On April 4, 2026, in Dallas, Brent Burns became just the second player in NHL history to play 1,000 straight games. Even the Stars' fans cheered. He hasn't missed a regular season game since November 21, 2013.
Hockey was there from the start. Burns was born in Ajax, Ontario, in 1985, and his mother reportedly went into labour with him at a rink. He grew up in Lindsay and Barrie, played one season with the OHL's Brampton Battalion and went 20th overall to Minnesota in 2003 as a right winger. Jacques Lemaire moved the 6'5" 18-year-old to defence in his rookie year.
The streak began with a setback. In October 2013, a stick to the face in San Jose cost him teeth and a few weeks. He came back on November 21 and scored. Since then came a 2016 Stanley Cup Final, the 2017 Norris Trophy, and the beard, missing teeth and house full of snakes that made him one of hockey's most recognizable faces.
After three seasons in Carolina, where he turned heads wearing gold blades in the 2023 Eastern Conference Final, he signed with Colorado in 2025 to chase a Cup. He played all 82 games, posted a career best +33 and joined Nicklas Lidstrom as the only defencemen to score 10 goals at 40 or older.
Now 41 and in his 23rd season, he showed up to camp with a trimmed beard and new front teeth, joking that the trim makes him more aerodynamic. If he stays healthy, he ties Phil Kessel's record of 1,064 straight games on February 13 in Tampa and breaks it two days later at home. Coach Jared Bednar has said, "I'm not going to be the guy that breaks that streak." Burns says he's more focused on what's for dinner.
Burns has been with Bladetech longer than any other pro, and no player has been more in the company's corner. For a 230-pound defenceman still blocking shots and playing 19 minutes a night at 41, the Flex Force design matters. The blade flexes into the holder to absorb the impact of each stride, then gives that energy back on the push-off, and the steel holds an edge about twice as long between sharpenings. "Brent believed in what we were building before a lot of people did, and he's never stopped backing us," said Bladetech CEO Anthony Morra. "He's not just a player who wears our blades. He's part of the family, and we're as proud of the person as we are of the streak."
A streak like this takes some luck, but it also takes looking after the small things every night. Bladetech is proud to be one of them. When Burns steps on the ice in Denver on February 15, nobody will be cheering louder.