Brian Burke insists he and Sidney Crosby are pals.
At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Burke asked Crosby to record a message for his daughter's Grade 3 class for a project, which the Canadian captain was more than happy to do.
As cordial as they may be, the duo lost the chance to be bosom buddies 11 years ago when the very last card flipped in the draft lottery was that of the Pittsburgh Penguins, not Burke's Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
While the Penguins finished last a year earlier, the result came as a gut-punching surprise to Burke, who was convinced his team was destined to get one of the game's few generational players that night.
"I thought we had him," said Burke this week, shaking his head at the mere memory.
"Even though it was 50-50, I was convinced we were getting him. I just had a good feeling the next card coming up was us."
Because the previous season had been lost to labour strife, the NHL developed a lottery system in which teams got one, two or three balls in the hopper (based on playoff appearances and past draft picks) with a chance at landing Sid the Kid. Burke's Ducks has two balls compared to Pittsburgh's three, which made it no less of a heartache for Burke to shake GM Craig Patrick's hand and then walk off the stage as consolation winners.
"It wasn't devastating," insisted Burke, who will be the Flames representative at Saturday's highly-anticipated draft lottery in Toronto.
"It was disappointing, but we were really happy to pick second in that draft. That was a straight lottery – we could have picked 30th. Our scouts said, 'if we get in the top six we're good,' so when we did I could relax. We had a shot at a franchise player but a consolation prize was we had a shot at a pretty good player."
Once they got into the top four, Burke knew his club was taking either Jack Johnson or Carey Price.
When they landed at No. 2, he knew right away that the Mighty Ducks were taking American-born OHL star Bobby Ryan, who went on to score 30 goals in each of his first four seasons in Anaheim.
"He's turned out to be a real good player," said Burke, who sent Ryan back to Owen Sound for two more years of seasoning before summoning him in 2007-08, mere months after the Ducks won the Stanley Cup.
"He had some really good years in Anaheim and they made a real good trade when they moved him to Ottawa so there's no regrets about drafting Bobby."
The lone regret with Ryan stems from word Burke described Ryan as having no intensity during American Olympic team selection meetings, which ultimately determined the winger wouldn't be included on the squad.
"I was defending him – that was the tragedy of the whole thing when I said 'he can't spell intensity,'" said Burke.
"I'm sitting at a table and there's six guys who are questioning his intensity. So you've got a choice: you either convince them he's intense or you say 'he's not intense but he can break the game open.' So I said, 'OK, he's not intense. Let's all agree he can't even spell intensity, but he's a good player.' And I had him on the team. On my final ballot I had him on the team."
A disappointed Ryan called the comments "gutless" and the two haven't spoken since.
"I left him a couple messages," said Burke, unfazed by the fact Ryan never responded.
"I'm not offended by that. I know he told (former Ottawa Senators GM) Bryan Murray, 'tell Burkie I'm fine – it's not a problem.'"
Burke agreed the unique nature of the draft lottery in 2005 made it the most dramatic in league lore and not just because every team had a shot at No. 1.
"That and there was a generational player up for grabs so that one will go down as memorable," said Burke.
"I would not describe Auston Matthews as a generational player, but he's a hell of a player."
Although there's plenty of excitement in Canada where there's a better-than 66 per cent chance the top pick will be handed to a Canadian club, the draft lottery format will be considerably quicker than the 2005 affair.
A lottery will be held for first pick overall, then another for second and another for third, leaving the rest of the clubs eligible for a top-three spot seeded in reverse order to how they finished the year.
Burke admits he's anxious for the lottery even though his 26th-ranked club only has an 8.5 per cent chance of landing the first pick, which he confirmed the Flames have pegged as Matthews.
He says the Flames solidified their ranking of the top eight selections earlier in the month and it's now up to the hockey gods to decide if he'll again leave with a podium finish. This time finishing second would land the Flames what they need most – a talented hulking winger in either Finnish star Patrik Laine or fellow countryman Jesse Puljujarvi.
"I just remember when the lottery started in 2005, you're sitting there and if you're a religious person, you're praying," said Burke.
"If you're not, you're just sweating it out."
Burke kept praying he wouldn't see his team's logo until the end in 2005.
This time it's the opposite – you want to see it first.
And he's hoping the most fateful flip turns out in his favour this time.
Or else his relationship with Matthews will revolve almost entirely around future Olympics.
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