Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Burke is a proud man and much like Darryl Sutter you will never get him to admit a mistake so take anything he says regarding Kessel with a grain of salt. If Kessel was the player Burke hoped he would be chances are he's still a Leafs employee. He essentially gave up Seguin and Hamilton for him and tell me those two players wouldn't look good right now in a Leafs uniform. Bad trade which ultimately led to his firing much like the Phaneuf deal led to Darryl Sutter's demise.
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Burke obviously didn't think the picks would be that high. So his mistake wasn't the deal, it was being overly optimistic about where Toronto would finish the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
Phil Kessel was exactly what Burke or anyone else trading for him could have reasonably expected him to be - a highly-productive scoring winger just entering his prime. People knew that he was a one-dimensional player when he was dealt. And as far as production goes, it's hard to complain.
Let's say the Flames trade their 2016 1st round pick for Keith Yandle in September. Is that a terrible trade? Depends on where they finish the season. If they finish 29th in the league, it's a terrible trade. If they finish 12th, it's pretty decent.
I guess the lesson is don't trade away 1st round picks one and two full seasons in advance.