The Toronto Maple Leafs shocked the hockey world Wednesday afternoon when they announced the firing of president and general manager Brian Burke. Here are some of Burke’s most significant moves in his four years as GM of the Leafs.

Burke’s first big free agent signing came in his first off-season with the team when he signed Mike Komisarek to a 5-year, $22.5-million deal. Seen at the time as a hard-nosed defender, the former Montreal Canadien has not lived up to his contract and has become a legitimate buyout option.

Burke signed highly-touted Swedish netminder Jonas Gustavsson in July 2009 in an attempt to shore up the team’s subpar goaltending. The Monster never lived up to his moniker during his tenure in Toronto, finishing with a 2.98 GAA and .900 save percentage in 107 NHL games.

The first big move that Burke made after becoming the Leafs’ GM came when he traded two first-round picks (Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton) and a second-round pick (Jared Knight) to Boston for Phil Kessel. Once acquired by the Leafs, Burke wasted no time in signing the then 21-year-old sniper to a five-year, $27-million contract. Since joining the Leafs, Kessel has led the team in both points and goals.

Arguably biggest deal during his tenure as Toronto’s GM, Burke stunned Leafs nation when he traded Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and Ian White for Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom and Keith Aulie. Five months later, Phaneuf became the Leafs’ first captain since Mats Sundin and has provided the team with a bona fide top pairing defenceman.

On Jan. 31 2010, Burke sent Jason Blake and struggling goaltender Vesa Toskala to the Anaheim Ducks for goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere. After joining the Leafs, Giguere lowered his GAA from 3.14 to 2.49 and upped his save percentage from .900 to .916. Oft-injured for most of the 2010-11 season, Giguere signed a two-year deal with the Avalanche during the off-season.

In his second off-season at the helm of the Maple Leafs, Burke swung a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks for 24-year-old winger Kris Versteeg in an effort to bolster the team’s forward corps. Versteeg lasted 53 games in Toronto before being traded to Philadelphia for a first- and third-round pick.

In February 2011, Burke traded defenceman Francois Beauchemin to the Anaheim Ducks for prospect Jake Gardiner and forward Joffrey Lupul, who was coming off a serious back injury. Beauchemin has provided the Ducks with a solid top-four defenceman, while Lupul and Gardiner have emerged as two of the Leafs’ top players.

Drafted by the Leafs in 1996 Tomas Kaberle quickly became one of the Leafs’ most reliable defencemen for most of his 12-years with the team. However, during the 2010-11 season, Burke traded Kabrele to Boston in a well-publicized deal that netted Toronto Joe Colborne, a first-round pick that was ultimately used to move up and select Tyler Biggs and a second-round pick that was used to acquire John-Michael Liles from the Avalanche.

In March 2012, after three-plus seasons of mediocre playoff-less hockey, Burke fired his longtime friend Ron Wilson as coach of the Leafs and replaced him with Randy Carlyle, who worked for Burke in Anaheim. The firing came only two months after Wilson signed a three-year contract extension.

Burke lured legendary goalie coach Francois Allaire out of Anaheim in 2009 to help mentor the Leafs’ young netminders. That relationship turned sour three years later as Allaire walked away from the team, citing philosophical differences as a big reason for his departure.

In Burke’s final move as Maple Leafs GM, he shipped defenceman Luke Schenn, once considered a potential future captain, to the Philadelphia Flyers for young power forward James van Riemsdyk.