It’s funny — March Madness betting has a lot of meaning to hockey fans, but it has nothing to do with basketball. It’s all about the trade deadline! March 4 looms and, last week, we broke down the Jay Bouwmeester rumors and pretended to be Panthers GM Jacques Martin. Let’s never pretend to be Jacques Martin again, OK? Next up, NHL betting fans, we’ll play Brian Burke. If you want to wager at the sportsbook that Burkey will be making some moves in the next few weeks, you ain’t stupid. But what about his biggest trading chip - Tomas Kaberle?

Since Tomas has a no-trade clause, let’s assume for argument’s sake that Burke gets an offer from a team on Kaberle’s “OK list.”

NHL betting fans know Kaberle’s situation is more complicated than the soon-to-be unrestricted Nik Antropov; Kaberle still has two years remaining on his contract at $4.25 million per season, which is a phenomenal bargain. If Burke thinks the Leafs could be competitive by 2011, a 32-year-old Kaberle would still have plenty of good puck-moving years left.

The way I see it, Burke is in a win-win situation here. Any deal good enough to make him part with Kaberle will be so great that it will accelerate the Leafs’ rebuilding process tremendously (say, James van Riemsdyk, Scott Hartnell and a first-rounder from the Flyers, which is the rumored offer for UFA Bouwmeester right now) If the offers are sub-par, Burke can stand pat. Then he can deal Kaberle to any team with no restriction when his no-trade lifts this summer or even hold onto him. Plus can still hold the league hostage at the trade deadline next year, can’t he?

Ultimately, NHL betting fans should realize that Burke is doing exactly what he should be right now — waiting for the price to rise, not forcing the issue and letting the offers determine the course of action.