What? No trades today!!! The nerve.  Lots of talk today, the good, the bad and the ugly.

First the good:

Steve Simmons, in tonight’s Toronto Sun wrote the kind of article I, as a fan have always wanted to read. The comments after the deal are okay, but I want to know the details, the how it happened story.  We don’t usually get to see that type of story.

“The meeting was convened on Nov. 15. That was the first time Dion Phaneuf’s name came up in any meaningful way with the Maple Leafs.

Frustrated over the fact the Leafs season had started so poorly, Brian Burke called a meeting of his top executives, Dave Nonis and Dave Poulin, and asked a rather basic question: How do we get better?

The three men were asked to rank the Leafs’ biggest needs in order.

“We all felt we needed a stud defenceman,” Burke said.”

And here we thought Burke was asleep at the wheel!  Not that it’s overly important, but are you surprised that Ron Wilson wasn’t involved?  I know that isn’t the normal role of the coach, but given the relationships here.  Also, what about Cliff?

“The two general managers spoke regularly — as most GMs do — over the past months but something changed less than two weeks ago. Burke was talking to Sutter on the phone when the conversation shifted.

“He said: ‘I might move a defenceman.’ My ears perked up at that,” Burke said.”

I bet his ears perked up.  It’s amazing the timing of these things.  Once again, I will say it is stunning given how much money is spent on “insiders” that none of this broke.  Not a whisper or hint of this trade was anywhere!

“The trade talks with Toronto began in earnest that day. Burke said: “If you were going to put a guy like Phaneuf in play, what would it take?” Then the Leafs did what most NHL teams do when talking trade. They provided the Flames with a list of all their signed and unsigned players, indicating which players they would consider moving and which ones they wouldn’t move.

According to sources familiar with the deal, the first player Calgary asked for from the list was Hagman. They liked his scoring, his contract, and what he could do for the Flames. But the deal was never intended to be one-for-one.”

Now, you see, this is the type of stuff I find fascinating.  If this is true, I think it’s incredibly interesting.  Wouldn’t you have loved to be a fly on the wall when these talks were on going?

“The Leafs didn’t necessarily want to give White away. But for them to make the trade, White and Hagman had to be included.

The conversations then progressed. The Flames asked for Matt Stajan. Burke had every intention of trading Stajan, a soon-to-be free agent, at the upcoming deadline.

He had tried to deal him a year ago. Parting with Stajan wasn’t that difficult. But he didn’t want to make a 3-for-1 trade. He wanted to expand the deal.”

See, I just eat this stuff up.  I wonder if Burke wanted to deal Stajan last year why it took so long to deal him (a rhetorical questions).

“I think we both agreed it made sense on Friday,” Burke said. “I ran the deal by Richard Peddie. He ran the deal by his ownership group. It’s not necessarily for approval, just to let them know what’s going on. We wanted all hands on deck for Saturday. We had to get through the games on Saturday night with everybody healthy.

“I e-mailed (Sutter) after our game. He e-mailed me back after the second period of their game. I went to sleep after that.”

Now you see, there is respect there.  Burke alerting his bosses as to what is going on.  As if they were going to say boo.  It’s just neat knowing that this stuff goes on and how it goes on.  Now someone will interpret this as Burke had to get board permission but that clearly isn’t what is written here.

David Shoalts column is pretty bad in my opinion. In fact, I just don’t get where he is coming from. Most of the column is nothing new, then Shoalts throws this at you:

“In the long term, one theory is Burke – who has given mixed signals on such as proposal – will trade veteran defenceman Tomas Kaberle when his no-movement clause lifts at the end of the season for a scoring forward and/or a first-round draft pick he doesn’t have (thanks to the Kessel trade).

This, not to put too fine a point on it, would be madness. ”

Now, say what you want about Burke, but has anyone seen him give mixed messages on Tomas Kaberle? I mean, he has been totally consistent along the way. Now to suggest that trading Kaberle when the NTC is off the table in the summer would be “maddening” is odd. If Burke could land a first round pick and a scoring forward- how could that move be madness?

