Toronto Maple Leafs: Former GM Inducted Into Hall of Fame

On Friday morning, U.S Hockey announced their Class of 2023 who are being inducted into their Hall of Fame which included former Toronto Maple Leafs President and General Manager Brian Burke.

The Toronto Maple Leafs hired Burke in the role on November 29, 2008 and he remained with the team until he was let go just over four years later in January 2013.

Burke has had a lengthy career in the National Hockey League, but his accomplishments don’t end there as he has been behind several aspects in improving US Hockey, which has included heading up the National Team Advisory Group 15 years ago.

The Edina, Minnesota native was the general manager of the 2010 United States team that took home a silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics, while also serving on the management side for several more international tournaments.

Burke joined the Leafs in 2008 after already holding the role as General Manager in both Anaheim where he won a Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007 and in Vancouver.

When he took over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team had missed the playoffs three consecutive seasons after coming out of the 2004-05 lockout season.  Most fans were ready for a proper rebuild, but Burke had a different idea.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Former GM Inducted Into Hall of Fame

His most notorious move in his first year with Toronto was trading a pair of first round picks and a second round pick for Phil Kessel.

For a competing team the trade made sense, but for a non playoff team who didn’t have the players to surround Kessel it was a miscalculation by the veteran GM.  The first round picks ended up being second overall (Tyler Seguin) and ninth overall (Dougie Hamilton).

Burke’s reputation will always be remember for another first round blunder when he traded picks #30 and #39 to move up to pick #22 where he drafted Tyler Biggs.  Biggs was never able to get his professional career going, while the #30 pick turned out to be Rickard Rakell and #39 was John Gibson who both individuals have turned out to be top end NHL players.

During his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Burke did pull off some good deals.  Some of his more notable moves were:

• Signing Tyler Bozak to an entry level contract as an undrafted free agent out of college.  Bozak would go on to play nine seasons in Toronto registering 365 points in 594 games, before finishing out his career with 814 games and winning a Stanley Cup in St. Louis.
• Acquiring Dion Phaneuf from the Calgary Flames for depth pieces.  Phaneuf would captain the Maple Leafs for six seasons, albeit during the worst period in the franchises history, but would record 196 points in 423 games.
• Acquiring both Joffrey Lupul and Jake Gardiner for Francois Beauchimen.  Had injuries not derailed Lupul, he would have been one of the better power forwards in the NHL during his time in Toronto and Gardiner would turn into a top four defenseman and powerplay quarterback.
• In his last deal in Toronto, he would trade Luke Schenn for James van Riemsdyk.  Schenn would bounce around the league as a depth defenseman, while JVR was a top six forward his entire time in Toronto and averaged 30-goals over an 80-game span.

Burke would ultimately be fired three days after the 2012-13 lockout ended in early January 2013 and the Toronto Maple Leafs would go on to make the playoffs for the first time in the salary cap era that same season.

The former Providence College graduate has remained in hockey as part of management for Calgary and Pittsburgh, while also being one of the most entertaining men in the sport on camera.

Burke has also be active in the LGBTQ+ community and started the You Can Play project which involves around inclusion in sports.