It's finally come to this. The best and the worst trades that Brian Burke has ever engineered as the Toronto Maple Leafs GM. Recap.
Worst Trades
#4 - Kris Versteeg to PHI for a 2011 1st and 2nd and a 3rd and the wreckage of the Titantic and 7 pre-licked lollipops.
#3 - Jiri Tlusty to CAR for the rights to Philippe Paradis
#2 - Pavel Kubina and Tim Stapleton to ATL for Garnet Exebly and Colin Stuart
And the worst trade Brian Burke has made while GM of the Maple Leafs?
June 24th, 2011
To Toronto: 2011 1st round pick (#22 - Tyler Biggs)
To Anaheim: 2011 1st round pick (#30 - Rickard Rakell), 2011 2nd round pick (#39 - John Gibson)
Dealing a second round pick to move up eight spots in the draft isn’t what makes this deal craptacular. No, what makes this deal craptacular is using the higher pick to draft a player whose upside is the third line. Hyperbole runs high at the draft, where every player is a hybrid of the games' previous greats, "He has Stevie Y's touch and MacInnis’ booming shot." Yet in the land of hyperbole, TSN says Tyler’s Bigg’s is the next Kyle Clifford.
Trade so bad make you slap yo momma. We've talked at great length about how bad this trade is and my eyes start to bleed if I think about it too much so I won't.
Take the jump for the best trade Brian Burke has made.
Recap.#4 - Lebda, Slaney, and a 4th to NSH for Lombardi and Franson
#3 - A 2nd to COL for John-Michael Liles
#2 - Francois Beauchemin to ANA for Jake Gardiner, Joffrey Lupul, and a 2013 4th round pick
The best trade Brian Burke ever pulled off as GM of the Maple Leafs?
January 31, 2010
To Toronto: Keith Aulie, Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom
To Calgary: Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers, Matt Stajan, Ian White
You know the stories about someone that starts out with a paperclip and trades it up for a house? That’s what this trade is like – the Leafs moved a bunch of scrap parts and ended up with a million dollar home in Vancouver. Interestingly, that million dollar home is either a crack den or a palace with great potential, depending on who you ask. (Crack den).
Says a lot about the last 4 years when the team’s best move is a pile of scraps for a 2D on a bad contract…
There you have it. The best and worst trade of Burke's tenure. The complete rankings for all 40 trades can be found here. What did we get right? What did we get wrong? Let us know in the comments.
