Burke talks leadership

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Then we should just use our compliance buyout.

waste money for a team that with how young it is might not need to spend to the cap for 3-4 years?

or eat a lot less salary and get a draft pick back?

if you want to be rid of him and the 2nd is an option its the clear one

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Then we should just use our compliance buyout.

Flames will not be using there compliance buyout on anybody. The only player I could see is SOB getting a regular buy out.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Cali Flames Fan

If we weren't so short already on NHL quality defensemen I would agree with you. I feel like we are already going to drop Butler, and Wideman could potentially bounce back and have an adequate season. Plus, cap floor…yada yada yada.

Just overpay a defenceman in free agency then for a year or two. Better than having Wideman here for a long period of time.

[FAN]

Every time I hear Burke say family first I think of the Peter Zezel story. Just don't know whst to believe.

[ripTDR]

I'm sure he said something to the same effect in Toronto too...

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Just overpay a defenceman in free agency then for a year or two. Better than having Wideman here for a long period of time.

What NHL quality defenseman will want to sign with the Flames for a year or two? Other than fringe defenseman, everybody else will want term, be on a contender or both. Wideman is only here for another 3 years. That extra year versus overpaying for moderately better defensive ability isn't enough to justify the buyout IMO when Wideman still fulfills a need.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by FAN

Every time I hear Burke say family first I think of the Peter Zezel story. Just don't know whst to believe.

Yeah that was definitely one of the biggest dick moves I've seen a GM make. Hopefully he's grown as a person since then.

[Wood]

Originally Posted by FAN

Every time I hear Burke say family first I think of the Peter Zezel story. Just don't know whst to believe.

Definitely a selfish thing he did there with Zezel, awful really

That was 15 years ago, and he's gone though a lot of his own personal issues since then. I imagine his views on how he treats his employees and players has changed a lot

When he says family comes first now at this point in his life, he obviously means it

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

As some have mentioned, what Burke feels now or believes now doesn't mean it's how he felt 15 years ago. People grow, and improve and change, I sure hope he's evolved and is a better hockey professional now then he was back then.

Now, for my uneducated memory, what happened with PZ?

[Wood]

His 4 year old niece was terminally ill, he asked for some time to be away. Due to his situation he asked to not be traded, or if he was only to a team close to his sister and niece (they lived in Toronto I think.) Burke then traded him to Anaheim

The traded ended up being cancelled because Zezel couldn't report to Anaheim

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

As some have mentioned, what Burke feels now or believes now doesn't mean it's how he felt 15 years ago. People grow, and improve and change, I sure hope he's evolved and is a better hockey professional now then he was back then.

Now, for my uneducated memory, what happened with PZ?

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/25/sports/sp-20958

he had a terminally ill niece

asked to be traded to Toronto/Buffalo to be close to her or given time away, Burke dealt him to Anaheim

Ducks understood when Zezel phoned the GM (also called Kariya who was the Captain)

[4oh3]

Thanks for getting this all down. Great read. Thank-you!

[formulate]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Then we should just use our compliance buyout.

I don't understand this line of thinking whatsoever. Do you think that within 3 years (remaining term on Wideman's contract) we're going to be spending to the point that 1-2 million in retained salary will break us? I certainly don't, so why not retain a few bucks, and get some kind of return? If I'm not mistaken, you were part of the 'should have taken any asset for Cammalleri' team, so what makes this situation different?

Thanks for the writeup, Burke is a guy I'd really like to hear speak, especially in a capacity not necessarily related to hockey.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Just overpay a defenceman in free agency then for a year or two. Better than having Wideman here for a long period of time.

No, it's not. That would just be nothing but a waste of money... It'd be like paying $10,000,000.00 a year for someone to just be "not Wideman". Yeah, I get that he wasn't good after he came back from injury but he was pretty good before that and buying out anyone makes no sense whatsoever at this time.

[FakenHaken]

Originally Posted by Parallex

No, it's not. That would just be nothing but a waste of money... It'd be like paying $10,000,000.00 a year for someone to just be "not Wideman". Yeah, I get that he wasn't good after he came back from injury but he was pretty good before that and buying out anyone makes no sense whatsoever at this time.

