It never made sense to think that Brian Burke would leave a good situation in Anaheim to take over the uber-boss duties with the Toronto Maple Leafs and if anyone corners the Detroit Red Wings’ Ken Holland coming out of the board of governors meetings this weekend in Atlanta, they’d probably get the same answer from him. Burke has too good a track record in too short a time period with the Ducks to consider a move; as well as a close relationship with the team owners and a logical chain of organizational command in place. His No. 2 assistant, David McNab, might make some sense, except he's never been an NHL GM before; Burke looks as if he's dug in in soCal for the foreseeable future. As for Holland, if the time frame were two years from now – or when Steve Yzerman was readier to move up the Red Wings’ managerial charts – the answer might be different. Now, with the Red Wings so competitive again this year and on pace for their fourth regular-season championship in six years, it seems unlikely Holland would leave such a sure thing. Maybe he’ll be ready to move on when Nicklas Lidstrom eventually retires, probably not any sooner.
No, when separating pie-in-the-sky from reasonable alternatives in the Maple Leaf universe, the one candidate who meets the criteria that president Richard Peddie outlined earlier this week (lots of experience, previous Stanley Cup wins) is the Carolina Hurricanes’ Jim Rutherford, who might - MIGHT - be tempted by the right offer. Rutherford’s Hurricanes have been up-and-down over the years, but they did make it to the finals in 2002 and 2006, winning one championship. The year they lost in the final to the Red Wings, Paul Maurice was behind their bench. The two – Maurice and Rutherford – remain close and if Rutherford were the choice, he could get a pretty good rundown on the organization from Maurice. There is an executive search company based in Toronto trying to promote Rutherford for the position, based mostly on the merits of his resume. How much sway that will have with Peddie, lawyer Gord Kirke and interim GM Cliff Fletcher remains to be seen; Rutherford is not in the inner circle of any of the three.
David Poile, the Nashville GM, is – Poile was Fletcher’s assistant with the Atlanta Flames and then briefly in Calgary as well before moving on to become the Washington Capitals’ GM. In the same way Fletcher turned the Leafs around by robbing Calgary blind – of Doug Gilmour, Jamie Macoun and Rick Wamsley – Poile did the same in Washington in that six-player trade with Montreal that netted him Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis, Craig Laughlin and a healthy injection of the Canadiens’ winning ways. Poile appears happy under new ownership in Nashville and briefly talked to MLSE before about the job, so he too might find himself in the Burke/Holland category – a qualified-enough candidate who understands that the grass is green enough exactly where he is right now.
