Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke vows to make tweaks

Brian Burke believes in many things when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs: goaltender James Reimer, blue-liner Dion Phaneuf and the defence as a whole, and a second forward line that he says was "invisible" for most of this season.

But the veteran National Hockey League general manager will also tell you he’s not a patient person, so …

That means there will be changes to a Maple Leafs team that sat sixth in the Eastern Conference on Feb. 6 but plummeted to 11th place and five points out of both a playoff spot and last-place in the 15-team conference by the end of the month.

It didn’t end there as Toronto went on to lose a franchise-record 11 straight games on home ice, dropping 12 of 18 starts after head coach Randy Carlyle replaced the fired Ron Wilson on March 3, and finishing a once-promising campaign 26th of 30 teams with a 35-37-10 record and seventh straight season out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

"My view on how hockey teams are built and how hockey games are won has not changed," Burke told reporters during a 27-minute news conference on Tuesday. "I still believe that big, physical teams win hockey games."

Seven players on the Leafs roster were listed at six-feet or under and 11 at 195 pounds or less entering Saturday’s season-ending 4-1 defeat at Montreal.

A few players that fall under those specifications are probably safe, given how Burke spoke of some of them Tuesday. They include forwards Tyler Bozak, Mike Brown, Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur, along with six-foot-two, 184-pound defenceman Jake Gardiner, whom Burke said was ‘a revelation for us … We had him penciled in [for the 2011-12 season] for the [American Hockey League’s Toronto] Marlies."

Others like the oft-injured Colby Armstrong (six-foot-two, 195 pounds), fellow forward Matthew Lombardi (5-11, 195) and disappointing centre Tim Connolly could find themselves elsewhere next season. Connolly, who managed just 36 points in 70 games, had a $4.75 million US salary cap hit this season, the first of a two-year, $9.5 million free-agent deal signed last summer.

'A lot to be excited about'

"I think there a lot of things we can be excited about," Burke said. "We’ve put some building blocks in place. It’s very easy to lose sight of that when you have a disastrous finish like we did.

"You see a Matt Frattin emerge. You see a Carter Ashton emerge. There is hope."

First, Burke, assistant GM Dave Nonis and the rest of the Maple Leafs’ management team will look for size in the summer, with special attention put towards players who demonstrate a willingness to compete.

In Burke’s four seasons in Toronto, the Leafs have played partial seasons, but he said it’s time for them to play a consistent 82-game regular-season schedule.

"We have a real young team and I think it showed," the GM said, "and from then on it was a slide into a non-playoff position. "We’re not big enough to play [the game] my way, we’re not big enough to play it [Randy’s] way and that has to be addressed. It’s not optional."

Positionally, Burke said he will look at goaltending and acquiring a top-line centre, the latter a goal of his entering the 2011-12 campaign.

Toronto boasts a strong second-line pivot in Grabovski, whom Burke signed to a five-year, $27.5 million extension, his biggest signing since joining the Leafs in November 2008. The deal also includes a limited no-trade clause that allows Grabovski to select 10 teams each season he'd be willing to move to.

Wilson broke up Grabovski, Kulemin and MacArthur — the team’s most productive line a year ago — earlier this season and Carlyle followed suit, although partially because Kulemin broke a finger in mid-March. A 30-goal scorer last season, he tumbled to seven goals and 28 points in 70 games this year.

Lost production

MacArthur also saw a dip in production, dropping to 43 points from 62, while Grabovski went from 29 goals and 58 points in 2010-11 to 23 goals and 51 points this season.

"If you had asked me what I didn’t need to worry about [forward-wise entering this season] I would have said our second line," said Burke. "I still believe in that group.

"I thought Grabo played better [late in the season] and I thought Mac played better at the end. On defence, we have a good group, a good age group. We have a solid captain [in Phaneuf]. [In Jake Gardiner] we’ve maybe got that quarterback on defence that most teams look for and have trouble finding." In 75 games, Gardiner led all freshmen defencemen with 30 points.

Burke also stressed his belief in Reimer, who spent the final days of the regular season with a neck injury, not concussion-related problems, that many believed he dealt with after getting knocked in the head by Montreal forward Brian Gionta in an Oct. 22 game.

Reimer sported a 4-0-1 mark before the injury and never seemed to recover, even after returning to game action, ending the season with a 3.10 goals-against average and .900 save percentage in 34 games.

His playing partner, Jonas Gustavsson, stood out for the Leafs at various times this season, but was wildly inconsistent at others. He had a 2.92 GAA and .902 save percentage but is an unrestricted free agent and not expected to return to Toronto in the fall.

Burke offered an emphatic "no" when asked if he would use the first-round pick from Tuesday evening's NHL draft lottery in a deal to acquire goalie Jonathan Bernier from the Los Angeles Kings or netminder Anders Lindback from the Nashville Predators.

"I think James Reimer is the real deal. Was anybody complaining about James Reimer before he got blindsided by Brian Gionta?" asked Burke. "The most recent medical advice is that [his injury is] not a concussion, never has been. It’s a neck issue.

"I think we can still plan on him being a number one guy but we have to look if we can bring in a guy that gives us more options and more performance right from the get-go next year."

And if that goalie stands six-foot-five and weighs 210-plus pounds, then all the better.