Burke out; Bob Murray in as Ducks' GM
This is good news. Bob Murray, who never got a fair shake as Hawks general manager, is getting another chance. Murray was named Anaheim's new GM Wednesday after Brian Burke stepped down.
Burke was going to leave Anaheim anyway after the season so the only surprising thing about this move was it happened now. Burke last week refused to sign a contract extension, thus paving the way for what happened Wednesday.
Burke, who has made it clear he wanted to return to the East Coast for family reasons, is almost certain to become the new president and GM in Toronto.
The Hawks - well, Bob Pulford - couldn't wait to dump Murray back in 1999 and bring in Mike Smith, who was a disaster as GM. Remember, Smith hired Alpo Suhonen, possibly the worst and laziest coach in the history of the franchise. It was also Smith who drafted busts Mikhail Yakubov and Pavel Vorobiev 10th and 11th overall in 2000.
Murray always had Pulford looking over his shoulder and rarely got to do the things he wanted. Maybe he'll have a little more freedom in Anaheim to show what he can do.
Burke credited Murray with laying a lot of the groundwork for the Ducks' run to the Stanley Cup a few years back.
It's always nice to see a good guy and a dedicated hockey man like Murray get a second chance.
Who was behind the J.R. fiasco? Was it Pulford/Wirtz/Murray or a combination? I think the latter and J.R.'s big mouth. It triggered the beginning of the black hole decade however.
Please anybody but.
This guy left Vancouver in a shambles, got hired with a real fine solid roster in Anaheim, and acquire Pronger who wanted a new home, and had a Cup win. He is out because of being so far from his kids? Then why take the job?
He doesn't draft well.
When the kid Ryan he drafted #2 overall behind Crosby scores 20 in a NHL season we can consider him.
is what left Vancouver in a shambles - it was Burke's protege, Nonis, who took advantage of Mike Keenan's inexplicable love affair with Bertuzzi to somehow pry Luongo in exchange & turn that franchise back around...
You also aren't giving Burke any credit for acquiring Pronger, when 28 other teams also had a chance to make an offer for him, and presumably eastern conference teams had an inherent advantage...
Burke made another great deal in moving federov and his bloated cap hit for beauchimen and marchant, two key pieces of the cup team and signed another major piece in UFA scott niedermayer with the cap room he freed up in part by moving federov. i'm not trying to knock bryan murray, his predecessor in anaheim, but he took over an ottawa team that was supposedly also perfect situation set up for him, but lost to burke's ducks in the finals...
burke also took a chance on an nhl rookie coach in carlyle, another guy he brought with him from vancouver organization who proved it was a good move, and burke ended up with another high draft pick by not matching lowe's ridiculous offer sheet to penner.
i'm not suggesting burke is above criticism, but he certainly had a lot more input to winning a cup ring than many give him credit for, and when the hawks have had much worse GMs for most of the past 30 years, I'm still amazed to read such superficial criticism about a proven guy who puts all but one of the Hawks GMs of the past 30 years to shame.
Murray is not ready for anything but another shot.
when he was promoted by the hawks, mainly because his mentor was Bob Pulford and anyone paying attention knew (or ought to have known) that the way WWW & Pulford operated the team in those days, the initials GM stood for gopher man. The same can be said for Dale Tallon, who is still learning on the job and hoping to somehow convince Scotty Bowman he is worth keeping in the position...
as for Burke crediting Murray with laying the groundwork for the Duck's run to the cup, I think you have confused Bob with Bryan Murray (the guy that Mike Smith was going to bring in as coach before WWW & Pulford stepped in at the last minute & hired Brian (I love Theo Fleury) Sutter, while Bryan Murray ended up in Anaheim as coach & then GM...where he was responsible for drafting guys like Lupul, Getzlaf, Perry, O'Brien & Miller, signing an undrafted FA named penner, trading for rob niedermayer, signing UFAs Federov (who were turned into Marchant & Beachemin by Burke), etc.
Bob Murray finally had a real GM mentor in Burke when Burke hired him in Vancouver, with Murray following him to Anaheim to win a cup together (along with several former hawks - moen, huskins, thornton, etc.)
as for Burke heading to Toronto, that seems to be the consensus thinking, especially in Toronto, but I suspect GM of the Hawks would in some ways have greater appeal to Burke...and Tallon is living on borrowed time being a Pulford disciple and one of the last remaining holdovers of the WWW mismanagement era...
Bob Murray was a spineless d-man for all his years here.Then a Wirtz suckie after his retirment,he was a terrible G.M. who wanted a team of fast pansies!
Really? Who was the GM that offed the likes Kevin Miller, James Black and Chad Kilger? And brought in guys like Mark Janssens, Doug Zmolek, Bryan McCabe and Dave Manson? Get your head out before you try and spew revisionist history like that, next time.
Nice to see Murray getting another chance. The Hawks' drafting throughout the '90s was brutal and he had a major hand in that, but he was always up-front and honest in assessing his and his team's performance, unlike his successor, the smarmy, obfuscating, lying, clueless Smithov.