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Originally Posted by FAN
By all accounts, King had to convince Burke of the new structure. Burke wanted to be the GM and could have been named President and GM if that was an option. Burke is old school. To him, the GM title carries certain duties including decision-making. You don't go from wanting to be a GM to a President who lets someone else run the club and makes all the decisions. But one of the condition of taking the job is that Burke would not be the GM. So no, I don't think Burke is in a position to craft his appointment to suit his own preferences. There is little doubt that before taking this position Burke wanted another GM position. He could have came in and said everything goes through me. I make the decisions. That's how John Davidson did when Pleau was still the GM. But Burke didn't do that. The job entailed that Burke would not be front and center. Had Burke wanted less duties he could have been the GM and delegated things to his assistant GM. That was not an option for him. In his current position he takes no credit for anything and he doesn't take much blame for anything.
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I think this is a fair interpretation of what the Flames want. I think this is also indicative of the way Burke has operated his whole career. He is the decision maker and has final say on all matters hockey related. I believe this is why Baertschi was dispatched the minors when he was. Feaster was clearly in Baertschi's corner and as soon as Feaster was toast, and Burke could make decisions without opposition, so was Baertschi. I also believe this is why Burke has filled the GM and AGM roles with guys that green. They may have valid opinions and feelings on matters, but they will rely on Burke's experience to help them make the wrong decision. You would not see that type of behavior from a strong experienced manager with ideas of his own. This lack of experience fits with Burke's past need for control, especially when making the high profile decisions.
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Originally Posted by Textcritic
You are certain of this? You know how Burke makes these finer distinctions within the management structure how?
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Well, you can make inferences based on past behaviors by Burke. Contrary to popular opinion, people do not alter their behaviors without first going through some great life changing occurrence, especially those whose id plays a greater role to their ego in driving their behaviors. Burke has always been a very strong personality and has had the need to be the decision maker. This is not going to change in the current role he is in. In fact, he is in a role where he has the final say on all hockey operations related decisions. This was a position he sought out and he is the one who has put the organizational structures in place. If it were not agreeable with him, he would not have taken the position in the first place.
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When he took the job there were a lot of questions about how the new structure worked, and he said on several occasions that this was new, untested, and that they would work it out as time passed. It seems pretty clear to me that Burke has been doing just that for the last ten months now: he has been making the job his own—whatever that means.
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Burke has made the job his own. He has had control, and he has maintained control.
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I think you are making a tonne of assumptions here, and are possibly reading too much into the information that we have.
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I do find this comment a little ironic. Don't you make inferences from fragmented documents, written in dead languages a couple thousand years ago, and reach conclusions with a level of statistical certainty. Inferences about Burke are based on recent comments, actions and behaviors. Could there be more information? Sure. Based on the information available could it be wrong? Sure. But for these inferences to be wrong, as you suggest, Burke would have to alter long entrenched behaviors and go against his past performance and his own personality traits. Performance and personality traits put on display in the media for years I will add. Since Burke's communication style has remained consistent with his previous assignments I do not see any evidence to indicate that will change any of his other behaviors. Burke put the structures in place and hired the people in the roles himself. He has maintained control through out the whole process. He knows what he has and he knows how much influence he's going to have on the operation of his hockey club. This is what he wants and what he needs. A leopard does not change his spots.
I know, I know... and Treliving is GM.
