“Without relinquishing anyone with a long-term future in Toronto, Burke has brought in Dion Phaneuf, Joffrey Lupul, Jake Gardiner, Keith Aulie, and Cody Franson, all of whom should form a strong core going forward.”

Compare that to Oiler trades over the same time. It’s embarassing. Other than Smyth, which fell into his lap and therefore doesn’t fit a proactive trade like Burke has been making, what have Tambo’s trades brought? The Sutton trade certainly improved the team over Foster, but he is not going to be part of a “strong core going forward”.

His trades for actual NHL players (using the term as loosely as possible) have yeilded: Stone, Sabourin, O’Sullivan, Kotalik, Whitney, Johnson, Fraser, Vandemeer, Montgomery, and Tuebert. Of those, only Whitney and Tuebert have any hope of being part of a core going forward.

Both Nonis and Gillis have been pretty sharp at the trading game, which tells me even when Tambo was promoted to assistant GM in Vancouver, he wasn’t the driver behind thier trading and remained focused on player development (his previous position).

I love his work on Player Development with the Oilers. But his trading skills will leave this team in Islander territory.