It must burn Thommie Bergman every time he turns on his television, picks up a newspaper, reads the statistics and comes across the goaltender Tuukka Rask.

And so it should.

Bergman then, just as Bergman now, is the Maple Leafs’ key European scout. He pushed hard for the Leafs to draft Rask with their first-round pick in 2005. He believed Rask to be an elite goalie of the future. And when the deal went down on June 24, 2006, he was never even informed by the Leafs’ general manager of the day, John Ferguson Jr., that Rask was being traded to the Boston Bruins.

That was how Ferguson tended to conduct his business. He had to replace Ed Belfour. He needed a goalie with a resume more than a potential future star and picked up Andrew Raycroft. He didn’t truly poll his staff and ask for opinions. He just acted.

Bergman would have told him what he thought then — an opinion that has since been proven correct.