From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so, so much.

I honestly can't describe how wonderful and loved I have felt over the past few days after posting my story about growing up a gay sports fanatic. The positive response has been so unbelievably overwhelming and all the kind words have been so touching. I'm amazed.

It wasn't easy to write. I had the Word document open for what seemed like forever, waiting almost a year to finally muster up the courage to finish it and post it. Considering the response I'm not sure what took me so long.

Brian Burke saved my life.

At a very dark time in my life he stepped forward and opened a door for me that I thought would forever remain closed. With a simple act of loving and accepting his son, Brian Burke gave me the courage to live.

For years the Leafs searched for an elite winger to flank Mats Sundin. Infuriatingly, once the Leafs finally acquired that elusive missing piece—Phil Kessel—Sundin was retired. The quest then became searching for an elite centre to pair with Kessel.

Tyler Bozak has filled in on the top line about as well as you would expect a third line centre would, and somehow might parlay that experience into a major pay day this summer. GMs are truly stupid people once the free agent market opens.

Bozak didn't have to be the answer, however. There have been a surprising amount of No. 1 centres available through both trades and free agency since Mats Sundin left Toronto. Here is a rundown of who was available and what it would have cost the Leafs to acquire them. Considering the return demanded, maybe the last few years of Bozak won't seem so bad.

Four years ago the Leafs rushed an 18-year-old Luke Schenn to the NHL, and it looks like the team is prepared to do the same with Morgan Rielly.

“I’m gonna pick the best players,” Randy Carlyle told the Toronto Star. “If (Rielly) is among the best, I’ll have no qualms picking him because he’s 18.”

Management has echoed the coach's philosophy.

“If Morgan Rielly can help our team win, I really don’t care that he’s only 18,” Dave Nonis told the National Post. "If he’s ready, he’ll stick around."

The hope would be that Rielly could help upgrade the Leafs' blueline, one which has been near the bottom of the league for years. He is a slick-skating, puck-moving defenceman that could potentially step in and provide a reasonable facsimile of Jake Gardiner, who is currently out with a concussion.

The Leafs can give Rielly a five-game try-out (a sixth game automatically burns a year on his contract), but allowing him to make the Leafs this season, regardless of how NHL-ready he may appear, would be a monumental failure.

The most shocking Leafs news Wednesday was not a Roberto Luongo trade; it was Brian Burke's sudden firing.

Bob McKenzie first reported that Burke was being relieved of his GM duties and a press conference later in the day introduced former assistant GM Dave Nonis as his permanent replacement.

Four years ago today Brian Burke took over the Toronto Maple Leafs. His reign has coincided with one of the worst four-year stretches in team history.

On average, GMs last between five and six years with one team. If the Leafs once again fail to make the playoffs in Burke's fifth season as GM, ownership will have to seriously consider changing leadership.

After next season, Leafs ownership has two options: 1) fire Burke immediately, or 2) commit to Burke long-term. Giving Burke any more than one year to guide the Leafs, but less than a long-term mandate, will be catastrophic.

Brian Burke's five-year rebuild that wasn't supposed to take five years is taking longer than expected.

The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs rebuilt, it was quick and almost painless. The team missed the playoffs only twice—in 1997 and 1998—but would become a post-season mainstay for the next six years.

But that mid-90s rebuild did not happen in one fell swoop—the three biggest trades actually occurred over a five-year period—and could be better characterized as a slow core replacement, rather than a fire-sale.

After bowing out of back-to-back conference finals, the Leafs began a process of turning their three most important players—Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, and Felix Potvin—into what should have been a strong group to build around in the future.

In Wendel Clark's case the return was overwhelming, but the players that came back in other trades were bungled away.

The Leafs still became a perennial contender in the late-90s and early-2000s, largely thanks to successful plunges into free agency, but poor asset management and pure, dumb luck ruined the rest of what should have been an overwhelmingly successful rebuild.

A lockout hasn't stopped the endless Roberto Luongo rumours.

Last week, Sportsnet's John Shannon reported that there is an agreement between Toronto and Vancouver that would send the 33-year-old netminder to the Leafs once the lockout ends. Apparently Brian Burke and Mike Gillis (who both denied Shannon's report) have been in communication for a long time, ever since the Canucks reportedly asked for Tyler Bozak, Jake Gardiner, Matt Frattin, and a first-round pick at June's entry draft. That asking price was obviously a non-starter for the Leafs, but a deal surrounding Bozak is supposedly very much alive.

