NHL Star Shocks Fans With Unrecognizable New Look

Harry How/Getty Images The most famous beard in the National Hockey League has been abandoned.

The Colorado Avalanche’s Brent Burns debuted an entirely new look ahead of his 23rd NHL season.

The transformation was so dramatic that fans deemed the 41-year-old defenseman completely unrecognizable after he shaved his beard and got a fresh set of teeth.

The Denver-based Canadian has grown out his beard since 2014.

It has become so famous that fans make signs and puns about it.

For over a decade, his signature look has also included a wide smile with three missing front teeth.

On Wednesday, Sept.

17, Burns arrived at the Colorado Avalanche media day with his signature scruffy beard trimmed short and a full set of teeth.

To complete the transformation, he cut his neck-length hair, which he typically slicks back, shorter on top and buzzed the sides.

Colorado Avalanche reporter Bailey Curtis posted a photo of the look on X , and fans quickly filled the comments calling the transformation “witchcraft.” Some even questioned whether the father of two had undergone plastic surgery.

“I genuinely refuse to believe that this is Brent Burns,” one person wrote on X .

Another shared the same sentiment: “He looks great, but if you showed me this, I would NEVER have thought it was Brent.” Many agreed that Burns looked 10 years younger, a few calling him Benjamin Button after the fictional character who ages backward.

Some even wrote that Burns looked like his rookie-year self, from when the Minnesota Wild drafted him in 2003.

Back then, Burns preferred a shaved look.