It didn't take long for the Ducks to get an answer to the biggest question facing them in the wake of the team's first-round Stanley Cup playoff ouster at the hands of the Dallas Stars. General manager Brian Burke will return next season.

With speculation centering on Burke as a possibility to take the general manager's job in Toronto, uncertainty ruled after Burke said April 22 that he didn't know whether he'd be around for the beginning of training camp in September. That changed the next day, when the Ducks announced that Burke would fulfill the final season remaining on a four-year contract he signed in 2005.

A meeting with Ducks chief executive officer Michael Schulman sealed the deal.

"Based on my meeting with Mike Schulman, I'd say that absolutely I'll be ...More