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Steve Dangle posted an interview with Patrick Burke over at The Leafs Nation last night, touching on many more important topics than the one I’m about to quote, so be sure to head over there and read up on the progress of the You Can Play Project and related matters.

Later on in the interview, Patrick rebuked the criticisms launched his father’s way in regards to Brian’s decision to march in the Gay Pride Parade during the opening of unrestricted free agency on July 1st.

Did you want to touch on the Leafs controversy?

The Pride Parade was on July 1st. That was the first day of free agency, and now we’re seeing some random idiots who are using that to say that my dad wasn’t doing his job. If you want to criticize moves that the Leafs have made or haven’t made over the past few years, that’s fine. That’s how sports works. That’s what the media and the fans are there for, to say ‘I don’t like this trade, I don’t like that trade, I like this signing, I don’t like that signing.’

But for anyone to use You Can Play and to use Toronto Pride as a means to criticize the Maple Leafs and my dad and the job that’s being done there is just over the top in its ignorance. It shows that they’re not paying attention to how much he cares. It shows that they’re now aware of how cell phones work if you needed to be in touch with somebody. It shows they’re not aware of how great of a support staff the Toronto Maple Leafs have with Dave Nonis and Dave Poulin and the rest of them there. It shows they’re not aware of how free agency works.

These players don’t get on the phone and get recruited by a GM for hours and hours on July 1st. The GM calls the agent and says, ‘Hey. We want to sign Steve. We’ll give him two years at $2 million.’ and the agent says, ‘Well he’ll go there, but it’s got to be three years at $2.5 million.’ and they say ‘Ok. Done.’ That’s it, with the exception of the occasional big guy who does recruiting trips and that type of stuff. These contracts get done in a matter of minutes. All you need to know is what that guy’s price range is. Anyone who’s using this to criticize the Maple Leafs is just embarrassing himself.

Well said, Patrick. It’s a shame it even needed to be said.

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MORNING LEAFS LINKS:

Tune into the live JVR chat at 10:45 a.m. over at MapleLeafs.com.
They will be taking a few fan questions for the newest Leaf.

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Nash wants nothing to do with a Canadian market.

Leafs a long shot in the Doan derby
Not surprisingly, Doan is looking for a contender.

Tim Connolly, a look at his role and his future
From Cam Charron at The Leafs Nation.

Here is MLHS’ own Jon Steitzer’s case for keeping Connolly from May.

How different would things be if we went back to one-year contracts?
“That’s the world I want to live in.”
Brian Burke

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Alec Brownscombe is the founder and editor of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He's published five magazines on the team entitled "The Maple Leafs Annual" with distribution in Chapters and newsstands across the country. He also co-hosted "The Battle of the Atlantic," a weekly show on TSN1200 that covered the Leafs and the NHL in-depth. Alec is a graduate of Trent University and Algonquin College with his diploma in Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Canada's Best Hockey Blogger honours by Molson Canadian. You can contact him at alec.brownscombe@mapleleafshotstove.com.