Freddie P's Blog

June 25, 2008 @ 11:45

It’s become quite obvious, Brian Burke wants the Leafs to clean house before he gets to Toronto within the next year or so.

Having picked Ron Wilson as coach, who has a reputation for working well with young players, Burke has obviously directed Cliff Fletcher to get rid of the baggage and that’s why they tied the can to three players yesterday.

Andrew Raycroft and Kyle Wellwood were put on waivers, while the buy out of Darcy Tucker was initiated.

You can’t change history so there’s no use obsessing over the disastrous moves that were Raycroft and Tucker.

Tucker was signed to a long term deal by John Ferguson Jr. just as it became apparent he could no longer do the things that warranted the contract, and Raycroft came here at a huge price – goaltending prospect Tuukka Rask who went to the Boston Bruins.

The only pressing move remaining for the Leafs now, is to finally cut the ties to Mats Sundin. Apparently if he doesn’t sign elsewhere, there’s a seven million dollar contract waiting for him with the Leafs, but that would be ridiculous.

It’s time to move on from Sundin, even if they don’t get anything in return.

To my mind, the Leafs should forget about Sundin, go into the season with Marlies as fillers, stay way below the salary cap, have a horrible season, another good draft and then start spending some money.

Traditionally it’s not what they do, but this is a good time to do it, and I think on the heels of three bad seasons, Leaf fans are ready for something radical as long as there seems to be a point to it all.

Burke seems to have a plan.