New GM Takes Control

Brian Burke was introduced as the Mighty Ducks’ general manager Monday and will now set about carving out a team in his own fiery image.

Burke, who spent the last six seasons as the Vancouver Canucks’ general manager, signed a five-year contract at more than $1 million a season, sources familiar with the team said. He becomes the team’s fourth general manager since the 2001-02 season, replacing Al Coates, who was the interim general manager for the last year.

The immediate task, Burke said, will be deciding the fate of Coach Mike Babcock and his coaches, evaluating the hockey operation staff and reworking the roster to make it tougher.

“It’s no different than assembling a symphony,” Burke said. “You need a first violin, but you need guys to move the stage too.”

But Burke made it clear who the conductor was.

The players, Burke said, “are going to do things my way or we’ll find them somewhere else to play.”

Burke is a proponent of up-tempo hockey, which got Vancouver to the playoffs the last four seasons. The Canucks won one playoff series in that time. Babcock, whose contract expires June 30, has put defense first, a necessity considering the team’s shortage of offensive skills. That philosophy took the Ducks to the 2003 Stanley Cup finals, where they lost to New Jersey in seven games.

“We’ll try to see if there is a fit there,” Burke said. “I would like to decide tomorrow, if I could do it. But it is going to take longer than that, certainly the next couple weeks.”

Coates, who has a year left on his contract, met with Burke on Sunday and is expected to be offered a job in hockey operations. But the contracts of the rest of the hockey operations staff expire June 30.

It is a group with a solid resume. In 2001-02, the Ducks’ prospects were ranked 24th among the 30 NHL teams by a Hockey News survey of 16 NHL executives. Last season, the Ducks were ranked fourth in the same survey.

“You’re assuming guys like me put a lot of stock in ratings like those,” Burke said. “That is a very unsafe assumption.”

Still, Burke said, “When you evaluate scouting done here, you certainly have to conclude they identified some excellent young players.”

The Ducks also announced that they have cut prices on 14,000 season tickets by an average of 5.28% for the next season and frozen those prices for the following season.

The team will retain their TV announcers, John Ahlers and Brian Hayward, and radio broadcaster Steve Carroll. The team will hire a radio analyst.