Story as told by Brian Burke yesterday, to the Fan 590 in Toronto (paraphrasing):
- Jeff Blair: “Brian, As a GM, we’ve watched you and JP Ricciardi announce your trade intentions via the media, and im wondering, is that a helpful philosophy as it relates to communicating to other GM’s?”
- Brian Burke: “I think so Jeff, the media uses us and we use the media. Most GM’s have someone aggregating news from all the other teams daily, and if i tell you we are looking to trade a defencemen, all GM’s will know this by tomorrow. Having said that, i have a really interesting story to share: When i was GM in Carolina, the newspaper reported one day, that i was shopping Bobby Holik. This is was 100% untrue, and i called Holik into my office and swore to him it was false and that i hadnt spoken to anyone about trading him. Later that day, Lou Lamoriello read this report in the newspaper and called me, and offered Eric Weinrich (who would become our best defenceman) and Sean Burke (who would become our best goaltender) for Holik, and i had to accept. So in this case, a false media report led to a trade! I had to apologize to Holik and im sure he thinks i lied to him…”