Shoalts discussed burying Jeff Finger on the Marlies in favour of keeping Kaberle. I am not against the move of Finger in principal irrespective of Kaberle. I am thinking that even 22m in defence is too much though.

“Offensively, the Leafs could be a lot better next season. It is not unreasonable to assume 2009 first-round pick Nazem Kadri will be one of the top three centres. That would leave the Leafs Bozak, Kadri and Mikhail Grabovski leading the way down the middle. ”

I’m a leafs fan, but I am sorry. That collection, given all we have seen right now doesn’t thrill me in the least bit. Now could that change? Of course. Would I take that to the bank? Hell NO! Not trading Kaberle for a scoring forward based on this thesis seems more madness to me.

The ugly won’t even get a link. Berger on the radio today was outright offensive to listen to. His glass half empty all the time routine is beyond discussing. His dictionary required blog post is equally as bad. Do your self a favor and don’t read it.

If you want a good read, check this out to see what “Bryan McCabe has to say about the Leafs/Flames trade.

The hmmmmm goes to Bill Houston. It’s not very often that you see a reporter go “personal” on another reporter. Now Houston is out of the “real game” having joined the wide world of blogs (no orange jackets required- phew). However I think those in the industry would still consider him “one of them”. Houston did take a mild shot across Darren Dreger’s bow yesterday:

“The “yes, but” qualifier has to do with Dreger’s connection to Dave Nonis, the senior vice-president of hockey operations for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’re second cousins. Therefore, the perception by some will always be that Nonis is helping out cuz over at TSN with information.

I have no idea who Dreger’s sources are or now much, if at all, Nonis contributes. I don’t know how close they are. But none of it lessens the good work that Dreger along with Bob McKenzie and Gord Miller did by breaking blockbuster Leafs-Calgary Flames trade, the biggest NHL deal to come down the pike in years.”

Raise your hand if you knew that about Dreger. I for one certainly didn’t. Houston certainly laid it all out there, but then softened the blow with the latter part of quote. It is certainly interesting to see this type of comment in print. It’s not seen very often.

“Regarding Nonis, Dreger said in an email, “Up until a few years ago, Dave and I didn’t even know we were related. For anyone to suggest I’m the benefactor of ‘family favors’ is insulting to me and I suspect, insulting to Nonis as well.”

Well, I guess we know how Dreger feels.

Look, I am not saying it’s offside. Houston covers all the bases in his article. I’m just a little surprised that he wrote this, as the insinuation is now out there. It’s not out of line, it’s just personal. Maybe I am just naive.

Simmons is here

Shoalts is here

Houston is here

Here’s your bikini of the day from bikinibeat.org:

On Fan 590 Tonight

5:25 Bert Sugar
5:45 Darrell Davis from Saskatchewan
6:06 Don Banks, SI.COM
6:30 Rob Becker, our legal analyst
6:45 Dan Dunleavy from Saskatchewan

On 640 with Brady and Watters thanks to Mike S.:

-     Dave Nonis, assistant GM of the Leafs
-     Peter Deboer, head coach of the Florida Panthers
-     hockey insider Ray Ferraro at 6:10

Here’s your bikini of the day from bikinibeat.org:

On Fan 590 Tonight-
- open phones with McCown from 4:05 to 4:40
- co-host from 5:00 to 7:00 is Jim Kelley
5:25 Mark Cohon, CFL Commissioner
5:40 Bob Elliott, Toronto Sun
6:05 Al Morganti & Neil Smith
6:30 Andy Levitre & Eric Wood, Bills Offensive Linemen IN STUDIO
6:45 Daniel Kaplan, Sports Business Journal

On 640 with Brady and Watters thanks to Mike S.:

- Dave Nonis
- Bob The Bear Cowan with his Monday NFL pick
- hockey insiders Darren Dreger & Ray Ferraro at 6:10

Here’s your bikini of the day from bikinibeat.org:

On Fan 590 Tonight-

- open phones with McCown from 4:05 to 4:40
- co-host from 5:00 to 7:00 is Stephen Brunt
- Alan Ashby
- Jack Armstrong
- Rob Becker
- Brandon Lang, Vegas Handicapper (Matthew McCaghnhey’s character in Two for the money)
- David Shoalts from Phoenix

On 640 with Brady and Watters:thanks to Mike S.

