded a trade to the Detroit Red Wings in order to have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup. Regier said Hasek threatened the Sabres with retirement (one of many as it turned out) if Regier asked too much in return because Hasek didn't want to weaken his chances of winning the Cup with the Wings.
Regier spelled that out to media in no uncertain terms and though Hasek got exactly what he wanted, including his only Cup ring, it came at a public relations price, one that the Senators are apparently going to extract from Heatley.
I'm fine with that. Hockey can sometimes be as bruising a business off the ice as it is on the ice, but sometimes the GMs hit back.
Regier's done it; so did Murray and McPhee. Burke is obviously willing to join the chorus, too.
It may appear that Burke has done so unfairly, but the view from here is that is hardly the case.
If you look at the facts he made a promise to the Ducks to honour his contact even if he wasn't going to ever sign another one there.
Can Dany Heatley honestly say the same?
