Brian Burke Reveals One of His Biggest Regrets as GM of the Maple Leafs Tied to Phil Kessel
Photo credit: Jerome Miron - USA Today Sports
Brian Burke recently sat down with Jeff Marek and revealed one of his biggest regrets during his tenure as general manager of the Maple Leafs was tied to Phil Kessel.
Brian Burke was as old-school as any general manager during his time and as we've seen in recent years, that archetype is slowly dying with Lou Lamoriello perhaps being the last of that kind.
Burke had a very specific rule when he was leading a team that spanned across his time with the Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks, and Toronto Maple Leafs. It had to do with jersey numbers and how no one could have one higher than 35.
He recently sat down with Jeff Marek on "Offside" and talked about one of his biggest regrets that still burns him to this day during his tenure with the Maple Leafs, which involved Phil Kessel and Mikhail Grabovski.
"Made them all take small numbers, lower numbers till I made the deal for Phil Kessel. I told him 35 and below. Our cup team, the highest number was 35, Getsy and Perrs wanted high numbers and I said no you gotta take lower numbers. When the twins came to Vancouver, I made them take 22 and 33. Got to Anaheim and I told them you're taking lower numbers, I get to Toronto and I make the Kessel deal without specifying anything about his number. Grabo's agent called me right away and said you can't make us take lower numbers if you're not going to make Kessel take a lower number as well. So I said okay and gave him, we had five higher numbers within a week and it still to this day burns my ass we did it that way."
Burke explains how he never bent the rule for anyone in Anaheim or Vancouver. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry wanted to wear higher numbers but Burke refused, he mentions how he gave Daniel and Henrik Sedin numbers 22 and 33, respectively, and that only the goaltenders could wear numbers 1, 30, or 35.
However when he signed Kessel to his 8-year deal, he didn't specify anything about a jersey number, which was something he did with everyone else. That got the attention of Grabovski's agent who wasn't happy that Kessel was above the rule.
Eventually Burke admitted that he fell on his sword and gave in to their request and within a week there were 5 players with jersey numbers higher than 35, which is something that still bothers him to this day.
It's pretty impressive that Kessel was the first player to have Burke bend his own rule considering some of the superstars he had on his teams that included the likes of Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer as well.
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