[Flashpoint]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Does anybody else see this as a cost-cutting move? I understand everything that has been said with regards his hockey performance and such but wouldn't it make sense to keep him around in SOME capacity? He was probably earning $3 million year.

He was tired of the commute, and felt he was redundant under Tre. Can't say it's a surprise. Article in Athletic (paywall) by Eric Duhatschek.

Eric D. talks Brian B.

Burke maintained a residence in Toronto all the time he was working for the Flames and it was always my impression that he intended to move back there eventually, or until his children grew up and left the nest. That was my first thought when I heard the news Friday morning — that Burke was stepping down from his front-office position with the Flames. There was more to it than that, but ultimately Burke just wanted to be closer to his children and right now, that means living in Toronto, not Calgary.

“Every other Wednesday to Sunday, I was in Toronto,” Burke said in a telephone interview, after arriving in Toronto on Friday afternoon. “I’ve been doing 10,000 kilometers a month in the air for five years, and that doesn’t count any team travel. That’s just the commute. And I’ve had enough.

“When Ken (King, Flames’ president) and I first talked about this job, we talked about a four or five-year run and we’d evaluate it every year. So, every summer we’d talk about it. He’d say, ‘you still happy?’ I’d say, ‘yup, let’s keep doing it.’ This year, he said maybe we should take a look at this. When they extended Tree (signing general manager Brad Treliving to a contract extension last summer) I told Ken, ‘I’m going to be redundant at some point. I’m either going to have to leave or take a big pay cut.’

“So Ken said, ‘let’s talk about your future because I’m not sure if you’re providing the same value and let’s talk about it.’ I said to him, ‘I’m not going to push back at all Ken.’ I’d had it. I’m sick of the commute. I think Tree can get along fine without me, especially with Donnie Maloney being on staff. And there are other things I want to do.