The NHL is a business, what should matter to the GM is what makes the team make money.
and making money comes from a winning team, and that includes drafting well, and it doesn't include trying to draft
players from any particular province, country etc.
It doesn't matter to most people but given that there is over 200 players from Ontario the odds of any team not having at least one is very low (everything being equal). Given Burkes history and the slim chances that it would "just happen" that way, I think the odds that it is by design are pretty good....at least better than it being by chance.
that just seems very odd, why would he or any other gm make a point of 'not' picking players from a
particular area, escapes me, even with him, unless he has some grudge against the ontario hockey league.
so you are saying that if wayne gretzky was at this time, a 19 year old, and burke had the chance to
acquire him, he would turn away?
do you think he would have turned hodgson away if there was the trade possible that gillis just did.
Think of what happens in the QMJHL - the teams will go to great lengths to get a local boy on the team, it's great for fans and PR. Makes it odd that Toronto seems to do the opposite, like they'd hate to have a local guy on the team.
Having heard that Burke and Wilson were college room mates explains why Wilson stayed so long, but sooner or later, the GenMgr has to think about his role, I'm glad Burke finally woke up.
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If there is a very very highly talented local boy, of course, yes the g.m. will try his hardest to draft
him, but the odds of being able to do that are slim, either that g.m. would have first pick, or he will
be lucky enough to find him available when it is his turn to draft, but if he was that good he would have
allready been picked, the only other way he could acquire him is to make a trade with the g.m. who did pick
him, and he would probably be turned down, because the g.m. who picked him would want to keep him.
g.m.s can't just go around demanding local talent, as the talent is for everyone in the NHL, irrespective of
where they came from.
Gave me pause too, Cannuck. I understand what talloola and others are saying but still, with the likes of Rick Nash, John Tavares, Steven Stamkos, Jason Spezza, Claude Giroux, James Neal, Eric Stall, Corey Perry, Logan Couture, Tyler Seguin and the list goes on - it does seem a bit strange that not one single Ontario born player ends up on a Burke team - but who am I to question the likes of BB. :lol:
brian burke has only been with toronto four years, so many of those players were in the nhl much earlier
that that.
If you look up the ones who are younger, and look into their draft of that year, and see what position
they were taken, and by what team, and what position toronto picked.
If burke had been able to choose any of those above playersd who were available, he would have grabbed
them in a flash.
He traded away the draft pick to boston the year seguin was chosen.
