Say what you will about Brian Burke, but no one should ever question his showmanship. On Sunday Burke rocked Leaf Nation, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the NHL, when he announced that he had acquired Dion Phaneuf from the Calgary Flames in a blockbuster 7 player deal that, to the relief of Leafs fans everywhere, made no mention of a “first round draft choice”.

Later that same day, Burke shipped out some big contracts in Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake in exchange for goaltender J.S. Giguere from Anaheim, in what was a cap balancing move, but it also shored up the Leafs’ goaltending situation through to the end of next season. Giguere has worked with Leafs goaltending coach Francois Allaire previously in Anaheim, and he’ll serve as a mentor to Jonas Gustavsson while providing more stability between the pipes.

The deal with the Flames that brought Dion to Toronto also brings PK specialist Fredrik Sjostrom and 6′5 defensive prospect Keith Aulie, in exchange for pending UFA’s Matt Stajan and Jamal Mayers, as well as scoring winger Niklas Hagman and defenseman Ian White. This move will help both clubs, as Calgary gets the offensive help they need as well as freeing up cap space for this year (which many believe will be used to pursue Ilya Kovalchuk), while Toronto gets younger and gets a marquee name on the back end.

Burke is remaining true to his word here and building the club from the net out. Many would say that he already overhauled the defense, but let’s keep in mind that he switched all 6 defensemen in Anaheim within two seasons. The Leafs are still dead last in the league in goals against and penalty killing, and bringing in players like Giguere, Sjostrom and Phaneuf are indications that he is still working to fix those problems.

The fact that this move was done well in advance of the deadline is also intriguing, as Burke is hoping that his club can put together some wins in the remaining games and climb out of the Eastern Conference basement. While playoffs are still a long shot at this point, moving up a couple of spots to hinder Boston’s draft position would do Burke well and take a little of the sting off of the Kessel deal. This also gives Burke time to orchestrate a few more moves now that the ball has started rolling.

So, what happens now? In my opinion, the writing is on the wall for Tomas Kaberle. Burke is doing pretty much everything he can to ask Kaberle to waive his NTC without officially asking him. Kaberle knows that Burke won’t likely want to carry over $20 million in cap for 4 defensemen, so an off-season trade is imminent. The arrival of Phaneuf will also move Kaberle down the depth chart a bit and could see his PP minutes cut, which could hinder Kaberle’s asking price when he hits the market. By approaching Burke with a list of teams Kaberle will at least maintain some control over his destination, but appears as though his days in the Blue & White are numbered. With Sheldon Souray injured and Phaneuf off the market, Kaberle will be the #1 offensive defenseman ‘available’ at the deadline and I’m sure Burke will get more offers now.

Overall, Leafs fans have to be happy about these moves as Burke’s Leafs are starting to take shape. We can expect more wheeling and dealing in the next two weeks leading up to the Olympic break, but ultimately it will still be July 1st until we see the realization of Burke’s vision for Toronto. The big question now is, how will Burke top this?