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Brian Burke might enforce his own trade deadline

Brian Burke

Yesterday’s trade deadline may have left some Leafs fans (and media) upset that GM Brian Burke didn’t swing any deals to help the Leafs make the playoffs, but if it was up to him he’d do things differently.

No, he wouldn’t force teams to give in to his demands, he’d actually make sure the deadline came and went at a different time. Mike Morreale of NHL.com hears it from Burke in the wake of what was an unexciting trade deadline for fans but a stressful one for GMs and a craze that Burke would like to avoid.

“I’m debating starting our own trade freeze 10 days before the deadline, much like I do prior to Christmas … that’s how distracting it is,” Burke said.

Oh, it gets better.

“I don’t know if that’s the right answer because I don’t want to tie my hands here, but it reminds me of the ’24/7' (HBO) series. It’s ’24/7' here now; I don’t know how the players can ignore it, but it’s part of playing on a Canadian team, so this is the hardest market to play in from that perspective.”

No one remind Burke that he’ll actually be on 24/7 next season leading up to the Winter Classic. The madness that ensues on deadline day is why a lot of GMs will do their dealing ahead of it to avoid the crush and pressure of it all.

Then again, the best way to avoid deadline day madness is to be in a better spot in the standings and not need to tweak the roster.