Welcome to Last Word on Hockey’s One-Hit Wonder series. Each day, we will take a look at a new team’s three biggest one-hit wonders. These are players that had one great season or playoff run but never did anything like that again. Join us every day for a new team! Today we take a look at the Vancouver Canucks One-Hit Wonders.
Vancouver Canucks One-Hit Wonders
Darcy Rota
Fans of the current Canucks squad are hoping for one thing: that J.T. Miller never qualifies here. Miller’s done great work alongside young Brock Boeser and younger Elias Pettersson, and they’ve clearly been great for him, too. It’s not an uncommon tactic for coaches to put a seasoned veteran with a younger duo. It’s something Vancouver fans have seen regularly, especially with the Sedin’s early years. Back in the 1982-83 season, the “Vet + Two” line was Darcy Rota with Stan Smyl and Thomas Gradin. While Rota was only three years older than Gradin, and four older than Smyl, it was his 10th NHL season. Future Canuck legends Gradin and Smyl were each in just their fifth year. Together, the trio was one to watch: Smyl led the team with 88 points, Gradin was next with 86. Rota finished the year with a career-high 81 points and team-leading 42 goals.
The scoring wasn’t totally unexpected, especially given that first-line opportunity. He had done well the previous year, getting 20 goals and 40 points in just 51 games. But his 42 goal season was well beyond his career average, 14 higher than any other year. Part of that was no doubt due to his 24.3 shooting percentage, and his shooting percentage was no doubt in part because of the opportunities his more talented teammates got him. In that exceptional 1982-83 season, he scored both 25 more points than his next highest year and his only All-Star votes.
Second-Best Best
Patrik Sundstrom‘s 38-goals, 91-points in 1983-84 was close, but it’s only 15 points higher than his next-best season.
Steve Weeks
One of Vancouver’s many nicknames over the years has been The Goalie Graveyard. Between 1998, when “Captain” Kirk McLean was traded away, and 2007’s arrival of Roberto Luongo, the Canucks went through 18 goaltenders. Nine of those goalies were given a real chance, too, playing 16 or more games for the team. But for the most part, the search was to find a backup who wouldn’t lose points when McLean had a day off. Early in his Canucks career, they had one. Briefly.
Steve Weeks came to Vancouver in exchange for Canucks legend “King” Richard Brodeur, so there was pressure to perform. It was unfair to place that on a 30-year old veteran backup, but unavoidable. Then for one shining year Weeks, in a tandem with McLean, lived up to it.
Weeks’ rookie season saw him play 49 games with the New York Rangers, with indifferent results. He wouldn’t break the 30-game mark for another seven years, getting into 35 with the Canucks in 1988-89. The vet was a backup, but hardly a drop-off from the rising star. He finished the season with a 2.98 goals-against average – sixth-best in the league – to McLean’s 3.08. His save percentage was fifth-best in the league at .892. Between the two of them, Vancouver finished with the third-best goals against in the league.
They were numbers Weeks hadn’t reached before, and never would again. His second-best goals-against average for a season was 3.42 with the Hartford Whalers, a far cry from his best.
Second-Best Best
Eddie Lack and his .921 save percentage in 2014-15 was considered, but he only managed 5 seasons and 144 games total before injuries ended his career.
Gino Odjick
Enforcers are a vanished breed for the most part, but they used to be a staple of any lineup. Gino Odjick lasted eight years in a Canucks jersey, racking up over 2,000 penalty minutes and a rabid fan base. Still one of the most popular players in Vancouver history – popular enough be invited to clothesline a zombie, anyway – he’s here for another reason. In 1993-94 the fourth-year right-wing enforcer lined up with his lifelong friend: third-year superstar Pavel Bure.
While Bure finished up his second consecutive 60-goal, 100+ point season, Odjick put up 271 minutes in penalties – and 16 goals of his own. This is twice as many goals as he managed in any other year, and it includes four power-play goals and five game-winners. Even the 13 assists tie his career-high.
Though he was pulled off Bure’s line for the 1994 Stanley Cup run, the year Gino Odjick scored a quarter of his 12-year long career’s goals is a memorable one.
Second-Best Best
Odjick’s replacement had a hard act to follow, but there’s no doubting Donald Brashear‘s will. The year Odjick was traded, Brashear collected 372 penalty minutes – over 100 more than any other of his 16 years in the NHL.
Something Special
We couldn’t let this opportunity pass without mentioning two of the more remarkable Vancouver Canucks one-hit wonders. Both of them left quite an impression on special teams, even if just for one season.
Adrian Aucoin was billed as a reliable defender with some offence, but in 1998-99 he went above and beyond. After seasons of four, five, and three goals, he caught fire with 23. While that was eye-opening, an astounding 18 of them were on the power-play. For the record, 18 power-play goals are the second most for a defenceman in league history. He is behind only Sheldon Souray and tied with Denis Potvin and Mike Green. In an 18-year career, Aucoin would reach seven power-play goals just once more.
On the other end of the spectrum, we propose a new Oxford definition: “Gerryminoring” is when a professional hockey player has more career shorthanded goals than regular strength ones. Gerry Minor had a brief career – 140 games over five years – but one notable distinction. In his only full season, Minor scored 10 of his 11 career goals in 72 games, and six of them were short-handed.
That’s got to be worth an Urban Dictionary entry at least.
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