"People who sign contracts can be held to them by the other party to the contract, and there's nothing wrong with that," Bettman said. "If there's tampering going on, ultimately there are no secrets in this world. We will get to the bottom of it. And I'm no fan of tampering. And when it happens, it gets punished severely.
"A team that meddles with an individual under contract could face heavy fines and the loss of draft picks. And an individual who talks to a team while he's still under contract would face fines and a possible suspension."
The Leafs now appear immobilized by their failure to land Burke (How many times have you seen "Leafs" and "immobilized" in the same sentence in the past decade?), and seem set to head into a crucial offseason with interim GM Cliff Fletcher remaining at the helm.
