Land of the Leaf

To put it bluntly, he’s lying through his teeth.  Burke vehemently denied rumors that the Maple Leafs had received an offer from the Boston Bruins for Tomas Kaberle by telling TSN:

“It’s not true, a total fabrication, I sat with (Boston GM) Peter Chiarelli for the first period of Saturday’s game in Boston and we never discussed Tomas Kaberle. We hadn’t spoken about Kaberle before that and we most certainly haven’t since then. There is no truth to it at all. None.”

Burke also reiterated his desire to keep Ian White in the fold for the Leafs:

“I don’t expect either defenceman to move,” Burke told the Star. “I’ve gotten offers for Ian White which we’ve turned down. We’re really happy with him, and unless we’re blown away we plan to keep him.”

You have to admit, this approach to selling the team’s assets is probably more effective than his recent public lambasting of Nik Antropov.  Burke can create the illusion that Tomas Kaberle and Ian White are so valuable that it would take a top-notch offer to pull them away.  The reality for this team is that they’re neither good enough to sneak into the playoffs down the stretch, nor bad enough to compete for the John Tavares Cup.  Brian Burke is a lot of things, but the jury is out on his fibbing skills.