Wideman was garbage defensively in his own zone before the injury. Should have only been used on Power Play. Wideman isn't even AHL quality.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by Camronius

Burke came into my workplace today and did a talk on leadership. With the flames out of the mix until draft day, I thought maybe a few would enjoy a few hockey snippets from his talk.

I'll make a caveat now that nothing extremely revolutionary or surprising was said. I captured as many notes as I could on my phone, so point form and potential misinformation will have to do. Finally keep in mind this was an event around the concept of leadership, so some of the points may be less hockey orientated than we'd all like.

-Runs organizations (flames) like a business. This is the fans money. Fan's are able to respect someone who runs the flames like a fan would run his own business. Recently made an offer to Cammalleri which he thinks is fair. He's not budging on that.

-Leaders accept change. Burke was brought in because Flames owners felt the organization needed a change. Burkes motto is to always try to hire internally first. Give the guys around a chance. Talking about coming to a new organization, he said he has very upfront conversations with the existing staff "this is my expectation, you have x amount of time to prove it". (all I could think about was Feaster)

-When he came into Calgary thought (got the feeling he still feels this way) that we only have 1 legitimate top 4 D-man.

-wants to upgrade D. Start playing alberta hockey. Made a joke about truculence.

-Leaders plan. Spending the time to plan now. It takes time to plan and they are planning. They have a good pick this year, they have to make it right, "make it count". Feels that we have good coaches in the system, both the farm and big club.

-Burke has an organizational rule. If you have the opportunity to spread the credit around, you have to do it. Sedin trades to acquire the picks was the hardest Burke has ever worked. The draft was a garbage year for drafting. "Look back at the year, aside from the twins there was nothing". Talks about when he is asked about the trade he never says "I" did it. Crawford helped and he gives him credit for assisting him in make that happen.

-Terminations are important. Not easy, but essential. Fired Keenan, Keenan basically "begged to be fired" on multiple occasions (he's making a joke/slight at Keenan here). That was likely the best day of his life when he got to fire Keenan, even then he couldn't eat that night. Part of a leaders job.

-Favorite Keenan story. They are behind 3-1. Keenan pulls the goalie. Burke doesn't see a ref's hand up, is wondering what the f is going on. Realizes the camera is going to be on him and the others in the booth in like 2 seconds, tells who he is with the scoop and they both put on a happy face for the cameras. Later goes down to talk to Keenan. Keenan says (and I don't know if I caught this part of the story right, maybe someone can clarify if they happen to know the details) trade pavel bure. I need some quality players here, trade him and I wont pull the goalie. Burke says if you pull the goalie again like that I'll kick the sh*t out of you and you are fired. It never happened again.

-Burke watched the twins in the world Jr.'s in winnipeg. They sucked. He said I hate this draft, I hate the talent in the draft, I hate this tournament. Was going to trade them but someone calmed him down. (Not really sure of the point here, but I did like hearing him say he hated the twins haha... actually I think maybe the leadership point was to trust your advisers?)

-Most important leadership trait is hard work. Why the flames saw some success this year. Leading by example is best. Feels he does this, can't ask someone to stay late if you don't do that yourself.

-Empathy is an important leadership trait. Must be able to understand personal circumstance, don't lose good people over bad personal situations. Family first. Burke brought up stajan. Thinks that maybe if he played the 5 or 6 games "who knows" maybe calgary could have been in the playoff mix. Doesn't matter though, family first, they would never do it any other way. Take/give the time that's needed.

-Do the right thing. Leaders have a code of ethics. Leaders do the right thing, not the easy thing. Burke's stresses to his management team of coaches and personnel to 'not turn a blind eye'. If a team member is being bullied etc. he wants to be able to have a chance to deal with it before it's bigger than it should be.

-personal adversity. Lost his son in a car accident. He was given opportunity to walk away, step down, give up on some responsibility. A leader marches on. Shows others it is possible to overcome these adversities.

