Brian Burke used his Hockey Hall of Fame moment on Monday to tip his cap to the Sedins, the twins he helped bring to Vancouver with one of the defining moves in Canucks history.
Henrik Sedin welcomed Burke on stage during the induction, and the former Canucks GM wasted no time revisiting the 1999 NHL Draft. Burke said the trades that landed Vancouver Henrik and Daniel Sedin came after the Canucks acquired the fourth-overall pick from the Chicago Blackhawks, turned that into the first-overall pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then flipped it again to get the second-overall pick from the Atlanta Thrashers.
With Atlanta not expected to take a Sedin and Vancouver already holding the third-overall pick, Burke was able to select the brothers back-to-back.
“At the 1999 draft, you might have heard about these two kids. We pulled off a couple of trades to land two red-headed Swedish kids named Daniel and Henrik Sedin,” Burke said. “I told them on day one the rookies were meant to be seen and not heard, and they didn’t say a goddamn word to me for four years.
“But what players, what players they were.”
Burke’s connection to Vancouver runs deep. He first joined the organization in 1989 as director of hockey operations and stayed in that role through the 1992-93 season before becoming GM of the Hartford Whalers. After a year in Hartford, he moved to the NHL front office as executive vice president and director of hockey operations, spending six years there before returning to Vancouver in 1998.
Once back with the Canucks, Burke quickly made his mark. He said, “Pat Quinn took a flyer on a young lawyer and made me his assistant GM in Vancouver,” and added, “That was a mountain of a man with a heart and a brain to match. He taught me how to win on a team with integrity, backbone, and yes, a little bit of functional hostility.
“What a city Vancouver is. I loved it all. We drafted Trevor Linden and Pavel Bure, revived a franchise and made the playoffs.”
Burke later moved on to the Anaheim Ducks in 2005 and won his only Stanley Cup with them in 2007. He also had stops with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, and Pittsburgh Penguins, and now serves as a special advisor to the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs.
He entered the Hall alongside Patrice Bergeron, Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Keith Tkachuk, and Cindy Curley, but his legacy still carries a special weight in Vancouver because of the move that brought the Sedins to the Canucks.
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