Burke impacted many at all levels on his path to Hockey Hall of Fame Builder

The 2026 Hockey Hall of Fame induction is Nov. 9. This year's class includes Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Patrice Bergeron, Keith Tkachuk and Cindy Curley in the Player category and Brian Burke in the Builder category. Here, NHL.com senior writer Tracey Myers profiles Burke.

Brian Burke was 12 years old when his life trajectory unknowingly was set during a family move from Boston to Minnesota.

“The moving trucks got stuck in a blizzard in Pennsylvania with all our furniture and stuff, so we were stuck in a hotel for three nights in Bloomington, Minnesota,” Burke said. “The state high-school hockey tournament was on. That’s when I fell in love with the game, watching high-school hockey.”

That love affair has lasted Burke’s entire life, and the 71-year-old has been one of the most impactful people in so many areas of hockey.

"When I think of his image, the thing that first pops into my head, he used to have a picture in his office at the League of him on the ice in a Maine Mariners uniform with blood all over his face," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "That's one image that he gives off, but the other image is somebody who's concerned about people, embraces people and relationships, and if you're his friend, he'll go to all ends of the Earth to support you and be there for you, which is the mark of a truly good human being."

Burke's NHL career began in 1987 when he was named vice president and director of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks. Then In 1992, he became general manager of the Hartford Whalers.

That tenure lasted just one season before he moved to the NHL offices, serving as the League's senior vice president and director of hockey operations from 1993-98. Five years later, he returned to the Canucks for a second stint, this time as president and GM. He helped orchestrate several trades at the 1999 NHL Draft, where the Canucks ended up with the No. 2 and No. 3 picks, and selected twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

Burke became GM of the Anaheim Ducks in 2005 and built the team that won the Stanley Cup in 2007. He had the same role with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2008-13, then served as president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames (2013-18) and Pittsburgh Penguins (2021-23).

Brian Burke, then general manager of the Anaheim Ducks, lifts the Stanley Cup on June 6, 2007 after his team defeated the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 of the Cup Final.

He also won the silver medal as GM of the United States men’s hockey team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Burke moved into an entirely different role in 2023, as director of the Professional Women's Hockey League Players' Association (PWHLPA), the player union of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). He held that position until 2025, and now serves as a senior advisor for Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League.

"We always talk about Brian stepping in when it was really needed on the players' side to bring his experience, bring his knowledge, bring credibility as we were getting the league off the ground," PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford said. "He's always really valued the women's game, and to see him step into a significant role like that was something we really valued in terms of how we got the league off the ground."

Burke also has been a big proponent of LGBTQ+ rights and helped establish the You Can Play project, which targets homophobia and promotes safety and inclusion in sports, in honor of his late son, Brendan.

Brendan was a student manager for the Miami University men's hockey team when he publicly came out as gay in 2009. Brendan died in an automobile accident in 2010 at age 21, and Brian and his son Patrick helped launch You Can Play in 2012.

"One of the really cool things about this honor for us as a family is, he won a Stanley Cup, he won a silver medal, he's had an amazing amount of jobs but a pretty significant portion of this is that more people feel safe and comfortable in the hockey world because of him, whether that's women who are finally getting paid a fair wage to play professionally, whether that's the LGBTQ+ community through his work with different initiatives," Patrick Burke said. "He's taken the game he loves, and he's opened up the door so that more people feel safe enjoying it. This category is Builder, and I don't think anyone's built the game in quite the way he has."

Brian Burke will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 9 as a builder. Said his son Patrick, top left, This category is Builder, and I don't think anyone's built the game in quite the way he has."

It's quite a resume for someone whose playing career didn't get past the American Hockey League. Prior to that, Burke played four seasons at Providence College for coach Lou Lamoriello, who also became one of the League's most successful team executives and is a longtime friend of Burke's.

"He was a role player, size and strength. He was not a goal-scorer," Lamoriello said. "And yet the day he got accepted at Harvard Law School, we had a game and I'll never forget it, he got three goals. I think he maybe only had three or four for the year. So, he was a hard worker, killed penalties, he was physical and competed. He never left anything on the ice. It was a trait of his then and it continues to be a trait. He's still an extremely hard worker in everything he does, and success has a way of following him."

As a player, Burke felt he always was trying to catch up with others and had four rules in trying to do so: Be the hardest worker, be a coach's dream, be an ideal teammate and play tough.

So, did he apply the same when he moved into executive work?

"Same four rules apply, except for playing tough," he said. "I did that with my teams."

Nevertheless, Burke said his start in hockey operations was met with, "a lot of hostility, a lack of acceptance." He had a law degree, but not an NHL player's pedigree.

