While GM Brian Burke won’t admit it, he’s finally decided to go the right way on the Leafs rebuild.
Rejoice Leafs fans.
Let go of your faint playoff hopes this season. Those hopes are an anchor, and you don't need 'em any more.
Now, embrace the proper way to rebuild a hockey team. Because unless Brian Burke deals away all these draft picks at the deadline, it is clear that your general manager has finally come around.
There will be plenty of people chortling today about how Burke has changed tracks on his rebuild -- from the Phil Kessel fast track to the Jake Gardiner/Joe Colborne plus draft picks developmental route.
Burke, if we know him the way we think we do, will never come out and admit he has consciously changed his tact. And the prospect of him dealing away the draft picks he's collected for a first-line player certainly does exist.
But Burke doesn't have to admit to anything. His actions speak for him, and he's doing the right thing.
This deal -- Boston's first-rounder in 2011, Colborne, and a conditional second rounder in 2012 (if the Bruins sign Kaberle this summer or go to the Cup) -- marks a fantastic largesse for a player whom the Maple Leafs could theoretically re-sign as a UFA this summer, though that is a highly unlikely scenario.
Let's give Burke credit for having the courage to ostensibly extinguish his team's already faint playoff chances. Currently six points out of the playoff race, the Leafs will surely go south from here without their best defenceman and power-play quarterback.
So what is the risk, other than revenues for MLSE? Colborne, a big, skilled centreman and the draft picks are so much more valuable to this franchise today than a couple of playoff dates against a superior opponent; it's not even close.
Burke knows it -- even if he would never verbalize it.
We've learned a lot about rebuilds over these past few seasons, watching Edmonton's back-to-back 30th-place struggles, Calgary's refusal to buy into a perceived need for a rebuild, Ottawa's freefall into their house-cleaning, and Toronto's hybrid rebuild.
Early on Burke stated he would rebuild faster than anyone else, that he could do it smarter, swifter, and without the pain that Oilers fans are going through.
So he opened his poker game by trading the two first-round drafts and a second- for Kessel. Then he looked around and realized: "How do I make the next blockbuster?"
He found a way in the Phaneuf trade, but it cost him three of his most attractive players. After that, he had Kessel, Phaneuf, and few draft picks remaining. Burke soon realized that players like Beauchemin and Kaberle are only coveted by teams making playoff runs -- and those teams wouldn't give Toronto young, roster players who can help right now.
(Unless they came with a bad contract and recent injury struggles like Joffrey Lupul.)
So he has collected the college defenceman Gardiner, Lupul and a third-rounder, and now Colborne, a Calgary kid who has 12-14-26 in 55 games in his first pro season.
Now we'll see how far Burke's re-positioning goes.
A young college D-man like Gardiner shouldn't be rushed into the NHL. And we all saw how young Tyler Bozak was when Toronto labeled him a first-line centre this season, long before he was ready.
Will they push the pace of this rebuild by heaping the same pressure on top of Colborne next season after one full year of pro hockey?
Will Burke fire Ron Wilson and find a coach more suited to bringing along these young players?
Burke has already slammed the brakes on one bad idea. We can't wait to see where this reshaped rebuild goes next.
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for sportsnet.ca
Follow me on Twitter.com @SportsnetSpec
