Confirmed with Link: Dave Nonis TML GM|Burke retained as Senior Advisor to board - III

[Hurt]

James Mirtle ‏@mirtle
Have details on how and why on Burke firing for early tomorrow... check paper or our site in morning.

AKA here are some regurgitated rumours. Buy our papers and visit our site so we can get more hits!

 

[Dwight K Schrute]

AKA here are some regurgitated rumours. Buy our papers and visit our site so we can get more hits!

haha honestly. If he had some 'big scoop' he'd want to break it right away

 

[Penalty Kill Icing*]

Just a heads up that G&M isn't a tabloid that can't live without hits.

 

[Kelly]

Wouldn't surprise me if in four years Leafs hire Mike Gillis as GM. Finally completing the Vancouver Canuck General Manager rebuild.

 

[Hanta Yo]

It's going to be annoying with all these rumors floating around about why Burke was fired exactly. Will just need to wait for the dust to settle. Wouldn't be surprised if there was a conflict with the new ownership and Burke. Bad timing for Burke, if the team was winning, doubt any would would stand up to him.

 

[Hurt]

Just a heads up that G&M isn't a tabloid that can't live without hits.

But it certainly doesn't hurt? Ad revenue is a big game.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

Still can't get it in my head that Burkie is not our gm anymore

 

[false bobo]

Wow this Anselmi Sportsnet interview has left me disgusted with our ownership. He might as well have said "firing Burke had nothing to do with hockey." Why is this city cursed?

 

[dubey]

I just hope Nonis walks out the second MLSE tries to force a decision on him.

He might be a quiet guy but he's got character. I don't think this is the last we'll hear of MLSE interventions.

 

[tacoburrito]

I just hope Nonis walks out the second MLSE tries to force a decision on him.

He might be a quiet guy but he's got character. I don't think this is the last we'll hear of MLSE interventions.

i hope so to but i have my doubts

 

[Bomber0104]

For whatever its worth, Simmons thinks it had little to do with Luongo or no playoffs, he returns instead to cryptic comments about Burke's personal life which he's mentioned before:

First this:



Then this:



http://www.torontosun.com/2013/01/09/leafs-simply-didnt-want-burke-as-face-of-franchise-anymore

No idea what Simmons is talking about, but can't wait to find out some day like we always do.

There might be some truth into Brian Burke being an alcoholic.

But that's just speculation.

And unprofessional of the writer to suggest.

 

[rojac]

There might be some truth into Brian Burke being an alcoholic.

But that's just speculation.

And unprofessional of the writer to suggest.

However, I think the basic premise of the article, that MLSE no longer wanted Burke as the face of the franchise, is correct.

As for timing, there is some weirdness about how the new board works, I believe I read something to the effect that the Rogers and Bell board members will always vote together, to prevent one or the other big owners teaming up with Tannenbaum against the others. So, perhaps, it was just recently that an agreement was able to be reached amongst the Rogers and Bell board members to get rid of Burke. For example, maybe Bell wanted him fired in August, but Rogers wanted to keep him, it may have taken until now for Bell to convince Rogers that he should go.

 

[colchar]

But it certainly doesn't hurt? Ad revenue is a big game.

The Globe actually runs on a subscription service so they've got money coming in regardless.

 

[Schenn]

The Globe actually runs on a subscription service so they've got money coming in regardless.

More subscription sales = more money. Hyping up the paper means more sales.

 

[Bomber0104]

However, I think the basic premise of the article, that MLSE no longer wanted Burke as the face of the franchise, is correct.

As for timing, there is some weirdness about how the new board works, I believe I read something to the effect that the Rogers and Bell board members will always vote together, to prevent one or the other big owners teaming up with Tannenbaum against the others. So, perhaps, it was just recently that an agreement was able to be reached amongst the Rogers and Bell board members to get rid of Burke. For example, maybe Bell wanted him fired in August, but Rogers wanted to keep him, it may have taken until now for Bell to convince Rogers that he should go.

God knows how I would or could react to a son of mine being taken from me prematurely.

And I dont fault Brian Burke for reacting adversely if that were the case.

Coupled with the pressures and stresses of his job.

Wow.

We should just leave his personal life alone and stick to the job he did with the team.

 

[charliolemieux]

There might be some truth into Brian Burke being an alcoholic.

But that's just speculation.

And unprofessional of the writer to suggest.

An Irishman that likes to drink. Isn't that a stereotype?

 

[colchar]

More subscription sales = more money.

Really? Is that how it works?

Hyping up the paper means more sales.

People aren't likely to pay for a month-long subscription to the paper just to read one story when there is no indication that it actually includes any information and especially when any info that it might actually contain will be posted all over the web within minutes. Think about it - how long do you think it will take for the content of the story to be posted here even if it is just the same stuff we've been hearing all day? I set the over/under on it being posted here at five minutes after it hits the newspaper's website and I'm taking the under.

 

[Bomber0104]

An Irishman that likes to drink. Isn't that a stereotype?

Yes but also a stereotype of people who've lost loved ones.

Haven't you heard (or felt)?

 

[colchar]

For whatever its worth, Simmons thinks it had little to do with Luongo or no playoffs, he returns instead to cryptic comments about Burke's personal life which he's mentioned before:

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/01/09/leafs-simply-didnt-want-burke-as-face-of-franchise-anymore

No idea what Simmons is talking about, but can't wait to find out some day like we always do.

