How Brian Burke’s Canucks stocked the cupboard before pursuing the Sedins
The hamper of picks (and players) that Brian Burke used to make his big draft-day splash for the Sedin twins 20 years ago came together like so:
CANUCKS’ THIRD OVERALL PICK
This is straightforward:
The 1999 Canucks were dreadful. They managed only 58 points on the season. They couldn’t score, despite some interesting offensive talent in the mix. They finished last in the Western Conference.
This draft pick, which Burke retained throughout the process, would be used to select Henrik Sedin.
BRYAN MCCABE
The swashbuckling defenceman was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks, along with either a 2000 or 2001 first-round pick — more on that later — for the fourthoverall pick.
McCabe was a Mike Keenan and committee acquisition, picked up from the Islanders in the (in)famous 1998 Trevor Linden trade with New York. In exchange for Linden, Isles general manager Mike Milbury sent McCabe, Todd Bertuzzi and a 1998 third-round pick (the Canucks would grab Jarkko Ruutu) west.
2000 FIRST-ROUND PICK
The Blackhawks used their option in 2000, getting the 11th-overall selection to take Pavel Vorobyev. The Canucks were, obviously, a much more successful operation in 19992000, as Burke continued to remake the team.
Chicago could have taken the 2001 draft pick instead; the Canucks picked 16th overall that year, landing R.J. Umberger, who, of course, never played for the Canucks. He was traded along with minor-league defenceman Martin Grenier at the 2004 deadline for Martin Rucinsky.
75TH-OVERALL AND 88TH-OVERALL DRAFT PICKS
These were the days when the NHL would hand out compensatory picks when teams lost veteran players to free-agency; they were simply added to the draft order. In this case,
Jyrki Lumme signed with the Phoenix Coyotes in the summer of 1998; the NHL gave the Canucks a thirdround pick, 75th overall, as compensation.
The 88th pick the Canucks picked up in a 1998 swap with the Buffalo Sabres. Keenan and committee sent silky winger Geoff Sanderson, who had been acquired weeks before from the Carolina Hurricanes, to the Sabres, in exchange for rough and tumble Brad May and this third-round pick in the 1999 draft.
Both picks were flipped, along with the fourth overall pick, to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who sent the firstoverall selection the Canucks’ way. The Canucks would then cut a deal with the Atlanta Thrashers to flip the first pick into the second-overall pick, which Burke used on Daniel Sedin.
(In a fun side note, the fourth-overall pick was packaged by Tampa Bay in a later draft-day deal with the New York Rangers; future Canucks goalie and current director of goaltending Dan Cloutier went from the Big Apple to the Sunshine State.)