PepNCheese said:
Why does everyone think that Brian Burke is such a genius?
Based on his history I have no idea. his record as GM in Vancouver has been for the most part abysmal as the team has succeeded in spite of him.
He was the main negotiator of the 1994 CBA for the NHL and look how that turned out. He may be one of the worst negotiators ever seen (next to Pat Quinn) and manages to personalize negotiations and turn them nasty (Murray Baron, Andrew Cassels, Scott Lachance, Peter Schaefer and RJ Umberger come immediately to mind). Fortunately most negotiations were left in the hands of then assistant GM (now GM) Dave Nonis who actually did most of the GM work on the hockey operations side. This was acknowledeged at the press conference when Nonis was named GM in place of Burke.
He totally screwed up the Krutov transfer fee dispute and cost the Canucks millions. His record as GM has been poor to be charitiable and it was Dave Cobb and not Brian Burke who oversaw the financial turnaround of the Canucks. There were very good reasons that Orca Bay replaced him. If the mantra for a GM is to get rid of an overaid under-performing asset- then Orca bay simply follwed that precept in showing Burkie the door.
Mind you he thinks he is great - just ask him or his PR flack (errr idependent journalist) from the Vancouver Sun, Gary Mason. A bully and blowhard whose PR vastly overshadows his accomplishments.