- Dave Nonis at 4:40
- more discussion on Phil Kessel

Steve Simmons provided some great insight into the Toronto Maple Leafs today. Simmons’ work is usually a lot of thing, mostly opinions, but today’s column shed some light on what has been a pretty well kept secret here in town. Brian Burke has, what other Leaf GM’s haven’t, a hockey department. Yes the others had guys with titles, but Burke has actually set up a functioning unit.

I have been told by many a folk that the succesful teams don’t have one guy, they are run in similar ways to successful businesses. There is of course a boss, however underneath that boos there are clear divisions of labor, each person and or department having a responsibility. Furthermore, there has to be a great respect for scouting. Many a successful GM’s started as scouts so the know and appreciate the importance of scouts and having good ones, not just guys they know and or like.

For numerous reasons the inner sanctum of TML has been a deep dark secret. Much like a teachers lounge in a school. Those outside have no clue what it looks like in there or what goes on in there. Since Burke has come in to town we hear all sorts of names and various people are on the radio and in the media all the time, however who does what has been a deep dark secret. Simmons has shed some light on that, for those of us who care about these types of things.

What’s interesting, at least for me is that Simmons provides a fairly believable background and philosophy on how things are unfolding. It’s interesting to me for the simple reason that things don’t usually happen this way for the Leafs:

” When Gord Kirke first was approached to identify the next general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he had more than Brian Burke’s name in mind.

Privately, he talked a lot about the Leafs building an organization and not just hiring the right leader. And at times throughout the search, he focussed on two operations he had become quite familiar with.

One was the Detroit Red Wings, who under Ken Holland’s leadership, had amassed as deep an array of hockey minds in the front office as any in the game. The other was more familiar to Kirke. Over the years he had acted as lawyer, consultant and negotiator for the Blue Jays and had served as Pat Gillick’s agent. Kirke was well aware of the type of operation Paul Beeston and Gillick ran in the championship Blue Jays years.

He saw that Gillick and Beeston were the perfect dance partners: At different times, and under differing circumstances, either man could lead, both men could follow. One could do what the other couldn’t or wouldn’t, and surrounding them were wise old baseball minds such as Bobby Mattick and Al LaMacchia and trusted scouts such as Moose Johnson and Bob Engle and Gord Lakey.

Gillick, the baseball man, and Beeston, the number-cruncher with the human touch, came to rely on the voices around them.”

BIAS ALERT: I know and happen to really like Kirke. He is one of the few who walked away from the player agent game as a result of not liking the “nature of the beast”. More importantly, of all the people “in the game” Kirke is truly one of the best. He is smart, likeable, ethical and down to earth. So if Simmons says this was the plan, I believe it.

“Burke is essentially the CEO. Dave Nonis is general manager without portfolio: He oversees everything. Poulin, the former Philadelphia captain and Notre Dame head coach, is responsible for pro and amateur scouting, the lifebloods of any organization. (In fact, in today’s salary-capped National Hockey League, the role of pro scouting has taken on a far greater importance than ever before.) Jeff Jackson, a former practicing lawyer, is GM of the Toronto Marlies and salary cap expert and contract negotiator. ”

There in one paragraph is the start of some semblance of order and understanding. Is it me or is it that Nonis has the portfolio just not the title?? In any event, there certainly appears to be clear divisions of labor, and not too many chefs as may have been the case in the past Mr. Dryden.

“The way it works is, Dave Poulin reports to Dave Nonis, and Dave Nonis reports to me,” Burke said.”

