Ducks’ Brian Burke sets a Christmas deadline

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You knew there were bound to be more than a few nuggets emerging from Toronto after Ducks’ General Manager Brian Burke set foot on Canadian soil.

This went beyond that. Burke said that he has targeted Christmas as the deadline for determining his future in Anaheim -- more specifically, whether he will sign a contract extension with the Ducks. That’s according to an update posted today by the Toronto Globe and Mail that echoed what Burke told the Orange County Register earlier in the week.

‘This is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make and that’s why it’s taken so long,’ Burke told the Globe and Mail. ‘And that’s why it’s taken so long. My wife (Jennifer) and I just have to decide what we have to do.’

His four-year contract expires at the end of the season.

And as always, there was the money quote from Burke. ‘If a player came to me and asked to get out of the last year (of his contract), it would probably be a short profanity-laced conversation.’

Oh, there is still the matter of the struggling Ducks.

Old friend Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun asked Burke a very good question not related to Burke’s future employment. (And I’m not just propping Steve because he bailed me out with a no-interest loan at the McDonald’s stand at the Beijing Games this summer.)

Simmons asked Burke about the job security of his coach.

‘Randy Carlyle is as safe as a baby in a car seat in a Hummer,’ Burke told Simmons.

I feel sorry for the executive who might have to follow Burke here. Not only would he have problems filling his shoes, to use a tired phrase, there is a bigger problem of filling our notebooks.

-- Lisa Dillman