Brian Burke's son explains how Canucks drafting Sedins ruined Father's Day
Brian Burke’s wheeling and dealing to draft both Daniel and Henrik Sedin is a major piece of his legacy as he heads into the Hockey Hall of Fame this year as a builder.
It’s a story that’s been told a million times — often by Burke himself — so it’s rare to hear anything new about the story.
That’s why it was refreshing to hear a new angle from his son, Patrick Burke: how his dad drafting the Sedins ruined Father’s Day.
“Sorry, I had to take that call, guys, but I just got the twins”
Patrick and Brian Burke spoke to Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on the 32 Thoughts podcast ahead of his induction into the Hall this weekend. That’s when Patrick, who currently works for the NHL in the Department of Player Safety, revealed the impact the Sedin draft had on their family.
“The biggest one was the first part of the Sedin trade was done at Father’s Day brunch a few days before the draft,” said Patrick. “You had to trade for Chicago’s first-round pick, so to get fourth overall, you traded Brian McCabe and next year’s first.”
Brian Burke and the Canucks already held the third-overall pick heading into the 1999 draft, but needed another high pick to have a chance at drafting both Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
The Canucks’ biggest trade asset was Brian McCabe, acquired from the New York Islanders in the Trevor Linden trade a year earlier.
“See, I hated trading Brian McCabe,” said Brian Burke. “I love Brian McCabe as a player. I thought he was wonderful… Everything was perfect about this game: he was tough, he could play, had leadership skills. I traded him.”
That deal with the Chicago Blackhawks came together about a week before the draft when the Burkes were all gathered around the table together as a family. The draft was on June 26; Father’s Day was on June 20.
But that day wasn’t just Father’s Day; the Burkes were also celebrating two birthdays, jamming in three celebrations in one day during a very busy week preparing for the draft.
“My sister Molly and my sister Katie were born June 17 and 19,” said Patrick. “So, Dad was never around for their birthdays because that was always the draft. So, we did Father’s Day and two birthdays the same weekend before the draft, and my dad tried not to take phone calls.”
There was one phone call he couldn’t ignore.
“He was like, ‘I have to take this call. It’s Bob Murray, it’s about the twins, I have to do this,'” recalled Patrick. “And my siblings were fuming that he got up and left the table. He said, ‘This is a big one. I had to do it.'”
With the deal done, the Canucks held the third and fourth-overall picks a week ahead of the draft — a deal that he managed to keep secret until the draft day.
“I came back to the table, I said, ‘Sorry, I had to take that call, guys, but I just got the twins,'” said Brian. “And Patrick correctly pointed out, ‘You don’t have the twins, Dad, you just have three and four.’ I said, ‘I know, but whoever gets two of those top four picks will control this deal.'”
“I told my ex-wife, ‘I’m done, I’m screwed.'”
Patrick was right: holding the third and fourth-overall picks wasn’t enough to get both Sedins. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Atlanta Thrashers held the first and second-overall picks; all it would take is one of those two teams taking Daniel or Henrik to ruin everything.
So, Brian needed to make one more deal. The Lightning were willing to move the first-overall pick, but Brian had already used his prime trade chip, McCabe.
The night of the draft, Brian still didn’t have a deal done.
“That night, I went to bed, I told my ex-wife, ‘I’m done, I’m screwed,'” recalled Brian. “I talked to Rick Dudley; he was GM in Tampa. I said, ‘Are we doing this deal?’ And he said, ‘No, we’re not.’ And I went to bed and told my ex-wife, ‘I’m getting fired over this.'”
Brian would later call the 1999 draft the worst first round in the history of the draft, and he has a case. Aside from the Sedins, the rest of the first round was largely a disappointment. The next best player after the Sedins was likely Martin Havlat, who went 26th overall to the Ottawa Senators.
“Pavel Brendl would have been the next player picked,” said Brian. “I hated Pavel Brendl. Hated him as a draft pick. He was a decent player, nice kid, I’m sure, but I hated him as a player.
“I said to my ex-wife, ‘I’m getting fired for sure. I just traded Brian McCabe and a first for Pavel Brendl.'”
Fortunately, when Brian went back to Dudley the next morning on the draft floor, Dudley’s answer had changed: he would trade the first-overall pick to the Canucks.
What Brian didn’t know is that ownership drama behind the scenes had likely tied Dudley’s hands — ownership drama that was resolved the night before the draft, just as Brian was lamenting that he was going to be fired — but that’s a story for another day.
“Now I get what Thomas Gradin was talking about”
While Brian Burke deserves credit for pulling off the series of trades to get the Sedins, he always gives the bulk of the credit to Canucks scout Thomas Gradin, who convinced him to draft the Sedins in the first place.
Burke wasn’t impressed by the Sedins, particularly after a World Junior Championship tournament where he felt they were too easily pushed around and failed to show up in big games against Canada and the U.S.
But Gradin convinced Burke to give them another chance when they made Sweden’s World Championship team.
On the podcast, the older Burke talked about the moment that swung his opinion.
“Okay, Thomas, I’m gonna fly to Norway, I’m gonna watch them play three games, and we’re gonna be done with this foolishness,” he said. “Their first shift, which would have been, like, the fourth shift in the game, Hank threw a pass, a blind pass, a saucer pass about 60 feet. There was no one anywhere near the puck, and Danny skated right onto it.
“I thought, ‘God, finally I see it.’ Now I get what Thomas Gradin was talking about. And the rest was history.”