Well, hockey's worst kept secret just got a rocket boost towards becoming a reality. Brian Burke stepped down as Anaheim's GM on Wednesday, paving the way for what the population already assumed; however, Burke will stay on with the franchise as a 'special adviser', but is free to negotiate with any franchise he chooses too... cough cough Toronto cough cough... I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at and evaluate Burke's track record and whether he would be a good fit in TO or elsewhere.Here's a brief summary of Brian's past work...
Burke's first job in the NHL was as a player agent in 1987. He was hired by Pat Quinn (his head coach at Maine Univ.) to be the Director of Hockey Operations for the Vancouver Canucks. He was at the helm of the Canucks for 5 years before taking the GM job in Hartford. Lasting only one year in Hartford, he was quickly hired by the NHL to become the vice-president of discipline, until 1998 when he was hired to become an NHL GM again, this time back in Vancouver. In Vancouver, Burke built up a reputation of being one of the elite GMs in the league. He transformed the Canucks from a bottom-feeder to a division title winner. Canucks ownership chose not to renew Burke's contract during the NHL lock-out, where he promptly signed with Anaheim to become the next GM there. He guided the team to it's first Stanley Cup in 2007.
Obviously, Vancouver and Anaheim were the highlight of Burke's work as a GM.
Vancouver - Burke hired Marc Crawford, traded disgruntled star Pavel Bure for Ed Jovanovski, drafted Henrik & Daniel Sedin, traded a declining Alex Mogilny for a draft-pick (turned out to be Brendan Morrison), brought back Trevor Linden and signed Anson Carter who turned into a 30-goal man. Obviously, all of these players were key cogs in Vancouver being a western conference power for a 5 year stretch.
Anaheim - Burke hired Randy Carlyle, brought back Teemu Selanne and signed Scott Niedermayer both through free-agency. Although he did not draft Perry, Getzlaf, Lupul etc... He did trade away big contracts (Sergei Fedorov, Petr Sykora) so that the team would be able to re-sign their young talent. Also, many ppl feel that Chris Pronger was 'gift wrapped' for Burke when he traded for the stud defensemen; however, Burke gambled by trading away a 13th overall selection (Ladi Smid), a 7th overall pick (Joffery Lupul), 2 1st round selections and a 2nd round selection. In comparison, the Oilers would have traded away Gagner (6th overall), Cogliano (25th overall), 2 MORE 1st rounders and a 2nd rounder. Thats a pretty hefty price tag (essentially 4 first-round picks and a second).
When I was looking for stats and doing research on Burke, I noticed that each team was built very differently. In Vancouver, he had Naslund and Bertuzzi and built the surrounding pieces through the draft (the Sedins, Morrison, Bieksa, Kesler, Alex Edler). In Anaheim, he used trades (Chris Pronger, Francois Beauchemin) and the free-agent market (Selanne, Niedermayer, Marchant [waivers], Morrison, Jonas Hiller) to build a Stanley Cup champion. Burke was also at the fore-front for each franchise setting club records for points in a season (Vancouver has since surpassed it).It seems that Toronto has plenty of youth (Schenn, Stajan, Steen, Antropov, Ponikarovsky and Kaberle are all 30 or younger) to work with and have shed salary in the off-season (Tucker, Sundin, McCabe) to create more cap space. Burke has proven he can build through the draft or through free-agency and Toronto will have either the high picks or cap space to build a cup contender. With Ron Wilson as head coach and Burke as the heir-apparent GM, Toronto would have 2 of the best at their positions as, over the past 5 seasons, the two have combined for 9 of a possible 10 playoff appearances.
For Torontonians, there does seem to be light at the end of the (3 years of playoff drought and 40+ years of Stanley Cup withdrawal) tunnel...Cheers.
-Smith
Are you lost? Pronger was a damn gift you tard! How can you compare Gagner and Cogliano to Lupul and Smid, its not even close. How was he gambling? Its no gamble getting the best defensman in the league at the time! WOW! If the Oilers were to ever trade those two players id hope to be getting a Jerome Iginla like player in return!!! Plus, add in the fact that Niedermayer was an easy signing as Rob was already playing in Anaheim. Even his trade for Francois Beauchemin is wayyyy overrated because well, where is Beauchemin now?! Oh ya thats right hiding in the shadows of Pronger and Niedermayer! Ill give him the credit for the Selanne signing, but thats as far as that goes. Oh and ya he did a great job in Vancouver but what a frigan mess he left Nonis with when he left, the cunucks had maybe a 3rd string goalie at best, and look at their track record since, its been bad at best! Anyways, as much as you might like to make Burke look all good and shiny, i really do hope he goes to the Leafs so we can see his true colors as he fucks them right over. Goodnight SIr!
ReplyDeletethat sounds like an oiler fan talking about brian burke...lol it is, oiler fans hate brian burke becuase of the whole kevin lowe problem, i personally think that brian burke is a good GM, looking at what steve said, is all true, built two completely different teams and WON a stanley cup, would have won one in vancouver too, if he could have gotten a good number one goalie. and look at that deal he did with the oilers took basically there whole team away, with pronger gone the whole team was looking and finding ways out, then to top it off the oilers paid way to much to a couple guys who "did well in the playoffs" now the oilers are crippled with these crappy third liners who are geeting paid like 1st and 2nd liners. Sorry to go off topic there i just get sooooo frustrated when i look at the oilers, soo much potential, anyways, i really dont think that he left Nonis that big of a mess...almost the same group of guys destined for the stanley cup, burke just couldnt land a goalie, not his fault that nasland, morrison, and bertuzzi, went from superstars to 3rd liners. Burke won the cup, with a team he built almost from scratch gotta give the guy some credit. I think he would be a perfect fit in TO, especially if he can keep sundin the fuck outta there, Not a Leafs fan at all, but to be honest ive watched a bunch of there games this year and they are fun and frustrating to watch, group of young guys playing well great to see, i think if burke could land a good veteran player that has one a cup or two, they could be a cup contender very soon (oh and they need a better goalie) shanahan could be a good fit unfortunately, i dont think he has enough time in the nhl left to really hwlp the leafs in the long run. well i thought that i would add my two cents into the mix
ReplyDelete-Drew
the oilers got
ReplyDeleteJoffrey Lupul
Ladislav Smid
2007 1st round pick (30th overall - Nick Ross)
2008 1st round pick (22nd overall - Jordan Eberle) *
2008 2nd round pick (53rd overall - Travis Hamonic) **
the ducks got, CHRIS PRONGER BEST TRADE EVER!!!!!