{"id":390748,"date":"2026-07-08T16:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/390748\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T16:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:07:08","slug":"alexander-brian-burkes-hall-of-fame-moment-approaches-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/390748\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander: Brian Burke\u2019s Hall-of-Fame moment approaches \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto<\/a> houses some artifacts of the greatest moment in Anaheim Ducks\u2019 history, June 6, 2007, when that team brought California its first Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a photo representation depicting the presentation of a Stanley Cup ring to the Hall,<\/a> noting that the Ducks were the first winners to do so. There are the Hall of Fame resumes of Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and Teemu Selanne, players from that team who have been inducted into the Hall. And there is the Cup itself,<\/a> on display in the shrine\u2019s Great Hall with the names of those responsible etched into the silver band.<\/a><\/p>\n

Come Nov.\u00a09, one more representative from that team will go into the Hall. Brian Burke,<\/a> who took over as general manager following the 2004-05 lockout that shut down the NHL for a full season and assembled that championship team, was selected as part of the Class of \u201926 in the builder category, appropriately. He will go in along with NHL greats Patrice Bergeron, Carey Price, Pekka Rinne and Keith Tkachuk and women\u2019s hockey pioneer Cindy Curley.<\/p>\n

Burke, 71, said in a recent phone conversation that, as a member himself of the Hall\u2019s Selection Committee, he was informed that he had been nominated, which meant he had a choice: \u201cYou decline, or you accept and recuse yourself from the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I decided to be honored. I recused myself. And then you\u2019re completely out of the process. You don\u2019t know who nominated you. You\u2019re not in any of the discussions. You\u2019re not in any votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the announcements were due on June 22, there were a few moments of tension.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought those calls would start around 1 (p.m.), because I know how the Selection Committee works. So, 1:30, I\u2019m like, (expletive), I\u2019m not going in,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cThen the call came about 1:45. Mike Gartner (chairman of the Hall) and Ron Francis (chairman of the selection committee) called, and I was so ecstatic.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 How does it feel? It feels wonderful. I mean, I never expected this. No one does, but I never expected it. I\u2019m from Minnesota. I grew up one of 10 kids, didn\u2019t start playing hockey until I was 13. So none of this was something that I ever dreamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s earned it, making up for any lost time with a full life in this sport. He was a player (at Providence College and then briefly in the American Hockey League), a player agent, the NHL\u2019s executive vice president and director of hockey operations for six seasons, and a GM with the Hartford Whalers (now Carolina Hurricanes), Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Pittsburgh Penguins as well as the Ducks. Most recently, he was executive director of the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League players association.<\/p>\n

Added to that, he got his law degree from Providence and later taught law classes at the University of British Columbia. He was on the board of Rugby Canada, received the Canadian Forces Medallion<\/a> in 2013 for his support of the military, established the You Can Play initiative<\/a> and has been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, in honor of his late son, Brendan.<\/p>\n

He is in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame,<\/a> the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame<\/a> and the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame.<\/a> Not only is his name on the Stanley Cup, but he also has an Olympic silver medal as GM of the 2010 U.S. team that lost a classic overtime gold medal game to Canada in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Yet when I asked him what he might consider the highlight of his career, he said: \u201cOh, I don\u2019t know. That\u2019s a great question. Maybe winning the Calder Cup as a player (with the Maine Mariners in 1978), which was quite a thing as a player for me, (who) started so late, had so little time to develop into a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those of us in Southern California, and particularly in Orange County, would consider the 2007 Stanley Cup title<\/a> and the process of building that champion high on the Burke resume, and probably No. 1. It started with a job interview for the only GM vacancy available coming out of the lockout, and at the outset it wasn\u2019t a job he was particularly fired up about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t that interested in the job until I met the Samuelis,\u201d he said, referring to Henry and Susan Samueli, who had bought the then-Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from the Walt Disney Company earlier in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a West Coast market, small market. I was going to wait for something bigger, was my thinking, until I met the Samuelis. They were so nice. They were such positive people, so smart. And I desperately wanted the job even before the interview was over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the team was close to winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was a period of transition for the team and the league, which had come out of its labor issues with a hard salary cap that gave NHL commissioner Gary Bettman the \u201ccost certainty\u201d he had sought for years.<\/p>\n

In Anaheim, that period of transition with new owners meant a name change (to, simply, Ducks) and a change in team colors from teal and plum to a more intimidating black and gold with orange trim, though the original scowling duck logo again adorns the sweaters and the team from Orange County has leaned even further into the color orange in recent seasons.<\/p>\n