However, with the owners' latest CBA proposal, which would stick teams who sign a player for more than five years with that player's cap hit upon retirement, there is speculation in some corners that the price just went up.

Not so long ago, Tomas Kaberle was the only bright light during increasingly dark times in Toronto.

With the Leafs attempting to rebuild, Kaberle's name was linked in just about every trade rumour imaginable. Finally, after what seemed like years of endless rumours, Kaberle was dealt to the Boston Bruins for Joe Colborne, a first-round pick, and a conditional second-round pick, which eventually went to Toronto after Boston won the 2011 Stanley Cup.

However, Kaberle has been involved in trade talks long before Brian Burke struggled to bring respectability back to Toronto. Here are five major trades that would have seen Tomas Kaberle packing his bags and the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs change dramatically.

It is late July 2012. The scene opens in Brian Burke's office at the ACC. The Leafs haven't made the playoffs since 2004 and have finished in the bottom third of the league in each season of Burke's three-and-a-half year reign as GM.

He is sitting at his desk, tie untied, empty bottle of whisky in the trash can, as he looks at a sheet of paper titled "Toronto Maple Leafs Roster, 2012-13". It is making him sad. The margins of the page are filled with the names Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, written over and over again in loopy handwriting, and set inside the centre of a heart. Burke also has scraps of paper on his desk with the words, "Will you be my No. 1 centre? Check yes or no. Sincerely, your secret admirer." He will be mailing them soon.

Burke takes a break from his current predicament to fondly remember his days in Anaheim. Winning. Truculence. No Mike Komisarek. Suddenly, Cliff Fletcher bursts through the door.

FLETCHER: It's your team, Burkie, something has got to be done about your team! Read this!

Fletcher hands Burke a newspaper from 2006. On the front page is a picture of Bryan McCabe and JFJ smiling and shaking hands.

BURKE: "The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed Bryan McCabe to a 5-year, $28.75 million contract, General Manager John Ferguson Jr. announced last night." Fletch, I already know about Bryan McCabe. Why are you making me read this garbage.

FLETCHER: You see, this one event starts a chain reaction that completely destroys the entire franchise. I already went further ahead into time to see what else happens. I backtracked everything to this one event, that's why we have to prevent this incident from ever happening.

Burke looks at Fletcher like he has two heads.

BURKE: Hold on, how are we supposed to stop something that has already happened?

FLETCHER: I did it. I finally did it. People have been wondering what I've been doing on the team payroll all these years, and I finally did it.

BURKE: Uh, did what?

FLETCHER: I built a time machine, Burkie—out of a Vespa.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have spent over $66.5 million on unrestricted free agents since Brian Burke took over in 2008. Of that, only $12.5 million, divvied up between Francois Beauchemin and Clarke MacArthur, was spent wisely.

The rest of the money has gone to Colby Armstrong, Mike Komisarek, Tim Connolly, Brett Lebda, Colton Orr, and other even less notable names.

Burke once promised that “July 1 would be our draft”, but the list of names that have arrived in Toronto has made Leafs fans wish Burke traded his “picks”.

So far this off-season Burke has resisted overpaying any of the underwhelming free agents. Aside from Jay McClement, who inked a reasonable two-year deal worth $1.5 million a season, the Leafs have watched other teams feast on the UFA buffet. Brandon Prust did not become Colby Armstrong 2.0 and Bryce Salvador did not get the Mike Komisarek treatment.

Barring a miraculous signing of Ryan Suter or Zach Parise (which isn’t happening, sorry), the Leafs' best chance is to wait for the market to cool and take a flier on a player later in the summer. Burke did the same with MacArthur in 2009, waiting until late August to sign what would be a 60-point scorer for only $1.1 million.

The player the Leafs could take a chance on this year is former eighth overall pick Peter Mueller after the Colorado Avalanche failed to offer Mueller arbitration, thus making him an unrestricted free agent at the age of 24.

A stray elbow to the head turned more than James Reimer’s world upside-down last season; it sent Brian Burke’s carefully constructed plan for contending crashing to the ground. Now Burke must search desperately to find a veteran netminder capable of leading the Maple Leafs to the playoffs.

