He had a stellar year with the Couchiching Terriers and then skated into a legendary pro career and hopes to cap his incredible run with hockey’s holy grail
His team is in trouble, down 2-0 in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but Brent Burns remains his own man, now in his third National Hockey League decade.
The Colorado Avalanche defenceman, who is from Barrie, is attempting to win the lone honour to escape him since he left town: the Stanley Cup.
Not unlike Hall of Famer Mike Gartner, Burns came to Barrie in his pre-teen years.
He finished elementary school here and then went to Barrie North Collegiate Institute — his picture hangs there — before leaving town to play in the Ontario Hockey League in Brampton for the old Battalion franchise.
In between, he played a year of minor hockey in Barrie and another season of Junior A in Orillia, with the Couchiching Terriers.
To those who knew him back then, there was always a special quality about Burns. He is a rare presence around town these days — playing into late May and maintaining a zoo at his off-season home doesn’t leave a lot of time — but one group of middle-aged men were surprised to see the big galoot turn up at their shinny skate at the Allandale Recreation Centre one summer night not long ago.
Burns is now the lone player to have suited up in the ‘old’ NHL that predated the 2004-5 lockout, the demarcation point for when rule changes brought the game in line with how it is played now.
He made it in the old NHL and has become an all-time great in the new one.
The Minnesota Wild took Burns in the first round 23 years ago and immediately injected him into their lineup. After a year shuttling between the Wild and the Canadian World Junior team, Burns did a season in the American Hockey League.
He’s now played 1,579 NHL games and is in the upper reaches of all statistical categories for defencemen.
He has won the Norris Trophy (and was also finalist), numerous all-star mentions and twice been named the top defenceman at the World Championships.
Burns even made the final three names for the Ted Lindsay Award, where fellow NHLers vote for who the best player in the league.
Burns has never been named to the Canadian Olympic team, but that is more due to his best years falling almost exactly in the 12-year stretch when NHLers did not participate.
He was part of the 2016 World Cup win, which remains one of the country’s most dominating victories. He also was a member of a World Championship-winning team, and earned a silver medal at both that tournament and the World Junior during his rookie NHL season.
The closest Burns has come to the Stanley Cup (so far) was losing to the Sidney Crosby-led Pittsburgh Penguins a decade ago.
There are now 32 NHL teams and only half make the playoffs, so not hoisting the ultimate team trophy is not the scarlet letter on a great player’s career it was when only eight post-season victories won the hallowed vase.
And that’s how many wins Burns and the Avalanche need, and that likely must start tonight on the road now that they are down 2-0 to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference final.
The Avs are without Cale Makar, who could win another Norris Trophy, and the preeminent defenceman of his generation’s absence means Burns is playing a little more than is ideal at 41. He is averaging close to 20 minutes a night and has four assists in 11 playoff games.
Burns has not missed an NHL contest since Stephen Harper was prime minister and Barack Obama occupied the White House, a streak of 1,007 games.
Burns has also played 112 post-season games since he last missed a regular season contest, which likely means he is the NHL’s true ‘ironman’ more than Phil Kessel, who currently holds the title, because Kessel was a healthy scratch for his final playoff run with the Golden Knights three years ago.
If Burns returns next season for his 23rd in the NHL, he will likely break Kessel’s ironman streak, assuming he doesn’t get injured. He is 57 games behind Kessel’s mark, and exactly 200 back of former Sharks teammate Patrick Marleau’s 1,779 for the most played in the NHL.
And we haven’t even mentioned what could be the most bonkers fact about a career and personality full of them: Drafted as a forward, Burns was converted to play defence early on by the Wild and bounced back and forth as recently as a decade ago in San Jose.
As one online commentator put it, Burns has been a cheat code on skates, in fantasy and basic hockey (and life) convention since he was that slightly goofy man-child who left Simcoe County a quarter-century ago.