"I had just conducted my first draft in 1987 and someone on the flight said to the other GMs, 'This guy has a lot of nerve taking a job away from a former player,'" he said.

"I remember one night in St. Louis they wouldn't give me a press pass. I waited for a half hour and finally I said, 'I'm going up.' They said, 'You'll be arrested, going up without a press pass.' I said, 'Then arrest me. It'll be a good headline for you.' It took a while to be accepted by the group."

What always was there for Burke, however, was moxie. He wasn't afraid to make a bold move. As Ducks GM in 2006, he acquired defenseman Chris Pronger, a player Burke had selected for the Whalers with the No. 2 pick in the 1993 NHL Draft, from the Edmonton Oilers for forward Joffrey Lupul, defenseman prospect Ladislav Smid and two first-round draft picks. Pronger helped propel the Ducks to their only Stanley Cup championship in 2007.

But the moves that get remembered most were the machinations that allowed the Canucks to select the Sedins. Vancouver began with the No. 3 pick, but through trades with the Chicago Blackhawks, Tampa Bay Lightning and Atlanta Thrashers, got Nos. 2 and 3 and were able to the twins together.

Brian Burke (second from r.) made perhaps the boldest move in the history of the NHL Draft, swinging trades that would allow him to draft Daniel Sedin (second from l.) and his twin brother Henrik (c.) for the Vancouver Canucks in 1999.

The Sedins played their entire NHL careers with the Canucks (2000-18), helped Vancouver reach the Cup Final in 2011, were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022 and now are the team’s co-presidents.

"We were prepared to play for different teams, no question about that," Henrik Sedin said. "But for him to understand the significance of us playing together and how we made each other better and what we could do together instead of playing apart, he made a lot of big moves and traded away great players at the time to get us.

"The team was at a place, too, where they built something and were on the verge of becoming really good. So for him to get two young guys on the team, that's pretty gutsy by him to do that. That's why we're sitting here today where we are."

Daniel Sedin said Burke has meant a lot to them.

"First of all, drafting us and then he believed in us. In our first three years when we struggled and he's the main reason we had the careers that we had, because of his belief in us," Daniel said. "For him to get inducted is so special to us, knowing him for so many years and what he's done for us."

Burke had a big impact on a lot of players throughout their careers, and as they came into the League he had the same message for all of them.

"I remember one of the first speeches he gave us as a rookie in the League, when he established that the rookies were seen and not heard," said former Ducks forward and captain Ryan Getzlaf, whose first full NHL season was on the 2006-07 Cup championship team. "Made sure that we were well within our rights to do whatever we wanted, but at the same time he wanted us to learn from the veterans, and the amount of veterans we had around were great.

"I just remember Brian being kind of, I don't want to say intimidating, but he'd been around the game a long time and was an old-school guy. But he was perfect for what that team needed. What we needed was direction."

Burke can give off an intimidating presence, for sure, from his low voice and intense eyes to his trademark necktie, usually untied and draped around his neck.

"He's not all that tough. He thinks he's tough. He's just a big teddy bear," said former Canada women's hockey star and Hall of Fame member Angela James. "Every time he speaks, though, if you really listen to what he's saying, it's very important and it's profound.

James also worked in 2022-23 as general manager of the Toronto Six of the Premier Hockey Federation, a forbearer of the PWHL.

"What Brian brought to general managers is that education is important," James said. "You're not going to be able to just go in and be a general manager. You have to go through the ranks. Every person who got to where they are today, they don't do it alone."

Burke has had some incredible people in his corner, including Lamoriello, Bettman and the late former NHL executive and coach Pat Quinn. As Burke said, "I had pretty good mentors."

Brian Burke, then the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, instructs young players during the NHL/USA Hockey Clinic and Press Conference part of the 2011 NHL All-Star Weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina.

There's also his family which includes son Patrick, who is vice president of the NHL Department of Player Safety.

"Seeing someone who gets to go to work every day at a hockey job and just understanding that's a possibility and the ability to take the game that you love and make a job out of it, it's something I know he's always appreciated and passed that down to me," Patrick said. "The idea that, if you love the game of hockey, you work hard and you're a good person, people actually pay you to do this. It's unbelievable."

The kid who was drawn to hockey from televised high school games made it his life's work to make a difference in the sport. He's certainly done that.

"My dad used to say to us, 'Leave a legacy,'" Burke said. "I stopped saying it for a while after Brendan passed away but I used to ask my kids, 'Who's going to your funeral, and what are they going to say?' They're not going to talk about how much money you made or the jobs you had. They're going to talk about impact you had on human lives. That's what I want people to remember me by."