Although Ben Scrivens just finished an amazing season in the AHL, winning goaltender of the year, the disaster of 2011-12 means the Leafs cannot start training camp pinning their hopes on two unproven goalies. With public anger rising around Burke, entrusting the keys to the post-season to Reimer and Scrivens won’t happen. Burke was burned by this same gamble last season and is in no position to roll the dice again.

More importantly, failing to find a goalie was the same problem that eventually caused his firing in Vancouver. If he doesn't find a proven goalie to share the net with either Reimer or Scrivens it could ultimately be his downfall in Toronto as well.

In 1991, the Quebec Nordiques had the privilege of drafting first overall for the third straight year, giving them the chance to draft Eric Lindros, dubbed the next Wayne Gretzky. Lindros, however, had other plans, refusing to play in Quebec and holding out until being traded to Philadelphia the next season. Flash-forward 20 years and the Edmonton Oilers own the first overall pick for the third consecutive year. Like the Nordiques before them, they too might see that pick slip away, albeit for entirely different reasons.

The Oilers are in a unique predicament this year: they have spent the last few years drafting high-end forwards and lack the same quality of talent on the backend. Although Edmonton’s system does possess a good amount of NHL-calibre defenemen, there is not a No. 1 quality blueliner among them. The Oilers have a choice: continue to add up front, which is almost entirely unnecessary, or deal the pick to add much-needed pieces to the blueline.

Although this draft class is full of defencemen, the first few picks will likely be forwards. This means that the Oilers can trade down, possibly as low as five, and still have a chance to take the best defenceman in the draft.

By trading down the Oilers would also be able to grab a young player and/or a handful of picks from a team eager to land Nail Yakupov, the highly skilled Russian winger from the OHL. This is an opportunity for the team to fill their greatest need, and at the same time add more pieces to their growing cupboard.

It isn’t every year that a team is willing to trade away the first overall pick, and the return varies based on the needs of the teams involved. But we can look back at some of the teams that have traded the No. 1 pick to see what type of return the Oilers can expect and whether it is in their best interest to pass on Yakupov.

The Leafs locked up one of their most important players on Tuesday. Mikhail Grabovski signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract, forgoing unrestricted free agency where he would have been the only real option at centre for many teams. Grabovski and his agent were pushing for six or seven years, which would have likely lowered the cap hit slightly, but the Leafs would not budge from five years.

The initial reaction from most parts—aside from a few, such as CBC's Elliotte Friedman—is that the deal is too much money. Grabovski is now the highest paid forward on the Leafs, $100,000 more than Phil Kessel.

The fans wanted it, and the fans got it. Chants of 'FIRE WILSON' rang loudly earlier in the week against the Panthers, the only life in the ACC after two quick goals against sucked any sort of interest right out of the crowd.

Brian Burke has finally fired Ron Wilson, although the inevitable might be too late for the Leafs to still make the playoffs. The team is only five points out, and the Eastern Conference is truly horrible, but the Leafs need to go on quite a run to end the season to make it happen.

The man brought in to lead the charge is a man known quite well to Burke, Randy Carlyle, the former Anaheim Ducks coach who was fired earlier in the year after a pitiful start to the season.

The Leafs are mired in a classic Toronto death spiral, seemingly caused by a combination of the pressure from the impending trade deadline and being involved in the slightest of playoff races. Not exactly heavy stuff.

The team once held the 7th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, but are 1-7-1 in the last nine games dropping them to 10th, three points out of the final playoff spot. You read that right, the Leafs have three points in the last nine games and are still in the thick of a playoff race. The Eastern Conference is a joke.

Unsurprisingly, the late season swoon has brought Leafs Nation to the edge, ready to jump. Solutions range from the mildly plausible (fire Ron Wilson), to the downright insane (TRADE EVERYBODY, BLOW IT UP, AND BURN THIS CITY DOWN).

Obviously, it is a concern that the Leafs are doing terribly under minimal pressure, which also leads to the conclusion that the late-season runs of previous years were a product of zero expectations and no pressure.

Yet it's important to remember that the Leafs are one of the youngest teams in the league and rebuilding takes time. I'm not trying to make excuses for a truly awful February—there obviously are major problems that need correcting—but just because young players are not paying dividends now, does not mean they will fail to develop into a strong core moving forward.

