Team: Hartford Whalers
Position: Defenseman
Card Year: 1995
Card Maker: Topps
Card Number: 184
So this is an interesting one. I like when I can find out pretty easily what guys are up to in the current day, and that certainly was the case with the player on this week's card, Adam Burt from the 94-95 Hartford Whalers.
Aesthetically, there's a lot to like in this card series - the beveled transparent team name, the gold foil scratched script font for the athlete name, the Hartford Whalers logo in general. You'll never convince me anything about the Carolina Hurricanes is better than the Whalers, regardless of Stanley Cups won. The Whaler's logo is just a great sports logo. But that is not my primary focus here. We're here to learn a little bit about the athlete on the card, defenseman Adam Burt.
Burt was born in Detroit (just like me!) and played pee-wee hockey for the Detroit Compuware team (a company I vaguely remember existing growing up!) before eventually being drafted by Hartford in 1987 after playing with the North Bay Centennials in the Ontario Hockey League alongside other future successful NHL players - Kevin Hatcher of the Hatcher Brothers, and Darren Turcotte. He saw a little bit of playing time towards the end of the 1988-89 season but his real rookie season was 1989-1990, playing 63 games with the Whalers. The card states that he was an NHL All Rookie Team selection, however from what I found, this was not the case, but maybe this was referencing a different publication? Who is to say?
Burt had a successful career as a defenseman for Hartford, up through the end of the team's existence before becoming the Hurricanes at the end of the 1998 season. He didn't have any individual seasons that were too statistically significant, but he had good size and wasn't afraid to fight when called upon. A quick youtube search finds videos of Burt scrapping with some of the most likely suspects of 1990s hockey, Rick Tocchet, Darren McCarty, Dale Hunter, and Joey Kocur just to name a few. But more interestingly, Burt also squared up with Wayne Gretzky during a five on five brawl during his rookie year, despite initially backing off and Gretzky hanging on, at least as he's told the story.
Burt played for the Whalers, and then the Hurricanes through part of the 1998-99 season when he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for winger Andrei Kovalenko. He only spent one more season with the Flyers, but in that time, he ended up playing in the longest NHL game of the modern era - a playoff game in the 2nd round of the 99-00 playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins that went into 5 overtimes. Fortunately for Burt and the rest of the team, the Flyers prevailed with a 2-1 win, thanks to a Keith Primeau goal in the 5th OT. The Flyers won the series and made it to the conference finals, only to lose to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the New Jersey Devils.
After that season with the Flyers, Burt was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers, but suffered a herniated disc that required surgery during the 00-01 season. He officially retired from the NHL in 2002 after a solid 12ish year career as a reliable, occasionally chippy, veteran defenseman.
But the story doesn't end there. When doing the research on Adam Burt, fairly recent articles popped up among the hockey reference sites and wikipedia page because Adam Burt is now (and has been for some time)...a Christian Minister! After 9/11, Burt was called upon to act as a Pastor at his church's then newest location in Manhattan NYC despite having no formal training. He is now the lead pastor of the Every Nation Church in Morris Plains, New Jersey. But wait there's more!
In 2009, New York Jets defensive tackle Kenyon Coleman attended Burt's church and asked him to 'try out' for a position as the Jets' team chaplain, in which he had to compete against other clergymen to win the position, and he did! From what I could find, he has been the team chaplain ever since (however this position was not listed on the Jets website so do not quote me). While I don't doubt Burt's efforts, if there was a team that God had completely forsaken, I think most folks would agree that it is the New York Jets.
Finally in 2026, Burt wrote an inspirational book with a title inspired by the lengthy playoff game he played with the Philadelphia Flyers - The Longest Game and claims to draw from Burt's time in the NHL as well as his experience as a pastor. A preview can be viewed at the link provided above on the Every Nation church's website.
All in all, this was a fun rabbit hole to go down. I always like when I can find recent updates on players, and depending on the magnitude of their careers, it's sometimes a lot easier than others. I didn't have the highest expectations when I pulled out a Hartford Whalers' defenseman whose name I didn't recognize, but people will surprise you which has absolutely been the case in learning about Hartford Whaler and New York Jets Team Chaplain, Adam Burt.
Sources
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