Brian Burke

What a great team Burke managed to assemble. When he was hired the team had no direction, was slow, no scoring ability and absolutely no defense. In two short years we got the Stanley cup.

Le's look at what he did.

Additions:
1. Acquired Scott Niedermeyer
2. Acquired Chris Pronger
3. Acquired Frenchy Beaucheman (he gives credit to his staff for that one)
4. Acquired Todd Marchant
5. Acquired Travis Moen (what a great find-practically everyone thought he was crazy acquiring him)
6. Acquired George Parros to replace Todd Fedoruk
7. Acquired Sean O'Donnell
8. Acquired and traded Fedoruk (After his injury he was expendible and Parros was acquired)
9. Acquired Brad May

And best of all he did nothing at the trade deadline that would have mortgaged the future by attempting to sign Guerin, Bertuzzi, Forsberg, Ryan Smyth, Weight, Katchuk, Norstrom, etc. Everybody criticized him for doing nothing to "improve" our chances of winning the Cup. Well Brad May proved to be OK after all.

Additions by subtraction:
1. Sergie Federov
2. Steve Rucchin (he is a good player, but did not fit into the system)
3. Keith Carney (Did not re-sign as he did not fit into the system
4. Petr Sykora

There may have been other moves that I don't recall at the moment, but all of the above turned out to be great moves.

I remember when he was hired someone named "Wetcoaster" wrote how terrible Burke was as a General Manager in Vancouver and he was glad he was fired. He detailed all the bad things he did in Vancouver. Well, the only thing, I believe he didn't do for them was win the Cup. However, Vancouver did manage to win their division every year he was GM. Guess he isn't that bad after all.

[QUOTE=Duck Fan;9494200]What a great team Burke managed to assemble. When he was hired the team had no direction, was slow, no scoring ability and absolutely no defense. In two short years we got the Stanley cup.

I forgot to mention one other very important trade. A draft pick to Vancouver for the right to hire Randy Caryle as our coach.

What a great team Burke managed to assemble. When he was hired the team had no direction, was slow, no scoring ability and absolutely no defense. In two short years we got the Stanley cup.

Le's look at what he did.

Additions:
1. Acquired Scott Niedermeyer
2. Acquired Chris Pronger
3. Acquired Frenchy Beaucheman (he gives credit to his staff for that one)
4. Acquired Todd Marchant
5. Acquired Travis Moen (what a great find-practically everyone thought he was crazy acquiring him)
6. Acquired George Parros to replace Todd Fedoruk
7. Acquired Sean O'Donnell
8. Acquired and traded Fedoruk (After his injury he was expendible and Parros was acquired)
9. Acquired Brad May


Although I think Burke is great, I think people fail to recognize the talent that longtime assistant GM David McNab brings to this team.

Thank McNab for bringing in:
Kunitz
McDonald
Penner
Selanne
Perry
Getzlaf
and a number of other players throughout the years.

McNab brought in Selanne? I don't know that McNab gets credit for Getz and Perry. First of all, Getz fell to the Ducks. He was supposed to be a top ten pick. So whomever was in charge gets credit at least for not being an ignoramus. Second, the website says that he was "largely responsible for the team’s selections in the 1994-96 NHL Entry and Supplemental Drafts," which suggests that someone else was responsible after that. Who? I don't know.

Don't forget that Burke also managed to get a first round pick for this year's draft! (How did we get Huskins?)

McNab brought in Selanne? I don't know that McNab gets credit for Getz and Perry. First of all, Getz fell to the Ducks. He was supposed to be a top ten pick. So whomever was in charge gets credit at least for not being an ignoramus. Second, the website says that he was "largely responsible for the team’s selections in the 1994-96 NHL Entry and Supplemental Drafts," which suggests that someone else was responsible after that. Who? I don't know.

Although a lot of people give Burke full credit for bringing Selanne back, McNab deals with a TON of player contracts. Selanne was willing to go really low in part because he loves Anaheim and has a good relationship with (and respect for) longterm management like McNab and others. Although he isn't currently solely responsible for draft selections he is very knowledgable about players and I would assume he knows exactly what the Ducks' player personnel are doing.

Anyway my whole point is that I don't want to detract from Burkes importance but you have to give credit where its due. And in McNabs case I think he's done a ton for this team since 1993.