“He’s a deal-maker. He likes to make deals if there’s a common fit. He’s very fair when you’re trying to make a deal. [Assistant GM Dave] Nonis does some of the groundwork, but Burkie likes to keep his nose in there. He’s famous for his texting and emailing.”

There are still no plans for the Leafs to trade for a goalie. They don’t have much interest in Jeff Carter. Ryan Malone could be an option, but he has a no-movement clause, the Lightning aren’t sellers yet, and he has 4 years left at $4.5 million. Malone could come cheap. For the right deal they could move one of their defenseman: Carl Gunnarsson, Luke Schenn, Keith Aulie or Cody Franson. They haven’t ruled out moving Mikhail Grabovski. One scout on the Leafs deadline strategy:

“Everyone wants to get bigger and skilled, and it’s hard to get. They’re not a dime a dozen. Personally, their goaltending and back end would be a bit of a concern for me. Their coach, Ron Wilson — and I’m not a big fan of him — seems to be getting the most out of his players. I didn’t think [Joffrey] Lupul would keep this pace; him and Kessel obviously have chemistry. That’s great for Toronto. [Grabovski] is trending up, but he’s not the biggest guy. In the playoffs, you have to be able to wear down teams. When you’re small and finishing checks, you’re still not making the D work that hard. I think Columbus would jump all over [a Jeff Carter trade], and I think they would take a little less [than] what Philadelphia got for him. I can see Toronto wanting more up front. I’m not 100 percent sold on their goaltending. I’m not sure they know who their No. 1 guy is. As a team, if you don’t know who you’re going to run with — you just want to have that confidence if you have a bad game your goalie is going to pull one out. I don’t know if Toronto has that.”