With the trading of Beauchemin and now Versteeg, Brian Burke would like a mulligan.
At times like this, there is a tendency to want to call in the scorecards on Brian Burke.
When, inside a week, Burke trades away two of his cornerstones — Francois Beauchemin and Kris Versteeg — for a college player (Jake Gardiner), a bad contract (Joffrey Lupul) and two draft picks. It’s hard not to see more back tracking than fast tracking with the Maple Leaf master plan.
In the grand scheme however, whether it works or it doesn’t work for Burke in Toronto, we’ll all have plenty of time to dissect the reasons why.
For now, we have to look at this rebuild plank-by-plank.
Beauchemin? Turns out he wasn’t as good as Burke thought he was when he was signed. So he was recycled into Gardiner, a third-year college defenceman and Lupul, a declining, expensive asset whom Burke predicts will resurrect his career as a scorer.
Versteeg? Turns out he wasn’t as good as Burke thought he was when he traded for him. So he was recycled into first and third-round draft picks from a Philadelphia, picks that will fall very late in each round.
Seeing a trend here?
"We thought (Versteeg’s) best contributions would come on a better team," Burke said in a Monday night conference call with reporters. "We looked at what he contributed in Chicago. He wasn’t contributing that with our group.
"He’s going to have an impact with the Philadelphia Flyers."
Great. And Beauchemin might have an impact back in Anaheim.
The idea was they were both supposed to have an impact with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Despite production of 14-21-35 in 53 games, Versteeg was shown to be a nice contributor on a contender, but not nearly enough of a hockey player to make a bad team a lot better.
"This is the best offer we had, and we didn’t think it would be there on the 28th," Burke said of trade deadline day.
He was set on turning Versteeg over after just part of one season in Toronto, after bringing him in from Chicago at a price of three players — Viktor Stalberg, Chris DiDomenico and Phillippe Paradis — who averaged 21 years of age.
The machinations of the trade was that Burke wanted James van Riemsdyk from the Flyers, a 6-3, No. 2 overall selection from ’07 who scored 15 goals as a rookie and who has 12 goals this season.
The Flyers said, "No way."
"This offer met our criteria – it wasn’t ideal," Burke admitted. "Our ideal scenario was to get a player who could play right now or was a lot closer.
"This deal was on the table from Philly for a week. We shopped it hard and tried to get a player who was in the league, or close. Like the Jake Gardiner deal. Not an 18-year old, but a guy who was in his third year in college."
Burke projected Gardiner as a guy who might need a half season in the AHL before helping the Maple Leafs, a very hopeful projection when talking about an NCAA defenceman.
But he was also hopeful about Beauchemin, and the glacier slow Mike Komisarek, Versteeg, and now Lupul.
"Once we were able to add Joffrey Lupul, we thought he’d be able to add some of the offence Kris has been adding," said Burke.
It’s a leap of faith when you look at Lupul’s stats and injury history, but any GM in Burke’s position has to make a few leaps like that.
He leaped with Versteeg, hoping he could make the move from support player in Chicago to leader in Toronto. And he leaped with Beauchemin, hoping that he could move from a real good No. 3 or No. 4 defenceman on a Cup-calibre team in Anaheim, to a No. 2 on a far less capable team in Toronto.
He couldn’t.
So Burke will take his draft picks — "The third has already been put into a (possible) deal." — and play with them.
You can talk about handing your possible Top 5 pick to Boston in the Phil Kessel trade, then acquiring Philly’s pick which currently sits at No. 29, but Burke doesn’t have time for that.
"We are going to try to add a player. We have not conceded the last playoff spot," he said, fully willing to put the first-round pick into play as well. "In the right deal it would be, yes. I haven’t put it in play yet, but would I move it? Yes."
"We intend to be active on July 1st, it’s that simple. This clears up some salary to do that."
This isn’t a fight to be scored round-by-round, it seems. We’ll know, when the dust settles on this rebuild, if he’s been beaten up by all of this, or if he’s on top.
