Regardless of what Burke would have you believe, it would make little sense for him to make such a deal had he known what he does today: the Maple Leafs will be finishing in the bottom two.
Sure, he's getting a bonafide first line talent in Kessel, a player who can score 30 goals and create plays on the rush, but what is he giving up? Kessel, in himself is a 5th overall selection from 2006, taken behind such players as Erik Johnson, Jordan Staal, Jonathan Towes, and Nicklas Backstrom. So Burke has given up a top-two selection in exchange for a fifth overall selection, but that's not all. He has also given up another top 32 selection, which could be just as good as another first round pick. Then there's the 2011 pick that was given up, and if the Maple Leafs finish in the bottom-three again ... oh boy.
Of course, this is all hindsight, but even at the time of the deal it drew huge criticism for giving up selections that were suppose to be apart of the rebuild here in Toronto. Even with all the wheeling and dealing, the depature of multiple players and multiple draft picks there may be a silver lining heading into next season.
The Maple Leafs have a few parts in place that, on paper (and I stress on paper) give more optimism for next season:
1. Phil Kessel, the high priced sniper who scored 30 goals this season even though he missed time this season with injury.
2. Young, tough, big shooting defender Dion Phaneuf to start the season. If Phaneuf can rebound to a 50pt type defender the Maple Leafs will be much better off for it.
3. It seems as if the Maple Leafs will go into next season with two capable goaltenders in Jonas Gustavsson and Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The key for next season will be how the goaltending holds up, they can't afford to have another Toskala like goaltending situation to start next season.
The defence seems solid enough to go into next season with (even if they've played poorly for 75% of this season), but the forwards will need a major addition to pull the Maple Leafs out of the basement, and a lot of that will come from adding one via trade or UFA and hoping Kadri can come in and be a strong secondary scorer.
So with these three pillars in place the Maple Leafs should be better to start next season even if they made small changes, but again most expected them to be a lot better than they have been this season also. Needless to say, Burke has a tough summer ahead of him if he wants to pull this team out of the basement.
