Quote:
Burke can bring in a great amateur scout / player development guy and let him grow on the job while he provides guidance and direction on these other facets with a eye to developing a GM in his image.
Is that a good thing? Seems a bit like like an emperor / Vader relationship, but few could argue that Burke isn’t a decent enough of a hockey man to be cloned and likely help the Flames out a lot.
Either way it’s pretty hard to argue what has happened in Calgary today; the Flames are now Brian Burke’s team. He no longer will sit in the back, attend functions in Toronto, and be a ceremonial person in the background.
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This is one of the things that struck me during the press conference....
- Burke not-so-humbly said that his Anaheim team winning the Cup in '07 changed the league, with all successful teams coming after having changed to follow the Burke Model of winning with big teams.
- Feaster was fired because he wasn't following (and presumably wasn't willing to follow) the Burke Model.
- Burke's going to look for a new GM who shares his same philosophy for winning; i.e. believes in the Burke Model.
- When asked why he didn't just become GM himself, he replied that he'd given his word to ownership that he'd fill the hockey ops role, and the optics would be bad. He very notably didn't say he had no interest in being GM or wasn't the right man for the job, and has never really backed away from his clear comments after being fired from Toronto that he wanted and intended to be a GM again.
To me, all of this points to Burke seeing himself as the solution to what ails the Flames (who better to institute the Burke Model than the Creator?!) and assuming GM duties in all but name today, with whomever gets the official title being under his heel and direction.