The problem is, Burke does nothing at the deadline, then fires Wilson that week and brings in Carlyle. Maybe he was hoping that Carlyle would suddenly turn the same roster around and make them play great, but that hasn't happened. Now he faces the prospect of trading / cutting players who Carlyle can't work with, and starting again with new players and seeing if Carlyle can do something with the new team.
Had part of the players leaving been MacArthur, Grabovski and Kulemin as has been speculated, how bad would that have been considering all 3 disappeared during the long losing streak, Grabovski included? Instead we reward Grabovski with a 5 year, $5.5M deal.
Who knows the specifics of the deals, but if he had been able to stock-pile 4 first round picks, in addition to the Leafs own pick that would be 5 in the first round, they MIGHT have been able to make a trade in the summer for a #1 center. Maybe Bozak can then become the #2 center where he might a better fit than he currently is, and replace the departed Grabovski at a much cheaper price. We'll never know now.