Long term contracts in NHL

Brian Burke has been oft-criticized for various moves since beginning his tenure as the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs but after witnessing the recent Brian Rolston waiver situation I think we should start to also give him at least a tiny bit of credit.  Burke has gone on record as saying he doesn’t believe in the long term contracts that NHL teams are throwing around in recent years and he won’t be giving any Leafs player this type of deal anytime soon – though hard to say if any of the current Leafs are worthy.

When asked about the Kovalchuck circumvention case he was quoted as saying “The risk a team assumes with a long-term deal is a different issue [than] whether it’s permitted under the CBA. So that’s a different issue.”  It’s clear he doesn’t believe this is a prudent way to do business and although I wish we actually had a Jeff Carter to lock-up, maybe he is right.

“We’re two years away from expiration of the CBA. My mindset hasn’t changed. The league sets the rules here, they’ve given us the rules and now we’ll go forward under those rules. I’m not going to rule out anything that’s permissible under the league bylaws or under the CBA.” [more…]