Brian Burke has been under fire since September 18th 2009 for trading away the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs for Phil Kessel. The trade was Toronto's 1st round pick in 2010 (2nd pick overall, Tyler Seguin) Toronto's 2nd round pick in 2010 (32nd overall, Jared Knight)and Toronto's 1st round pick in 2011 (undetermined). Everyone and their mother has their own opinion of this trade.
Recently, Burke has traded Thomas Kaberle to the Boston Bruins. This trade consisted of Boston's 1st round pick in 2011, prospect Joe Colborne (16th overall, 2008) and a condition 2nd round pick. The conditional pick is a 2nd rounder if the Bruins go to the finals, OR sign Kaberle to a new deal. Kaberle wanting to go to Boston points in the direction that there is a good possibility that Kaberle will resign.
When you look at these trades this is what you may see. The Toronto Maple Leafs essentially traded Thomas Kaberle for Phil Kessel. It doesn't matter that the picks they traded back and fourth are late and early round picks. With these trades, we still need to wait until the fat lady sings on each of their careers, but as it stands, Boston's 1st round pick of Seguin is playing, or sitting on the bench at the NHL level, and the Leafs 1st rounder is lighting it up on the AHL.
Its pretty even so far. Thank you Burke, for silencing the critics for a few weeks.
