Inside Brian Burke's head

Some of the NHL's player movement rules are too convoluted for any normal human being to understand, so I may get this completely wrong. In any case, I'm assuming (and you know what happens when you assume) that a team can still trade for Ilya Bryzgalov's rights while he's on the waiver wire. If that's true, then I think Brian Burke has just upped the ante. If, say, Pittsburgh knows that a team ahead of them on the waiver wire can claim Bryzgalov for free, they'll have to ratchet up their trade bid for Burke. And since I'm guessing Burke doesn't want to take in any salary right now, he's aiming for high draft picks.

Just a thought. Like I said, I could be interpreting the waiver rule totally wrong and this may be impossible, but if my speculation is right, the timing makes sense as teams are currently figuring out that their goaltending may not be good enough. Off the top of my head, I could see Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Edmonton, Atlanta, Boston, Toronto, Washington, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis, Colorado, Los Angeles, and Phoenix all at least giving it a thought.