Ah HUH- An Org Chart!! The Leafs are run like a business! There are reporting structures! That is really, really interesting, at least to me anyway. The other nice thing about having systems in place like this, is that it provides for younger execs to work there way in and up the system and for succession plans. Yes Burke has a 5 year deal. How quickly time flies and things change. The nice thing about something like this being in place is that if one person goes down their is a plan to replace them. No one is totally irreplaceable.

“I think one of my strengths is I don’t know what I don’t know. That’s why you hire good people, rely on their expertise, and listen to them.”

BINGO- that is how the best execs in any industry operate. Writers write and plumbers plum, we all have our areas of expertise and strenghts. A good boss figures that out, hires the right people and lets them do the jobs they were hired to do.

” It paid off for Burke when he was general manager of the Anaheim Ducks. His assistant GM was Bob Murray, who now runs the Ducks. Burke was negotiating to trade Sergei Fedorov to Columbus for Todd Marchant. Murray told Burke unequivocably: Don’t make the deal without also receiving minor-league defenceman Francois Beauchemin. Long after the deal was made, and after Beauchemin, now a Leaf, had become an integral part of Anaheim defence, Burke wasn’t shy about telling anyone: “I didn’t know anything about Beauchemin. Murph insisted we get him in the deal. He deserves the credit for that.”

I think this is the reason why the press are giving Burke so much “respect”. He doesn’t appear to be all things and he does surround himself with good people and he has a reputation of letting those people do their jobs.

“We’ve already lost Joe Nieuwendyk to Dallas,” Burke said. “That’s a compliment to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dave Nonis will be at risk next summer. We’ll have to deal with that. I marvel at the New England Patriots The guys they’ve lost every year and they keep on winning. And that’s what we want to do here. We want to be an incubator of front office talent and we still want to win and be competitive.”

Kirke and the search team had an easy mandate but a huge challenge to get it right. Hiring the right guy for now probably wasn’t so hard. Hiring a guy who thinks like Burke does as evident by the last clip was much harder. If Burke can “draft” execs with any degree of efficiency we won’t go through these 40 + year spells for a long time. Burke may never win a cup here. However, if he lays the foundation to be the breeding ground for young execs then his legacy will go on for a long time. Look at the guys Lou Lamoriello groomed. Consider the Sam Pollacks. Building a hockey department is a huge task for Burke. It has to be built slowly and properly and it has to last.

It is interesting to see this type of thing going on in the background. Kudos to Simmons for reporting it. I think it’s as important if not more important than the off ice stuff right now. What the leafs do on ice this year isn’t nearly as important as continuing to build the foundation.

Have a good night.

TSM

Simmons is here

Here are the lineups for the shows at noon:

On Hockey Central at Noon:
Howard Berger Hosts
COLTON ORR 1205
POSSIBLE DAVE NONIS 1225

On Leafs Lunch:
Darren Dreger and Bill Watters
1240 – mike komisarek

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:
t’s semi-finals time at Wimbledon and the ladies lead it off. Huge match on centre court with number one ranked Danira Safina battles number three ranked Venus Williams. There is no love lost between the Williams sisters and Safina. Sister Serena has been very vocal questioning why Safina is number one and still hasn’t one a major. For Safina this is the farthest she has gone at Wimbledon and would love nothing more then to face Serena in the finals.

In the CFL, the new-look Winnipeg Blue Bombers make the trip to Edmonton to tangle with the Eskimos tonight. Not only does Winnipeg have a new coach in Mike Kelley, but they overhauled entire roster. Gone is one-time starting quarterback Kevin Glenn and stepping in is Stephan Lefors. Oh yeah, future hall-of-famer Milt Stegall hung up his cleats as well. Edmonton also made some changes since missing the playoffs for the first time in 35 years. Richie Hall is now at the helm and hopes a healthy Jesse Lumsden will factor in to the Eskies success.

