Forget about a quick, conventional solution to filling the holes in the Maple Leafs' hierarchy.

On May 7, the day Paul Maurice was fired as coach, his departure took a back seat to news the Leafs had requested permission from the Vancouver Canucks to talk with their fired general manager, Dave Nonis.

That rekindled talk that Nonis's former boss, Brian Burke, could be on his way to Toronto next summer to front a hockey office that Nonis would set up while Burke serves the final year of his contract as the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks.

Burke insists he knows nothing about such a plan, though the Leafs were pursuing him in the shadows up until last month, when the Ducks ownership demanded Burke finish his term. ...More