Brian Burke Succumbs To Pressure!

Lord, what fools these Leafs be.

Well it's official, Brian Burke has lost his mind. First he fires Ron Wilson and now he's signed Mikhail Grabovski to a five year deal. Yes, Wilson should have been fired, but the timing was all wrong. A few weeks ago Wilson was given a vote of confidence from management. Nothing like patting a guy on the back and than kicking him to the gutter. The unflappable Brian Burke allowed Leafs fans to bully him into a decision that he didn't want to make.

What does Burke do next? He signs a soon to be free agent to a 27.5 million dollar contract. The diminutive forward will now be the highest paid forward on the Maple Leafs. After an uneventful trade deadline, poor Brian had to do something to get the hockey media to care about the Leafs. Here's a quick flash for you Burkie; Toronto is the centre of the Universe, you don't need to do anything to be front page news.

Poor Brian, did Don Cherry get into that kitchen of yours. Please don't tell me that you were concerned that losing Mikhail would increase the American ratio to your hockey team! All you have to do is sign one Ontario raised player and Don would stop bullying you.

I hate to point this out to you Brian, but Grabovski is not your type of player. Since when have you've ever been interested in small, fast and skilled centreman. Every team you have ever coached or managed has been based on size, speed and brute force. Sure the Leafs are a fast team but they are small and will continue to be pushed around by the Bruins and Flyers.

What happened to Brian Burke?

You just fired your best friend, give in to fan and media pressure, and somewhere along they way you changed the whole philosophy of your team. By the end of the day, the name Grabovski will be trending on Twitter.

It's not that you signed Mikhail to a ridiculous contract, some dumb GM would have over paid for him this Summer. It's that you signed a player that you have never wanted. Since the first day you were GM of the Leafs, you were adamant about making the team bigger.

It appears that Burke has abandoned ship and just like his predecessors, Burke has finally succumbed to the pressure of being the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.