Brian Burke was on Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown on Wednesday afternoon to discuss a variety of Leaf topics. An audio link to the interview can be found on the FAN 590’s website here. Although none of the news was of the earth-shattering variety, there were a couple interesting tidbits dropped as it pertains to the Leafs‘ plans over the next few weeks and going into the regular season.
– Burke believes that the media is a good venue to get word out to opposing GM’s about possible trade intentions
– Burke is looking to move at least one, if not two defensemen. I’m inclined to believe that Tomas Kaberle the most obvious candidate, and I wonder if someone like Jonas Frogren, who may be an attractive option to a club needing a cheap, bottom pairing stay-at-home defender (Hello Chicago?).
– Burke has no qualms with sending a player on a one-way contract down to the minors. This is encouraging news because it means that deserving young players will not be pushed out of roster spots or quality ice-time because of commitments to veteran players. I’d imagine that Jamal Mayers and Jonas Frogren would be among the most concerned.
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Around the rest of the league:
– The New Jerseys Devils have re-upped Travis Zajac to a 4 year deal expected to be worth in the neighborhood of $3.9M/season. A fine signing and good value for a player on the verge of breaking out.
– The New York Islanders have signed free agent goaltender Martin Biron to a 1 year deal worth $1.4M. When quality #1a goaltenders are going for this type of money, you’ve got to figure that the goalie market is pretty dry. It’s going to be interesting to see whether or not Burke decides to peddle Vesa Toskala mid-season if Gustavsson shows early on that he’s the real deal.
