Anaheim hockey fans must be thrilled to hear this news concerning the future of their franchise. (Story Link)

The sale of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from the Walt Disney Co. to Henry Samueli is expected to be finalized and made official this week, paving the way for the NHL club to announce Brian Burke as the team's new general manager at a news conference next week.

Brian Burke is one of the rare NHL executives who is both adept at the hockey and financial aspects of running a hockey team (He had a perfect 4.0GPA at Harvard Law). If there a GM that I'd want on my team's side after a complicated CBA comes to fruition, Brian Burke is certainly of my top choices.

While Burkie has his faults (A rather spotty drafting record, inability to evaluate goaltenders, and a lack of PR skills), he did take a Canucks team that was left in shambles (Thanks to Herr Keenan) and turned it into a success on and off the ice.

1. Trades - While Burke doesn't have Glen Sather's reputation for robbing cradles, Burke has shown that he's not afraid of making the big deal as well as an ability to get the better end of such deals.

• a. Pavel Bure, Bret Hedican, Brad Ference and a second-round draft pick were sent to Florida for G Kevin Weekes, D Ed Jovanovski, RW Dave Gagner, C Mike Brown, and a first-round draft pick.
  
  While Dave Gagner was washed up and didn't provide the help he was expected do for the Canucks stretch run, the Canucks got a lynchpin young defenseman for an offensive forward who was highly paid and didn't want to be here. This trade helped both squads, but gave the Canucks the best long term value.
  
  
• b. Jan Hlavac and Harold Druken for Marek Malik and Darren Langdon.
  
  While Harold Druken showed flashes of amazing offensive talent, his utter laziness and love for the drink made sure he never made the Canucks pay for trading him in a move that wasn't expected to do much except rid the Canucks of two bad apples. Canucks fans never expected the awkward Marek Malik to develop into a solid defensive defenseman and give the Canucks a useful part for two rather useless clods.
  
  
• c. Peter Schaefer for Sami Salo
  
  Schaefer was a decent 3rd line forward who thought he was an offensive star and deserves to be paid that way. He went to play over in Europe while the Canucks did just fine without him. After a year of fruitless waiting, Burke found a taker in the Senators. Salo came to the Canucks with an 'injury-prone' tag, but quickly became a dependable 2-way defenseman that gave the Canucks a more positive-impact player than they had lost in the dime-a-dozen Peter Schaefer. While the Sens didn't need Salo so much, Burke got a better play for a malcontent holdout.
  
  
• d. Vancouver Canucks traded Bryan McCabe and 1st round selection (Pavel Vorobiev) in 2000 to the Chicago Blackhawks for 1st round selection (later traded to the New York Rangers - Pavel Brendl) in 1999.
  
  Burke then parlayed that pick (which became Brendl) the Rangers to draft the Sedin twins together. While McCabe has become a pretty productive offensive defenseman for the Leafs, he was shaky with the Canucks and shaky with the Chickenhawks. His departure from Vancouver was no real loss, and the Canucks got a set of robotic twins that have been, while disappointing in some respects, a big part of the young nucleus that has powered the Canucks the past few seasons.

2. Free Agents - While Brian Burke didn't land any big free agent splashes (mainly because Ownership and the budget wouldn't allow it), he did a good job of signing some 2nd-tier free agents such as Andrew Cassels, Magnus Arvedson, and Murray Baron. Burke got a couple of seasons of solid production from such players, and then knew when to cut bait and let other teams overpay for them (hello, Columbus)

3. Inside contracts - While current GM Dave Nonis gets credit for the dirty contract work, Burke did an exceptional job of keeping guys like Ed Jovanovski, Dan Cloutier, Todd Bertuzzi, and Markus Naslund signed to deals with kept their services firmly rooted in Vancouver without breaking the bank. The deals the Canucks have signed have been both beneficial to the players (they get their nice security blanket) and the organization (no albatrosses floating around GM Place).

Since the Ducks already have 2 very strong goalies in JS Giguere and Martin Gerber, they don't have to worry about Burke acquiring Brian Boucher and watching him bumble around.
Burke should be able to improve upon the Ducks core of young players and build the team under their new ownership.