The Chance at John Tavares
Brian Burke’s tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs had some believing that he was the worst general manager in team history. While he had some fine moments, he did make a few moves that turned out to be counterproductive. One such action took place in March of 2009.
At the time, the Leafs were 11th in the Eastern Conference and nine points out of a playoff spot. Burke had a decision to make, he could have either continued to allow the Leafs to trend in a direction where they would be selecting higher in a stacked draft class or attempt to leapfrog three teams and qualify for the playoffs. At the time, the team’s star defenceman, Thomas Kaberle was nursing a hand injury. It meant that the Leafs chances to make the playoffs were grim.
Burke countered conventional wisdom and refused to allow the team to sink to the bottom of the league. He was active at the trade deadline and claimed keeper Martin Gerber off waivers from the Ottawa Senators. The move signaled Toskala being shut down for the season with a hip injury.
By picking up Gerber, the Leafs improved, pushing them into a less favourable draft and lottery position. It wasn’t close to enough to get them into the playoffs. Burke’s gamble seriously backfired.
Without adding Gerber, Toronto would likely have finished with the fourth-worst record in the NHL. With him, the season ended with them as the seventh-worst. With John Tavares waiting to be drafted, having a higher percentage to win the draft lottery would have been a benefit.
There was a stacked draft class that year as well. The Maple Leafs selected Nazem Kadri, Tavares’s London Knights teammate, in the seventh spot. There were excellent players available between those two picks. In 2009 they came off the board in the following order:
- John Tavares (NYI)
- Victor Hedman (TBL)
- Matt Duchene (COL)
- Evander Kane (ATL)
- Brayden Schenn (LAK)
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson (PHX)
- Nazem Kadri (TOR)
There’s no way to know how things would have played out if the Toronto Maple Leafs had a higher selection, but with the opportunity to have brought a franchise player like Tavares into the fold as a rookie would have changed the entire history of the team. All it would have taken was to let another team claim Gerber.