The only reasonable conclusion to draw from Brian Burke's decision to stay with the Anaheim Ducks and give up a shot at the job of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager is that his club owner would not play along.
Burke would not have been able to talk to the Leafs about their vacancy unless Ducks owner Henry Samueli gave his permission. Burke has one more year left on his contract as the general manager of the Ducks and those close to him say he was interested in the Leafs' job because it would have made his family life less complicated.
Sources on both sides of the matter say no contact was ever made between the Leafs and Burke or the Leafs and Samueli.
When asked in a telephone conference call last night whether he dropped out because Samueli refused to let him out of his contract, Burke did not answer the question directly. He talked about how the media speculation about his future appeared for the first time in Anaheim yesterday and that his situation "wouldn't be any different than if a player signed a four-year deal."
Burke added that he was not "troubled by [staying] one bit," but never said whether Samueli refused to give his blessing to a potential move to Toronto.
Burke also said there was no last-second offer of a huge raise to keep him in Anaheim. He and the Ducks will continue to discuss a contract extension, he said.
Burke did say Ducks chief executive officer Michael Schulman promised to try to find a solution to the family problems that had him looking at the Toronto job.
The telling part of Burke's answer came when he admitted Schulman was not happy when the media speculation about his NHL future spread to Anaheim.
"It was his feeling, and I have to agree, the speculation about where I was going was adversely impacting our hockey club," Burke said. "We agreed the best thing for the Ducks was to end this media speculation and focus on the last year of my contract."
If Schulman was unhappy about the media speculation, then it is reasonable to assume Samueli felt the same.
Earlier in the day, Samueli said "we always expected him to return."
Put all that together and a reasonable conclusion is that Samueli became unhappy once the speculation took root in the Anaheim media. Thus, even though he said this season that he would not stand in Burke's way if he wanted the Toronto job, the Ducks' owner decided to put his foot down before the Leafs got around to calling for permission to talk to Burke.
Those close to Burke say that was always his fear, that the owner would forget his earlier promise. He had hoped an appeal on family grounds would open the door, but apparently not.
Burke's children from his first marriage live in the Boston area and his visits would have been much easier from Toronto. He also has to deal with the employment situation of his wife, Jennifer. She works in Vancouver as a broadcaster and they have two young children.
Jennifer presumably could have found a suitable job in Toronto.
Where does all this leave the Leafs?
Well, before Burke's announcement, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president Richard Peddie said he and the other member of the GM search committee, sports lawyer Gord Kirke, would have no public comments until they signed the new general manager.
So they could not answer this question: What if Burke serves out his final year in Anaheim while Cliff Fletcher continues as the interim GM of the Leafs for the 2008-09 season and then there would finally be a happy marriage in the summer of 2009? After all, the Leafs probably won't be much good next season anyway.
However, the only way you could do that is if you were convinced there were no suitable candidates other than Burke. And as a learned fellow said last night, there are lots of good candidates still available.
This moves them all up at least one spot on the list, with Ken Holland of the Detroit Red Wings leading the way, Jim Rutherford of the Carolina Hurricanes back in the mix and former Dallas Stars GM Doug Armstrong charging up from the outside. Not to mention Doug Wilson of the San Jose Sharks, or Doug Risebrough of the Minnesota Wild, or Neil Smith, or Don Meehan or ...
