After serving as the Calgary Flames’ President of Hockey Operations since the 2013 season the team announced on Friday that Brian Burke is stepping back from the organization on May 1.
Flames President and CEO Ken King said in a statement that when Burke took over the job they had discussed a four-to-five year timeline for his role, and that both sides determined this year that they would move on.
“When Brian came to us in September 2013 we discussed a structure and timeline of four to five years for his new role. Each year we review our mandate going forward and determined together that we would move on,” said King in the statement.
“Brian’s leadership and guidance of our hockey operations and work with General Manager Brad Treliving have been exemplary and we are grateful for his contributions. His charity work and organizational representation in our community are legendary as he has touched so many with his generosity.”
[NBC’s Stanley Cup Playoff Hub]
Shortly after the announcement by the Flames Burke told Sportsnet’s Eric Francis that it was a “sensible” time for him and the Flames management to part ways as friends, and that when Treliving’s contract was extended he knew he would become redundant within the front office.
During Burke’s time in the front office the Flames qualified for the playoffs just two times, losing in the second-round in 2014-15 and in the first round last season. The Flames followed up last year’s exit by making a couple of huge splashes over the summer, acquiring starting goalie Mike Smith from the Arizona Coyotes and defenseman Travis Hamonic from the New York Islanders in an effort to build what looked on paper to be one of the best blue lines in the Western Conference. With a talented young core led by Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, and Sean Monahan expectations were extremely high heading into the season.
The team on the ice failed to reach them, finishing with 10 fewer points than it did a season ago and missing the playoffs entirely. Making matters worse, because they traded their first-round pick to the Islanders in the Hamonic deal they do not even have a shot to land the top pick -- expected to be Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin -- in the draft lottery.
So what is next for Burke?
Sportsnet in Canada announced on Friday that he will be providing insights, commentary and analysis on all of their media platforms -- television, radio, digital -- for the remainder of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He will make his first appearance this weekend.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.