Not only was there a new identity, but a new blueprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the process of interviewing with the Samuelis, I laid that out for them, the way my teams played,\u201d Burke recalled. \u201cI like physical teams. I like teams where my players have room to move. And we felt we inherited two really good players in Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 We could play any way they (opponents) wanted to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early priority was to strengthen the defensive corps. Burke\u2019s first move was to sign Scott Niedermayer, who had won three Stanley Cup titles with the New Jersey Devils. One of those was against the Ducks and his brother Rob, in 2003, and Scott, by then a free agent, was enticed by the opportunity to play with Rob rather than against him. As their mother Carol put it after the two had been reunited, \u201cEverything has come full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next big move was to re-sign Selanne, who had been traded by the Ducks to the San Jose Sharks five years earlier.<\/p>\n

That first season, the Ducks finished third in their division but made it to the Western Conference finals before losing to Edmonton in five games. The Oilers, with Pronger playing an outsized role on their defense, lost to Carolina in the Stanley Cup Final that year.<\/p>\n

After that season, Burke had a staff meeting. \u201cBob Murray (the assistant GM), all the scouts, coaches, (head coach) Randy Carlyle,\u201d he said. \u201cWe said, \u2018Are we legit? Are we a legit contender? Or do we just ride really good goaltending from Jiggy (J.S. Giguere)<\/a> and get to the conference final? We all thought, well, no, we\u2019re legit. We just need one thing. I said, \u2018Okay, what do we need?\u2019 And everyone said, \u2018Chris Pronger.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, this will be easy. No one else knows about him,\u2019\u201d Burke added with a laugh.<\/p>\n

The information was already out there: After one season in Edmonton, Pronger wanted out. Burke \u2013 who had originally drafted Pronger for Hartford with the second overall pick in 1993 \u2013 called his Edmonton counterpart, Kevin Lowe, and they agreed to discuss a potential deal at the draft in Vancouver. At that point, as Burke recalled, Oilers assistant GM Scott Howson went to four draft tables, including Anaheim\u2019s, and dropped off an envelope at each one with a trade proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI opened it up and it said, \u2018Joffrey Lupul, Ladi Smid and a first-round pick for Chris Pronger,\u2019\u201d Burke recalled. \u201cSo I said to Bob Murray, \u2018We would do that, wouldn\u2019t we?\u2019 He said, \u2018Yeah, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 I said, \u2018Let\u2019s make \u2019em wait a couple of minutes. Don\u2019t look too eager.\u2019 We waited like 10 minutes and said we would do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t that simple, because a salary cap issue couldn\u2019t be resolved until July 1, the start of the league\u2019s new business year. But Burke and Lowe shook on it, and when it was made official, Lowe told Burke, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m punching your ticket to the conference finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Yes, you are,\u2019\u201d Burke said. \u201cAnd if you do that, we\u2019ll give you another first (-rounder).\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is exactly what happened.<\/a> Scott Niedermayer and Pronger \u2013 each providing leadership in different but effective ways \u2013 anchored the back end along with Francois Beauchemin and Sean O\u2019Donnell. Giguere was money in goal, with a 2.26 goals-against average in the regular season and 1.97 in 18 playoff games. Selanne had 48 goals and 94 points on a line with Andy McDonald and Chris Kunitz,<\/a> Getzlaf and Perry made up a dynamic line with Dustin Penner, and the checking line of Sami Pahlsson, Rob Niedermayer and Travis Moen was, said Burke, \u201cthe best third line in the history of the game, maybe, certainly one of the top ones ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those Ducks polished off Minnesota and Vancouver in five games each, knocked off Detroit in six in the conference finals, and were about to vanquish Ottawa and secure the Cup in Game 5 at Honda Center, with a 5-2 lead in the final minutes and a capacity crowd already at full roar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GM of the Senators (John Muckler) came down with about four or five minutes to go to congratulate us,\u201d Burke said. \u201cAnd we were all like, \u2018He\u2019s jinxing us. What\u2019s he doing?\u2019 \u2026 We\u2019re all mad at him. And we looked at the clock and were like, \u2018Ah, we should be OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The end, the celebration and presentation of the Stanley Cup and captain (and Conn Smythe Award winner)<\/a> Scott Niedermayer handing it first to his brother, Rob, was \u201ca blur,\u201d Burke said. Except for this, in the locker room, with all kinds of beverages being drunk from the Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all start chanting, \u2018Burkie needs a drink \u2026 Burkie needs a drink,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cOf course, they soak me. Cold Miller Lite and champagne and wine. And it\u2019s the worst drink ever \u2013 but it\u2019s the best drink I\u2019ve ever had in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully, the toasts on Induction Weekend in Toronto will be a bit more restrained.<\/p>\n

jalexander@scng.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto houses some artifacts of the greatest moment in Anaheim Ducks\u2019 history,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,43198,404,127,136],"class_list":["post-390748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-jim-alexander","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}