-question is asked about important of flexibility vs. Burkes "my way or the highway". (Burke mentioned leaders need to be flexible, but also mentioned it has to be his way several times in his speech). How did the flames adjust to burkes way when he came in? Burke thought Calgary was missing certain elements of professionalism when he joined. "Your a top pick, too bad you're not my top pick. You don't get a free pass". Coaches are now free to send whoever down, whether it is a top player or a bottom player. Whenever a player is sent down there are 2 people in the room otherwise the player will discredit what was said. Always uses the philosophy of 1 positive 1 negative 1 positive. Here is what you have been doing right. This is what we don't like. This is what you need to do to stay with the club long term. Burke wants to be big and hard to play against. Thats what wins, not only skill.

-question. Is the sun setting on fighting? Burke: No. Players like fights. It's role as a tactic has been reduced. Doesn't think Seabrook hits Backes if the instigator penalty doesn't exist. Next year, first game between Chi and St. Louis, seabrook will have to fight. You will never remove head injuries from hockey. Talked about stamkos and coming back from injury, says only doctors have say about whether or not a player can return, gm's and coaches have absolutely no power. Telling a story about Grabovski, says he was hit hard into the glass, had a hard time getting up, wobbly. Coach wants to send him to the room, grabbo says "what??". Coach argues with player go to the room. Burke says there is a lot more to it. The fact was Grabovski couldn't hear anything. He was hit so hard and the glass was so loud he temporarily lost his hearing and originally his balance was affected. Grabovski says no I'm fine I just can't hear sh*t, goes out and scores game winning goal. Safest place is the bench, there are no volunteers, we play the game because of the contact.

-question. Most frustrating/rewarding part of the job. Rewarding is easy, the trades. It's what makes a lengthy career vs. a short one. Wants to beat other GM in the trade. It's the juice, the fun part of the job. Frustrating part is losing. You fix mistakes, work with the players to fix, and then you lose again because of the same mistakes, thats the frustrating part. Burke goes into a short talk about how US only lost 1-0 to team canada but the game wasn't even close.

-question about trading Stajan to calgary then becoming gm in calgary. Burke says he talked to Stajan first out of anybody when he came to calgary. Says he had to trade stajan to get phaneuf and he'd do it again. Said that word for word to stajan (haha). Likes stajan as a player, but he isn't a first line centre. Says calgary will be a great team when stajan is 2nd or 3rd centre. Talks about trading lupul to get pronger, said to lupul "I'd break my finger dialing if I had to do it again".

-question, who is going to win the cup this year? Burke is surprised LA has been dominated. Thinks LA is the hardest american building to play in (aside from X... I couldn't hear the other building he mentioned). Thought all year St Louis is the best team, thinks that series is great (dont we all). Says playoffs are a war of attrition, in anaheim's run they lost 10 d-man. Isn't surprised about columbus giving a run to pittsburgh, they are a tough playing team.

-question, new building. Need a new building to attract free agents, make sense economically. Says its important for the downtown area for a new building. Project is in the works, above his paygrade doesn't know when.

That was it. Pretty cool thing to attend at work. Unfortunately I had a few calls and had to step out, and I couldn't hear everything.

So he didn't answer this clearly hypocritical stance he takes?

I'm shocked.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

Flames will not be using there compliance buyout on anybody. The only player I could see is SOB getting a regular buy out.

Agreed. Compliance buyout only makes sense for SOB because it frees him up to go somewhere else as I believe Burke already mentioned he told SOB he would try and find a place for him. As much as it would be nice to see Wideman and Jones not on the roster the Flames aren't a cap team and if they really want to unload these guys they would be better off trading them for an asset and eating salary.

[Table 5]

Not that I want these updates to stop, because we get some great updates on how Burke thinks, but you corporate folks sure like your pep talks and seminars! Seems like we have a new one every week. Are these job mandated?

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Parallex

No, it's not. That would just be nothing but a waste of money... It'd be like paying $10,000,000.00 a year for someone to just be "not Wideman". Yeah, I get that he wasn't good after he came back from injury but he was pretty good before that and buying out anyone makes no sense whatsoever at this time.

He was ok, before his injury he was probably a 2nd pairing d-man... terrible contract and cap hit, but the Flames aren't a cap team so I guess its ok. BB's comments probably mean he would take a Klondike bar for Denis Wideman.