Burke principles no hindrance

Ask once.

"No."

Ask again. Same answer.

"No."

There does not appear to be any point in going for a third try. Brian Burke won't play and won't budge.

The questions are variations on a theme: has he – at any point, professionally or personally – felt the need to make sure the belief system he inherited as the fourth of 10 kids in a large Irish Catholic brood and has nurtured in his 30 years in professional hockey is suited to the task at hand.

It seems reasonable that a thinking man – and the Toronto Maple Leafs president and general manager is certainly that – could have had a crisis of principle at some point. At least the need for a tune-up?

Apparently not.

"If you have a bedrock of principles that work and are based on fairness and honesty, why would you have a crisis?" he says. "I guess I'm not as complex as you'd like me to be."

The man who defines the Leafs more than any other at this stage of their 44-year Stanley Cup drought is a man of principle (just ask him) and the architect, after three years as the highest-paid executive in the game, of a team that most experts would agree will be touch-and-go to make the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

It begs the question if Burke's principles have cost the team and its fan base.

This past summer was a free agent season like the league has never seen. Money was flying around and the Leafs have plenty of that, not to mention the need for an elite, play-making centre, like Brad Richards for example.

As everyone knows, Richards will be skating with the New York Rangers this season.

How likely it was that Richards would have come to Toronto is questionable, but what's not is that Burke wasn't about to make the kind of offer -- $60-million spread over nine years -- that eventually landed the 2004 Conn Smythe winner.

That's because Burke's principles prevent him from offering the kind of long-term deals where a significant amount of money is paid up front, the cap hit is eased by the length of the contract and a team may well be paying a player into the early years of the retirement.

Nevermind the NHL has signed off on the Richards deal and other more extreme examples. Burke holds himself to a different standard.

"The one principle that people would say has cost me here has been my refusal to do cap circumvention contracts, so we didn't sign a Brad Richards," he says, during a conversation in his box at the Air Canada Centre during the exhibition season. "We didn't get these guys who want these contracts. But I won't do that. I think they effectively cheat the cap and I won't do that. People who stray from their principles don't succeed. Ever."

Well that might be a matter for some debate (just not with Burke) as might Burke's definition of cheating the cap, what's not is that the Leafs under his guidance are still waiting for their reward for being the good NHL citizens.

Burke feels that the NHL's holy-non-cap circumventing-rollers -- "only eight of 22 teams have done these deals, so it's not like I'm on an island" -- will get their due under the NHL's next collective bargaining agreement which he predicts will clamp down on what he sees as outlaw deal-making.

In the interim the Leafs will have to rely on Tim Connolly and his non-cap circumventing two-year, $9-million contract as their best-paid centre, if not their best one.

It's not like Burke is a socialist. He used the Leafs' financial might to leverage Cody Franson and Matthew Lombardi from Nashville, for example.

And he says his principles don't prevent him from raiding financially vulnerable teams with offer sheets for their restricted free agents, as many Leaf fans and media – myself included – thought would have been worth exploring with regard to Tampa Bay Lightning star Steve Stamkos.

But Burke, if not Machiavellian, is certainly calculating.

"I'm not opposed to an offer sheet," he says. "[But] what happens is if you're going to do an offer sheet … you better be prepared for the payback."

Could a run at the LA Kings' Drew Doughty or a Stamkos make the Leafs own young talent a target for a deep-pocketed owner to retaliate? Possibly, so Burke kept his financial gun holstered.

Burke's principles don't prevent him from apologizing, but it's not something he things you should be doing all the time. "I don't know a successful person who is quick to apologize," he says.

So even as disturbing connections between fighting and the long-term health struggles faced my several NHL tough guys continue to emerge, Burke has no plans to budge for his pro-fighting stance or apologize for it.

"I do care about my players," he says. "But I've had a lot of guys that did that job that went on and had perfectly normal lives … there are plenty of guys who have done that job and not had post-career problems.

"I don't see a link. We had some tragic circumstances this summer [but] I'm not prepared to say that we should outlaw fighting. If we establish a link, we have to look at it. But if there's a link, there should be boxers jumping out of buildings ever week, and their aren't."

Burke says he learned his principles at home and cites examples of mentors – Lou Lamoriello, Pat Quinn, Gary Bettman – who have only encouraged him to stick to them in his hockey career.

The Leaf team he's icing this year is a product of those fiercely held views. His successful runs building Vancouver and Anaheim were too.

But as his current team skates through the Eastern Conference Richards and his nine-year contract will be in New York and Stamkos' star continues to rise in Tampa.

Meanwhile Connolly is the Leaf's ostensible No.1 centre and Colton Orr is back for another round as the club's designated tough guy, his concussion troubles apparently behind him.

And Brian Burke remains unwavering in his beliefs, in life and in hockey. A trip to the playoffs will likely go a long way toward Leaf fans continuing to believe in him.

Michael Grange will provide insight and analysis on all the top stories in sports.