Former Canucks GM Brian Burke says teams should start young, avoid lingering with old players, and let prospects grow together as a unit.
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Brian Burke’s advice on roster-building, offered during his time with the Vancouver Canucks, centres on keeping the focus on youth and continuity as a club transitions its lineup.
Burke recalled that when he returned to lead the Canucks in the summer of 1998, he assembled his staff and reviewed how other teams built their successful cores—breaking down the Islanders of the 1980s and the Oilers of the era that displaced New York. Burke later summarized the takeaway as simple: “start young, don’t fart around with old players, and let your group grow together.”
In October 2003, Burke said the teams he studied used a two-part approach: “They brought in guys that were highly skilled and roughly the same age and let them grow together as a team,” and “Second things those teams had was character.” He added that the Canucks adopted a similar plan to “reload with a young group that’s skilled,” then keep that group together as it developed.
Burke said he finished turning over a roster that had begun changing under Mike Keenan, who had brought in Todd Bertuzzi while moving out much of the core associated with Vancouver’s 1994 Stanley Cup run. Under Burke, the Canucks added players including Ed Jovanovski and Brendan Morrison, while retaining Markus Naslund and Mattias Ohlund.
Burke’s timeline in Vancouver included using notable players as trade pieces. The club also had Alex Mogilny and Pavel Bure as “obvious trade chips,” with Bure holding out during the summer of 1998 before being traded the following January. The Canucks also planned around the prospect of a high draft pick in the summer of 1999, and they ended up acquiring the assets required to secure the Sedin twins.
In the 1999-2000 season, Burke traded Mogilny and brought in Morrison, a move that set the stage for Morrison to become the key centreman for Bertuzzi and Naslund. Burke’s broader point, he said, remains the same: be aggressive when building a roster, but also consistent—add only young players to the roster and avoid getting distracted.
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