UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Brian Burke can be as subtle as a cross-check to the mouth.
Ask for his opinion, and you should expect to get a double-barrel blast of candor.
But while he's quite capable of using his vocabulary as a blunt force object, Burke also has a decidedly cerebral side.
And not just because he graduated from Harvard Law School after earning a History degree at Providence.
Indeed, the smartest thing Burke, who is a few weeks into his role as president of hockey operations for the Penguins, ever did had nothing to do with being inside a classroom or lecture hall.
Instead, it was absorbing the knowledge Burke was offered by the men under whom he worked during his formative years.
Those include Lou Lamiorello, who was his college coach, Pat Quinn, the Vancouver general manager who introduced him to front-office work, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, for whom Burke was a top lieutenant while serving as the NHL's discipline chief.
"A lot of my makeup, I acquired playing for Lou Lamiorello," he said. "He was a guy who taught good habits, good manners and doing things the right way. I learned a lot of things from Lou. I worked for Pat Quinn from '87 to '92. He was a great man and a great teacher. Gary Bettman is a brilliant guy. That was a great experience, working for him."
Not surprisingly, given the respect Burke has for the people who guided him through the early years following his brief playing career in the American Hockey League and a stint as a player agent, upon ascending to decision-making positions, he made a point of giving opportunities to guys who seemed to have potential in coaching or management.
He recalls giving Ron Wilson, Joel Quenneville, Dallas Eakins and Kevin Dineen their first coaching jobs, and introduced Dave Nonis to front-office duties.
"I'm proud of the group that I've put into the league," Burke said.
Winning the Stanley Cup in 2007 was the high point of his career -- "In our line of work, we're all trying to climb. Mt. Everest," Burke said. "And that year, we did." -- and one of the guys Burke acquired to contribute to that championship run, defenseman Chris Pronger, also had been the focus of his first major move as a GM. That was when he traded up from the sixth choice in Round 1 of the 1993 draft to No. 2 so he could get Pronger for Hartford.
Although Burke made a number of megadeals over the course of his career -- he the GM in Toronto when the Maple Leafs acquired Phil Kessel from Boston -- his signature move was maneuvering to land Daniel and Henrik Sedin for Vancouver with the second and third choices in the 1999 draft.
"That was a really complicated, complex series of deals," Burke said. "It actually involved a trade with Chicago first, then a trade with Tampa, then a trade with Atlanta. It took three trades to put that deal together. It was very complicated. It was actually done on the floor at that draft. We didn't have the deal until we got there."
Turned out to be worth the trouble, as the Sedins developed into two of the mot popular and productive players in Canucks history.
Not that Burke got to enjoy most of their success, since his run as GM in Vancouver ended in 2004.
"They did most of their good work after I was gone," he said. "They used to haunt my teams. One night in Toronto, I think they had seven points between them. After the game, I saw them in the hallway and said, 'Really? This is how you treat me?' "
Positioning his team to get the Sedins is the kind of bold move that was a staple approach, regardless of where he was working. That just happened to work out better than some of the big trades he worked out, as Burke readily acknowledges.
"I've made lots of mistakes," he said. "If you swing for the fence, you're going to strike out. I've made lots of trades that I'd like to have back. But fortunately, I made more good trades."
Ron Hextall, who was hired as GM of the Penguins when Burke joined the organization, is the one responsible for making whatever trades are executed before the April 12 deadline, but it's safe to assume Burke will have input on any moves of consequence.
He left a job as an analyst on TV in Canada to take the job with the Penguins. And while there probably was no need to add to the body of work he assembled over the course of his management career, Burke said he couldn't resist the lure of joining this franchise.
"This is a crown jewel," he said. "The ownership here, the championship pedigree, the facilities, the city of Pittsburgh -- this is one of the great sports towns in America -- and the fan base. When GMs sit around and drink beer and talk about great jobs, this team always comes up."
Burke said that like he really means it. Just like everything else he says.
