Burke Speaks - January 30, 2014

[Phaneufenstein]

This thread....

[Gary83]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Please put me on ignore. You are looking for an argument. I don't want it.

So put him on ignore instead of being a drama queen about it.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by sun

Flames 2011 draft for those that need a refreshing:

13 - Sven
45 - Granlund
57 - Wotherspoon
104 - Gaudreau
164 - Brossoit

Looks pretty damn good to me.

In Burke's twisted view the 2011 draft was horrible.

I think Baertschi is the player in the organization he likes least. He's small, plays smaller, and doesn't show up like Burke expects. Sven is playing himself right out of the organization and giving Burke the ammunition he needs to do him in. I can see Burke hating the draft because of Baertschi alone.

Granlund is another small forward. Screw the success at each level he's played, Granlund is too small and not a good enough skater to play in the NHL. He is also lacking in truculence.

Wotherspoon is just too soft. Burke wants his defense men to average 150-200 PIM a season. 'Spoon is too soft.

Gaudreau isn't small, he's tiny. Nuff said.

Brossoit is an Oiler now.

I'm not a fan of Burke and I get more annoyed with the hiring every time he speaks.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Please put me on ignore. You are looking for an argument. I don't want it.

If I put you on ignore I'll miss all the amazing gems. How about you just put me on ignore if you'd prefer not to have to back up your sensationalized statements.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by New Era

In Burke's twisted view the 2011 draft was horrible.

I think Baertschi is the player in the organization he likes least. He's small, plays smaller, and doesn't show up like Burke expects. Sven is playing himself right out of the organization and giving Burke the ammunition he needs to do him in. I can see Burke hating the draft because of Baertschi alone.

Granlund is another small forward. Screw the success at each level he's played, Granlund is too small and not a good enough skater to play in the NHL. He is also lacking in truculence.

Wotherspoon is just too soft. Burke wants his defense men to average 150-200 PIM a season. 'Spoon is too soft.

Gaudreau isn't small, he's tiny. Nuff said.

Brossoit is an Oiler now.

I'm not a fan of Burke and I get more annoyed with the hiring every time he speaks.

yo dawg stop complainin

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood

"Backlund is greatly improved this year but is not a great skater and that holds him back."

Seriously?

How can anybody say Backlund is not a great skater? That comment makes it obvious Burke doesn't even watch the Flames play.

I wonder if he mis-spoke. If anything is holding Backlund back from being a better player it is his shot, that thing is feeble at time.

Also sounds like he had a bunch of praise of Backlund before that, that didn't make the text highlights.

Really likes his play, good hockey sense, good defensively. Most improved player this year and over the last month has proven he is an option as a 2nd line center, where it was looking like he was a 3rd line center previously.

[Inglewood Jack]

likes having a full time face puncher line so we can have more of the line brawls...entertaining sure, but we still lost that game. How about 2 bottom lines that punch the opposition in the face with supplementary scoring? I'll take that any day over fighting and losing.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by New Era

In Burke's twisted view the 2011 draft was horrible.

I think Baertschi is the player in the organization he likes least. He's small, plays smaller, and doesn't show up like Burke expects. Sven is playing himself right out of the organization and giving Burke the ammunition he needs to do him in. I can see Burke hating the draft because of Baertschi alone.

Granlund is another small forward. Screw the success at each level he's played, Granlund is too small and not a good enough skater to play in the NHL. He is also lacking in truculence.

Wotherspoon is just too soft. Burke wants his defense men to average 150-200 PIM a season. 'Spoon is too soft.

Gaudreau isn't small, he's tiny. Nuff said.

Brossoit is an Oiler now.

I'm not a fan of Burke and I get more annoyed with the hiring every time he speaks.

I actually dissagree. Sven has been singled out, and commented on. There are only two reasons I think a GM does that: 1. Trying to sway and prepare the fanbase for movement or to change theri view on a player they might move, 2. Because you have high expectations on someone and you are trying to push them in a specific direction to meet your expectations.

I fully feel that Burke is doing #2. Only reason being, Sven's numbers weren't so bad in the NHL, that he had to put him on the farm. Treating how they have has lowered his trade value, not something they'd want to do if they weren't trying to work with him as part of the organization and were looking to move him.

[Aarongavey]

Burke's drafting history

1993 - Chris Pronger 2nd overall, Marek Malik 72rd overall, Nolan Pratt 115th, Manny Legace 188 - pretty good draft for Burke

1998 - Bryan Allen 4th overall, Artem Chubarov 31st overall, Jarko Ruutu 68th overall, busts out on his other 9 picks - ok draft

1999 - Sedin's, nothing else - pretty good draft to get two anchors for your team for the next 10-15 years

2000 - 7 picks, nothing squat - terrible draft

2001 - RJ Umberger (could not sign him, traded him and a prospect for Martin Rucinsky), Kevin Bieksa - Bieksa was a great find in the 5th round but he got next to nothing for a first round pick

2002 - nothing

2003 - Kesler, nothing else - below average draft

2005 - Bobby Ryan 2nd overall and Brendan Mickelson nothing else - pretty poor draft

2006 - Matt Belesky, nothing else - terrible draft

2007 - 8 picks and the best player was Erik Tangradi. Horrific draft

2009 - Nazem Kadri 5th overall, nothing else - does not look like a good draft right now

2010 - Nothing right now

2011 - Nothing right now

2012 - Rielly at 5th overall

Looks pretty sparse for old Brian Burke in terms of drafting. For the most part it appears that Burke is bit like Kevin Lowe in terms of drafting, he does pretty good with top 5 picks and after that he does nothing.