Follow me on twitter at @yyzsportsmedia

Here are the lineups for the shows at noon:

On Hockey Central at Noon:

Frank Orr with Howard Berger for the hour

On Leafs Lunch:

Dreger back hosting
1210 – Garth snow
12:20 – Dave Nonis on Gustavsson meeting
1240 – Bob Mckenzie

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:
You do not want to miss the St Louis Cardinals visiting the New York Mets tonight at the new Shea Stadium. The Cards are coming off a sweep of the Royals and the Mets have lost two straight. The real reason to watch this game is Albert Pujols. In the series versus Kansas City he had three homeruns and 10 RBIs. Yesterday alone he hit two, including a grand slam and drove in five. Pujols leads the league in homeruns, runs batted in and is not far from the lead in batting average. Could this be the year he dons the triple crown?

Oh yeah, there is more golf to be watched at the US Open at Bethpage Black. Round four continues and by the afternoon there might be a winner. Unless of course there’s a tie and another 18 is needed. Canadian Mike Wier is still in the hunt.

So Brian Burke goes postal on Brady and Watters and when you listen to the interview you are left with the impression that something had Burke riled up before he even picked up the phone to do the interview. So of course, inquiring minds want to know what got him so pissed off. Well, it says here that Burke is antsy. All around the league shit is happening and like in the Rod Stewart song, “there’s none for me”. Burke can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, the start of his time to shine, but it is still 3 weeks away. Teams are making coaching changes, he isn’t about to do that. Teams are making GM moves, he isn’t going to do that. Teams are signing superstars to long term deals, he can’t do that. Burke’s hands are tied by mother time and there is nothing he can do about it. It’s frustrating to me as a fan, it’s got to be driving him nuts. I mean how many times can you call a fellow GM and say, you ready to deal yet?? It was one thing a month ago, now the clock has turned June and well, it’s still hurry up and wait time.

Add to that the fact that Joe Nieuwendyk is gone, he still hasn’t landed the Monster and Burke is going to be cranky. Anyone else notice the quote from him yesterday that he is certain Nonis will be gone next off season??? Interesting comment given the fact that Burke has already allegedly deny one team the right to speak to Nonis this off-season. NHL contracts end later this month so Burke will have to decide what he is doing with the likes of Jeff Jackson and the rest of his management team and scouts, so that should be interesting too. It says here that there will be changes in that department in addition to the countless roster changes Burke is going to make.

Is it me, or does Gary Bettman become less and less likable each time he either appears publicly or speaks publicly. I have made my position clear. Bettman is a bold faced liar. He looked the public in the face and said things that were totally false about the state of one of his teams. He may have had reasons for doing so, but a liar he is nevertheless. Therefore, each time I hear that voice, I turn the channel. I bought it once, I don’t buy it this time.

So, Bettman was on with Richie Rich MacLean and Jack Armstrong yesterday afternoon. He, once again got off easy. A caller today, I am told called MacLean and Armstrong and voiced his displeasure with their “weak” questioning of the commish especially on the whole honesty issue. So, the hosts apparently got very defensive and basically made the point that they weren’t going to bring someone on of Bettman’s stature and call him a liar. The caller, I am told, didn’t take that answer well and was persistent to the point where the call ended with the hosts saying, sarcastically that they would be sure to have the caller in studio the next time the commissioner is on the air. So, here is my take. Good radio hosts know how to do the dance. Don’t slam a person when he is off the air and kiss their ass when they are on it. You lose credibility when you do that. Mccown used to be famous for it. He would bash the hell out of someone off the air and then when they came on treat them like they were the best of friends. In this instance, MacLean should have given the Commissioner the opportunity to discuss why he lied to the public. I understand that you don’t invite someone into your home and call them names, but you have to have some integrity. I didn’t hear the call, it isn’t on the website. Whomever you are caller….good on you.

