Yeah, I think the Leafs' performance in 13-14 is going to take a bit of the shine off of the team that Burke is being credited with building. I'm fairly confident that had the Leafs continued playing the way they did that they would've missed the playoffs in a longer season. Though Nonis' terrible moves since being hired won't help matters this season.
Kessel is an excellent player, and I suppose one could argue that the value was there in the trade, but timing and context is just as important. They traded for a top scoring winger and then saddled him with Tyler Bozak as his #1 center and surrounded him with a lottery pick worthy team featuring probably the league's worst goaltending over the last half decade. Now he's a 26 year old pending UFA who'll need an extremely expensive contract to be retained and all the Leafs have to show for the last 4 years is a single 1st round playoff exit.
That's not to take away from the rest of his resume which I think is generally excellent, but I'd hold off for a bit before crediting him with building anything of note in Toronto.
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