Fans are ready to make almost any trade, so long as the upgrade is immediate, although not necessarily long-term. James Reimer has lost his God-like status in Toronto, and the only other player under the bus as much as him is Luke Schenn. Players in the AHL aren't immune to the hyper-reactivity either. No trade proposal is complete without the names Nazem Kadri or Joe Colborne. Apparently, the kids are not alright.

Everybody wanted a rebuild, but now nobody wants to go through the growing pains.

As hard as it might be for a passionate fan base that hasn't made the playoffs in eight years, patience is still required.

The Sedins are the most glaring example of why teams need to be patient with their young players.

Maple Leafs fans have been spoiled. That might sound funny after the team has failed to made the playoffs for eight years, but it's true.

After years of lamenting the loss of Tuukka Rask, or bemoaning the missed opportunity of dealing Tomas Kaberle for Jeff Carter and a first-round pick, the Leafs' fortunes in the trade market have improved drastically.

When the Maple Leafs re-signed John-Michael Liles, the prevailing thought was that Mikhail Grabovski was about to become a cap casualty. Liles took less than $4 million to stay in Toronto, putting next year's cap space at slightly over $11 million. The problem was that Keith Aulie, Cody Franson, and Nikolai Kulemin become restricted free agents in line for raises, and Jonas Gustavsson becomes an unrestricted free agent.

Grabovski will likely make close to $5 million, so to keep Grabovski in the fold the Leafs need some creative cap management, especially if they hope to make other improvements to the squad.

Because of the shrinking cap space and Grabovski's soon-to-be free agent status, his name has inevitably popped up in trade rumours. And unless there's some unlikely fantasy scenario where Ryan Getzlaf comes back the other way, in no way does a Grabovski deal help the Leafs.

Burke explaining that the Leafs do, in fact, occasionally draft in the first round.

When Brian Burke traded two first- and one second-round pick for Phil Kessel, the prevailing thought was that Burke was foolish; you don't rebuild a team by trading away your high draft picks.

Burke boldly declared he was too impatient for a traditional rebuild and that under his watch the Leafs would undergo a radical on-the-fly rebuild. The Leafs weren't going to tank year in, year out, slowly building a team with the best young prospects available each June.

People were outwardly skeptical or the brash GM.

The Leafs began their rebuild shortly before Burke was named GM in 2008, as Cliff Fletcher took over for the deposed John Ferguson Jr. Fletcher acquired a few mid to late draft picks at the deadline and then traded up in the draft to take Luke Schenn, before fleecing the Canadiens for Mikhail Grabovski.

But aside from those two players, plus Tomas Kaberle and Nik Antropov, Burke was left with a roster deprived of nearly all talent, and saddled with seemingly unmovable contracts like Jason Blake's, which still had the next three seasons and $12 million on it.

At the same time, the Edmonton Oilers were about to embark on their own rebuild after finishing the 2008-09 season in 11th place in the Western Conference.

Over the next three years the two teams took different strategies to bring respectability back to their once proud franchises. The Oilers ended up adopting the more traditional tank hard and draft high method, while the Leafs managed to hold onto only one of their own first round picks.

Critics of Brian Burke and the Leafs pointed to Edmonton, proclaiming that the Oilers, on account of their proper rebuild, would become a better team sooner than the Leafs. Eventually, the armchair GMs said, the Leafs too would have to follow Edmonton as Burke's method was doomed to failure.

Well, three years have passed, and it is Toronto who has taken the first major step forward, sitting 7th in the Eastern Conference. In comparison, the Oilers once again sit in their customary lottery position, and can only console themselves by fact that drafting high will pay off eventually... or so they hope.

"You're fucking irrelevant out here."

When historians look back on the slow, plodding demise of the hockey goon, they will reference those words as the opening salvo.

According to Mike Rupp, captured on HBO cameras in the fantastic 24/7, Jody Shelley was irrelevant.

"If you had any outcome on the game I'd fuckin' go with you, but you don't!"

But he wasn't just irrelevant in that particular game. He was irrelevant within the entire game of hockey.

And with a single sentence, Rupp removed any remaining shred of legitimacy clinging to Shelley's career, and the careers of all other players who make their living solely using their fists, perhaps even his own.