News Article: Brian Burke-President of Hockey Operations for the Calgary Flames

[guymez]

I said from day one if the plan was to get rid of Renney at season end and Kreuger was thought of as an option that they should've given him the reigns during the year. Why waste time with a system that the players 100% won't be playing the next year? Same reason why I think Reed should be gone now.

I agree 100%.

 

[Aerchon]

Again, I'm not sure why some Oilers fans are crowing about this. Will the Flames struggle? Maybe. But I'll bet that Burke helps them become good enough to finish ahead of us in the standings in very short order. That kind of "success" is just fine with most Flames fans, hell, their media would be satisfied with that.

Are you smoking crack?

Burke leads Toronto to zero playoff appearances in 4-5 years. The year he gets fired they make it into the playoffs but are widely considered to be hugely over achieving. And you think he can turn the Calgary flames, who are currently projected to be the last place team in the NHL, ahead of the Oilers. Who have 3 #1 overalls in their line up who are getting better every single day?

That is a question not a statement. Don't want to jinx anything.

 

[Beerfish]

Are you smoking crack?

Burke leads Toronto to zero playoff appearances in 4-5 years. The year he gets fired they make it into the playoffs but are widely considered to be hugely over achieving. And you think he can turn the Calgary flames, who are currently projected to be the last place team in the NHL, ahead of the Oilers. Who have 3 #1 overalls in their line up who are getting better every single day?

That is a question not a statement. Don't want to jinx anything.

Are you promising us that we will make the playoffs the year after 6 rings gets fired?

 

[Joey Moss]

Burke and Tortorella in the division in one off-season? Thank you!!

My exact thoughts.

 

[Hemsky is a gangsta]

9-pager about the rival team? What is this, CalgaryPuck.com?

 

[Turrican*]

9-pager about the rival team? What is this, CalgaryPuck.com?

Oiler threads usually go for 50 pages there actually.
This is just standard fare for hockey talk.

 

[Moonlapse Vertigo]

Are you smoking crack?

Burke leads Toronto to zero playoff appearances in 4-5 years. The year he gets fired they make it into the playoffs but are widely considered to be hugely over achieving. And you think he can turn the Calgary flames, who are currently projected to be the last place team in the NHL, ahead of the Oilers. Who have 3 #1 overalls in their line up who are getting better every single day?

That is a question not a statement. Don't want to jinx anything.

Are you? The Flames almost finished ahead of the Oilers with a borderline ECHL roster. Get off your high horse.

The Oilers should be miles ahead of the Flames by this juncture. The fact that they're not speaks volumes.

 

[MoneyGuy]

9-pager about the rival team? What is this, CalgaryPuck.com?

Not even close. CP gets up to nine pages in the first hour on lesser news than this.

 

[Aerchon]

Are you? The Flames almost finished ahead of the Oilers with a borderline ECHL roster. Get off your high horse.

The Oilers should be miles ahead of the Flames by this juncture. The fact that they're not speaks volumes.

Edmonton had a -9 goal differencial.

Calgary a -32. In only 48 games...

One spot in the standing but a far cry from "almost".

But you are a bit correct. The Oiler's should be further ahead than they are.

Rebuilds take time as you are about to find out, but I think Edmonton is a full year behind where I though they would be.

I don't even want to think about what another bad year would mean.

Realisticly speaking the Flames are in year one of a 4-5 year rebuild, they "shouldn't" be catching the Oilers in that time.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

this is a whole bunch of defending a guy who went his entire tenure in toronto with tyler bozak as his #1 center

 

[Slatsmsg]

Edmonton had a -9 goal differencial.

Calgary a -32. In only 48 games...

One spot in the standing but a far cry from "almost".

But you are a bit correct. The Oiler's should be further ahead than they are.

Rebuilds take time as you are about to find out, but I think Edmonton is a full year behind where I though they would be.

I don't even want to think about what another bad year would mean.

Realisticly speaking the Flames are in year one of a 4-5 year rebuild, they "shouldn't" be catching the Oilers in that time.

Let's also keep in mind that the ECHL roster wasn't for the whole season, you did have JayBo, Iggy and Miikka to carry the squad until Feaster was told (let's not assume he realized on his own) that his team was no longer good enough to compete.

As for the points on the Oilers being a year behind on the rebuild, I would agree with that. This is what happens when you change coaches on nearly a yearly basis and wait too long to actually begin the process which should have really began the second Pronger left town. Calgary now gets to see what its like when you wait too long.

That being said, Burke will be good for them and will stop Feaster from making all the silly mistakes.

 

[sepHF]

I think it's a good move for Calgary personally. Burke has a proven track record and is definitely an upgrade over what they have right now.

Maybe he'll have the balls to stand up to King, we'll see I guess.

 

[Alex87]

Let's also keep in mind that the ECHL roster wasn't for the whole season, you did have JayBo, Iggy and Miikka to carry the squad until Feaster was told (let's not assume he realized on his own) that his team was no longer good enough to compete.

Exactly. Can't believe it took someone this long to say this. Bouwmeester was probably better than our entire D last year.

The Flames only turned into a roster of husks after the trade deadline.

 

[Supermassive]

Tanking in order to stack #1 draft picks while letting your roster and organizational depth decay to nothing... is not a rebuild.

