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“A large part of this is my conversations with and my friendship with (general manager) Glen Hanlon and how he proposed the position, and my conversations with (owner) Ron Toigo.”

Burnstein is from Hamilton, Ont., and was a stick boy at age eight for his older brother’s midget team. In high school, he was an equipment manager for the junior Hamilton Steelhawks, but would soon branch into the medical end of the business and take a three-year course at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont.

He interned with the Canucks’ old farm team, the Hamilton Canucks in 1992-93, and would eventually be hired on there. He moved to the Vancouver Canucks for the 1995-96 campaign, replacing the late Larry Ashley.

Burnstein was the youngest athletic trainer in the NHL at the time, at just 25. Hanlon was an assistant coach with that team.

The first time Burnstein had to go on the ice to tend to a player at the NHL level was in an Oct. 2 exhibition game that campaign between the Canucks and the Calgary Flames. His first patient? Pavel Bure, who had dislocated a finger on Ronnie Stern’s helmet during a scrum.

Hanlon told Burnstein as he was going on the ice: “Hey, kid … he’s worth $25 million … don’t mess up.”

”It was the first injury. I’d just gotten here,” Burnstein recalled in a February 1996 profile story by The Province’s Jim Jamieson. “It was a break-in period and it kind of started from there. Now, when I come off the ice, the guys always say things and it’s kind of a good feeling.’’

Burnstein said he looked at positions in pro hockey, but couldn’t find the right fit. He has worked the Spengler Cup for Hockey Canada and the World Cup of Hockey for Team Europe since leaving the Canucks.

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