Simmons has no idea what he is talking about either. The guy is a complete hack who knows less than Eklund. You also have to remember that Burke slapped Simmons down pretty hard during a press conference and that, ever since then, Simmons has had a hate-on for Burke and the Leafs. Nothing he says on the topic can be taken even remotely seriously.

 

[Defense]

The timing of this is ridiculous. I think it is rude to wait 6 months with no hockey and season just about to start to fire Burke. And it is a disgrace to us fans, that the reason is not clear and the reason isn't believed to be a hockey move. I have been impatient with Burke many times, but I think he deserved to finish his contract this season. From scratch now we have a decent amount of prospects and more key assets. Burke was starting to bring this together, yes its been 4 years now, but coaching and the players should take most of the blame. It shouldnt have taken 4 years to find a goalie, but I believe Burke has built a foundation that Nonis can now build around. It is shocking nonetheless, and i think for as patient as Leaf fans we are(even with the lockout), we deserve a much better answer for a big move like this at this point of time.

 

[Tak7]

The timing of this is ridiculous. I think it is rude to wait 6 months with no hockey and season just about to start to fire Burke. And it is a disgrace to us fans, that the reason is not clear and the reason isn't believed to be a hockey move. I have been impatient with Burke many times, but I think he deserved to finish his contract this season. From scratch now we have a decent amount of prospects and more key assets. Burke was starting to bring this together, yes its been 4 years now, but coaching and the players should take most of the blame. It shouldnt have taken 4 years to find a goalie, but I believe Burke has built a foundation that Nonis can now build around. It is shocking nonetheless, and i think for as patient as Leaf fans we are(even with the lockout), we deserve a much better answer for a big move like this at this point of time.

From the standpoint of the contract, you either fire him now or you extend him. I don't think you want your GM ever going into a lame-duck scenario. It's an awful position to be in, and it clearly influences the way other teams talk to you in regards to deals.

The timing is rotten though, but let's possibly consider why - we know that the sale was wrapped up sometime in August. This isn't a move that could have been made prior to, or during the lockout, particularly with Burke so heavily involved with CBA negotiations. There were rumors in June that Burke would not be GM of the Leafs for another game.

Maybe this was their plan all along? Perhaps they made their evaluation nice and early, sometime after the sale was agreed, and based purely on CBA negotiations and optics, couldn't fire their GM until nowish?

Just theorizing here, but that seems to make the most sense. At the very least, more sense than "major shocking conflict that came out of nowhere spells the end of Burke"

 

[hockeywiz542]

Grange on Burke: MLSE explanation needed

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2013/01/09/grange_leafs_fire_burke_mlse_needs_to_explain/

TORONTO -- If there was ever a moment that called for Brian Burke to be the voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was the day the big, loud, blustery Irishman got fired by them.

It would have been great to have someone actually say why the man who arrived to lift the Leafs out of the ooze they've been rotting in for most of the last 45 years got axed with a year still remaining on his contract, if it's not just because they remain in the ooze.

Or why the move came so suddenly that Burke was at a Toronto Marlies game with his full staff on Tuesday night and the guy who replaces him -- his formerly right-hand man Dave Nonis -- barely had time to call his wife when he got the tap this morning, let alone make calls to rival general managers to introduce himself as the Leafs latest buck-stops-here guy.

Or what this bold stroke from MLSE's new ownership -- the uneasy alliance of BCE, Rogers Communications and incumbent Larry Tanenbaum -- suggests as a new direction for the company. It's a highly relevant as the move comes on the heels of Toronto FC firing their coach and with Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo in the last year of his contract.

MLSE president and chief operating officer Tom Anselmi wasn't exactly falling over himself to brush away the theory that more changes are coming:

"Bryan Colangelo is in the last year of his contract so we're going to have to make a decision at some point in the next few months," he said.

For Leafs fans it would have been more comforting for all concerned if Nonis, in theory an experienced league executive but one who has worked for Burke "most of adult life" looked more up for the part. Instead he presented with the wide-eyed look of someone coming home from vacation to find the basement flooded and the furnace broken.

And it would have been fine if someone had just said hey, Burke had his chance and he blew it. We still suck, so we cleared house.

But seriously, everyone's back? Burke's hand-picked round table of junior executives and scouts stay despite helping the franchise to 12th, 15th, 10th, and 13th finishes in the past four seasons?

It makes perfect sense, in an MLSE kind of way, just as the man delivering the verdict was Anselmi, whose previous portfolio was building Toronto FC from scratch.

The only thing that's gone right there was the scratch part.

 

[Tak7]

Everyone and their dog knew that today's press conference was going to be nothing more than the classic rhetoric that was spilled out by the organization.

There's no answers.

Ansalmi slipped and dodged and fumbled over questions all day. You know who does that? Someone who's been told to follow a script.

 

[Kingstonian84*]

I don't think MLSE owes the fans or media any explanation! This was a business decison that the board felt it needed to make (regardless of how us fans view it), MLSE is a business and we are not their employees or employers, we are not obligated to get an answer from them about this firing or any other decision that is made.

 

[Disgruntled Observer*]

The only explanation MLSE owes the fans is why they didn't fire Burke earlier.