It is rot.

If we were 48 games into an 82 game season in the 2013 season, we'd likely have another lottery pick. If we had sustained any more major injuries besides RNH, we'd be at the ocean floor.

Rebuild? Bull. Incompetence.

MacT has to be better than the men who thought he is qualified for the job. No GM experience, yet he has to surround the spoils of ineptitude with actual depth.

And some Oiler fans rag on Burke.

Hmm.

 

[Red Deer Rebel]

Yes, the Flames had the 4th or 5th highest payroll in the NHL last year until even they finally figured out that they sucked.

Hardly an ECHL team.

The Oilers had the 27th highest payroll, and beat them in the standings.

As bad as they are, Tambellini and Lowe did build a better team with substantially less payroll than Feaster.

No wonder this buffoon is walking the plank.

 

[SeriousBusiness]

Tanking in order to stack #1 draft picks while letting your roster and organizational depth decay to nothing... is not a rebuild.

It is rot.

If we were 48 games into an 82 game season in the 2013 season, we'd likely have another lottery pick. If we had sustained any more major injuries besides RNH, we'd be at the ocean floor.

Rebuild? Bull. Incompetence.

MacT has to be better than the men who thought he is qualified for the job. No GM experience, yet he has to surround the spoils of ineptitude with actual depth.

And some Oiler fans rag on Burke.

Hmm.

What Burke has done in the past and what Oilers management has done in the past are mutually exclusive though.

You're equating criticizing Burke with patting Oilers management on the back for some reason.

 

[Supermassive]

What Burke has done in the past and what Oilers management has done in the past are mutually exclusive though.

You're equating criticizing Burke with patting Oilers management on the back for some reason.

No I'm not, I'm simply noting the "plank in your own eye".

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Exactly. Can't believe it took someone this long to say this. Bouwmeester was probably better than our entire D last year.

The Flames only turned into a roster of husks after the trade deadline.

Actually Kipprusoff was the main reason they didn't finish lower than us year after year. Look what happened when he finally had a bad year.

 

[Alex87]

Actually Kipprusoff was the main reason they didn't finish lower than us year after year. Look what happened when he finally had a bad year.

I'm talking about last year specifically, so I agree with you. I'm arguing that the Flames didn't really turn into an "ECHL team" until after they shipped out Iginla and Bouwmeester.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I'm talking about last year specifically, so I agree with you. I'm arguing that the Flames didn't really turn into an "ECHL team" until after they shipped out Iginla and Bouwmeester.

Oh okay, fair enough.

They did win a few at the end of the season probably because there was no pressure.

We've seen the Oilers do that a few times during the really bad years.

 

[herashak]

Oh okay, fair enough.

They did win a few at the end of the season probably because there was no pressure.

We've seen the Oilers do that a few times during the really bad years.

did it this year too

 

[Usual_Suspect]

Not even close. CP gets up to nine pages in the first hour on lesser news than this.

You're praising Calgary Puck and betting against the Oilers. Starting to question who your team is.

 

[Seedling]

They had better players to move and have some solid vets in guys like Glencross and Giordano. That said I'm not sure just how long their rebuilding plan is just like ours seems to be never ending.

Agreed. We are small and soft. That's what she said.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Agreed. We are small and soft. That's what she said.

My condolences All joking aside, we need better balance on this team and we need some beef that can bang, crash the net, and stand up for our smallish top 6. Burke loves to build teams that are big and tough to play against, we need to make sure that we can match up to a degree and then let our higher team skill level win us games.

 

[McQuixote]

As a hockey fan, I'm thrilled to see Burke in Calgary. In the NHL for that matter, but especially a hockey hotbed (though the limp Calgary media will be a light lunch for Burke, hopefully the national media still holds a bit of a grudge). Burke is a great villain - in no small part because of how deeply he views himself as a hero - and the NHL needs great villains. Hockey is far more interesting with Brian Burke involved.

As an Oiler fan, I'm a little wary about seeing him in Calgary. Burke is a good GM. He's not as good as he was made out to be when he jumped from Anaheim to Toronto, and he's certainly not as good as he thinks he is, but he's a good GM. He's better than most. He's an amazing trader - look at the players he acquired in Toronto for almost nothing: Phaneuf, Lupul, Gardiner, Franson. Heck, even the Kessel deal isn't god-awful (though made worse by the fact that he could have saved himself a 1st rounder if he just played the RFA offer sheet a bit harder... but no, Brian Burke couldn't do that, could he? Not after the Penner nonsense.

Burke is probably good enough to turn Calgary into... well, the Toronto Maple Leafs. An okay team with some big plusses and significant minuses that may or may not play its way into playoff contention, but probably not Cup contention, each year for the next 5.

Unless he's learned from his mistakes, and can honestly look at his faults as Toronto GM and rectify those while retaining his strengths. If that's the case, watch out for Calgary.

But it's Brian Burke. Does anybody really think he's going to honestly self-assess? Of course not. Burke's the sort of guy who, if someone said he should be Jesus, would say that he was offered the job, but it's too much politics and campaigning, and he'd rather just spend his time feeding the poor and curing the sick without much fanfare. And he'd call 5 press-conferences to announce this.

He's the Donald Trump of the NHL. I am so so so so so happy he's back.