[dustygoon]

I'm not too worried. The guy runs his mouth off and pretty much needs to say how things will be different under him given the current situation sucks. He is seat of his pants. That's why getting him a GM is key. He drafted Kadri. Rielly isn't massive. He traded for Kessel. He will gather skill players and then justify it somehow later.

[Major Major]

I think Burke's talent evaluation is evidently poor when he calls Backlund slow. Perhaps he is not a notable speedster, but he is quick. Don't know why he went there.

I do really like Burke as an overseer of hockey operations, but in my mind he can't hire a GM soon enough. The silver lining is that I believe that he thinks that too. I mean, right now it is essentially just him. Throughout his career he has always surrounded himself with good people. I don't think that he foresaw the hurtles in the GM search, but at least when it happens, I have faith that he will make a shrewd hire.

Also, given the last three drafts, I like what this scouting staff can do. Even though the parameters for evaluation have changed, I believe that they will put together a good list. Hopefully Burke sticks to it.

[polak]

The more Burke speaks the more I realize I hate almost everything he says.

[Locke]

Burke really sounds like he carpools with Don Cherry every morning to the crazy house.

I've heard more hockey sense from my drunk uncle.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

2005 - Bobby Ryan 2nd overall and Brendan Mickelson nothing else - pretty poor draft

Even worse, he recently said that he wished he'd drafted Jack Johnson instead. Given the choice between Ryan and Johnson I'll take Ryan everyday of the week and twice on Sundays.

[Hockeyguy15]

CP a week ago: We love Burkie!

CP today: Burke is stupid!

CP in 4 days: Burkie is best!

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

has anyone looked at Burke draft history in detail? A quick glance at hockeydb looks like he is been mediocre at best. He may not like Feaster's drafting, but I'm not overly confident Burke is going to draft great prospects for the Flames either. Certainly don't like that he is narrow minded when it comes to player size

Again, most of the scouting is actually done by scouts. Feaster even said he doesn't really watch junior hockey games. The same guys who scouted for Darryl (remember - Backlund, Brodie, etc) scouted for Feaster and are going to scout for Burke, and whoever the next guy is.

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Drafting for size and character... sounds like Sutter drafting plan v2.0.

Is that why he picked the Sedins?

Also, another guy who drafted for size and character - Mike Futa.

In the end... I bet BB makes a splash and gets Ekblad. Just my guess.

Much ado about nothing.

[dammage79]

I half get what Burke is saying in regards to this draft and drafting some size. Still have to build with the pieces you do have and I don't think Burke is going to trade off all of Sven, Granlund, Gaudreau and the rest of the below averaged size players. As much as you need size I see Granlund as a dynamic goal scorer and Gaudreau as....well... Gaudreau. He's great at everything he does in hockey. So I can see Sven being moved if he fails to bring his play up to snuff. Need to surround those players with more size so they can do their thing.

I don't think..or at least I sincerely hope that if the Flames don't get Ekblad that they don't pass on Bennett because of an inch in height.

Also to those posting that Burke may trade down. He's said bluntly that the first three rounds of picks will not be traded. Take that for what you will but I fell like the Flames will be picking right where they end up. But also means he may not trade up either. Who knows.

Honestly, from 2011-2013 Button and his staff have done a good job of drafting talent. I hope Burke listens to them come draft day.

[Caged Great]

Drafting for size is important. Drafting solely because they have size is one of the stupidest things you could do.

The Flames are full of small players. You can only realistically get away with 2 undersized guys on your roster, unless they are more like Brad Marchand. If you have Gaudreau and Sven on the team, that's about all that you can have realistically if you want to compete for a cup. All of the teams in the past 5 years that have won the cup have had a large amount of bigger bodied players.

If you look at our division, all the other teams save Vancouver and Edmonton are full of larger players, especially the Californians. Size > Skill in a playoff series (not a full run though). Look at Montreal vs Ottawa. Montreal was extremely short and the better team, but they got bounced easily by a bigger Ottawa team who frankly sucked.

If the Flames want to win down the road, they definitely need to address size, especially with our tiny defense corp.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

CP a week ago: We love Burkie!

CP today: Burke is stupid!

CP in 4 days: Burkie is best!

I think there's a lot to like and a lot of questionable things he says which raise concern. I think it's been this way pretty much from the start for most people.

But LOL JOKE ABOUT CP OVERREACTION LOL!

[strombad]

Holy hand wringing.

For any of us to say he's wrong because the 2011 draft was apparently amazing is so ridiculous.

What, we can tell how amazing a draft is based on the number of players that are doing average-good in the minors? Sven is the only guy who has emerged from that draft and even HE isn't very good yet.

I mean hey, Ashasx can hammer out how there's no disputing that something he believes to be true is without question more valid than what Burke believes to be true, but I'm not sure how someone can be so full of themselves. Considering there is zero evidence thus far that 2011 was a great draft or how 2013 compares to it, maybe a bit of chill is in order. At most, you can debate the merits of the draft. But a draft without any bonafide NHLers being fantastic without question? Yeah, riiiiight.

I think there is a little bit of "prospect blindness" stemming from the fact that the Flames did so poorly for so long, that one decent looking draft suddenly looks incredible simply by comparison.