Speaking of callers, who was the dipstick who called Brady’s show and suggested that it was high time Burke got fired??????? When asked for a name to replace Burke, Einstein for Etobicoke said anyone from the Detroit organization! You wonder why some of these guys hate to take calls…

MacLean, by the way was LOVED when I lived in Miami back in the day. People were genuially upset when he left. Bill Torrey(I love how the papers still refer to him as the architect of the New York Islander Stanley Cup Teams- like he hasn’t done anything since!) was around in those days and certainly will be calling Doug for a chat about the vacant Florida job. I wonder if the powers that be at the Fan could be any happier at the prospect of Maclean going back to his role as GM?

Credit to Damien for not pulling down his blog post of yesterday morning suggesting that perhaps the Canadiens were going to go out of the box with a Russian head coach. It hit my RSS reader well after the Jacques Martin story broke.

Hope you all liked the TSM take feature we started today, look for more stuff like that in the future. Also, Dan’s basbeall chat was awesome- if you haven’t listened to it yet you should.

TSM

Wow that was quick. The Minnesota Wild asked for permission to speak to Dave Nonis for the recently vacant GM position and were denied by Nonis’s buddy and boss Brian Burke. That according to Darren Dreger and a few others…. Can’t imagine Nonis minds, nice to be wanted two times i guess.

OH and the Jays just went to 8-3 WOW

The most important role on the Maple Leafs over the next 4-5 months is that of the scout. Amateur and pro scouts are worth gold to Mr. Burke. Here is the question that I was asked today, rhetorically speaking: Apparently overhauling the scouting department is a priority for Burke. It will be very difficult to replace the current group or add to it before NHL contracts expire July 1. So, how does Burke allow those he doesn’t “trust” enough to stay on to run the upcoming draft? Of course this is all based upon the assumption that Burke is looking to make changes to the department.

It is rather odd, don’t you agree that he will rely on the word of those he doesn’t want to stay on in their current jobs? The draft is kind of important so you have to think he has this figured out. I know he has probably seen a lot more junior games this year, (not more then Toth, who are we kidding) same goes for Dave Nonis and all the other executives on staff. However, a great executive hires the right people to do jobs and then delegates accordingly. For examples see the successful teams in the league, year after year. While we will be most interested in how Burke rebuilds the on ice product, it could be equally as intriguing to see the old guard moved out and team Burke fully implemented. This by the way holds true for the equipment guys and the trainers too, all are likely up for review.

Speaking of players, Burke is sitting 7th right now. Do you think Burke is prepared to overpay enough to land JT? I haven’t seen the kid play up close and personal. I did read a great article about him in Toronto Life recently. Much to Toth’s chagrin I did watch quite a bit of him play when he was on TV during the odd tournament too. I only hope that if Burke is going to overpay for a draft pick he is betting on the right horse. That is, do you bet the pharm on Tavares? I don’t know the answer to the question, I am only asking it. Question, would you deal Luke Schenn and this years pick for Tavares? That is the type of thing that I would think the Isles would want back, don’t you? If Burke is right and not every team rates JT #1, then is he the horse you bet on? Don’t get me wrong, I think we know he is the guy you take if you are number 1. But is he the guy you mortgage a lot to get a shot to take number one? All of this of course assumes that the Isles will even consider dealing the pick. Unfortunately Brady’s favorite broadcaster isn’t running team Isles anymore.

So the Bills are playing the Jets in the Toronto game this year. Do you think this will improve tickets sales? The rumored game was the Colts. In my opinion more Torontonians may have come out to see the Colts play the Bills. However, Jets fans are nuts. No seriously, nuts. So I can easily see them coming to Toronto to scoop up any tickets possible. The question is (I am full of them tonight sorry), does it matter to team Rogers who attends the games? If the simple goal is to fill the building, this may be a good thing. Alternatively, if the idea is to cultivate the market, gauge interest and grow something in preparation for an eventual team then this game, in my opinion does little.

Curious has anyone seen or heard anything of substance re our basketball team as it pertains to next season? Wholly apathy batman….