And here we are, wrapping up our Vancouver Canucks Best by Number series! No budget for confetti cannons, alas. But the Canucks are giving us plenty of news and questions to kick off the new season. And that’s not a bad thing at all.
As we mentioned last time, these low numbers make for some hard decisions. Many players have worn these numbers, some for many years. Here’s last look at the Vancouver Canucks Best Number Series.
Vancouver Canucks Best by Number: 1-5
On the other hand, there are still easy picks to be made, even in these few.
5 – Garth Butcher
The problem with calling this an “easy choice” is that it implies other players weren’t any good. Many of them were fine, some were very good, but runner-up Dana Murzyn is closest. He came over from the Calgary Flames in a late-season trade in a then-typical Canucks push for the playoffs. Vancouver was fighting to hold off the Winnipeg Jets, since only four of five teams in their division made the cut.
Something to remember when old fans with bad memories talk about the “good old days” of NHL competition. Vancouver ended the season with 65 points in 80 games, two up on the Jets, and made the playoffs. Oof.
In any case, Murzyn remained a stalwart defender for the Canucks, playing for nine seasons. In 452 regular season games, he scored 23 goals and 88 points, but really his job was to make life miserable for opposing forwards. He did that well, racking up 900 minutes in penalties during his stay.
Now, Garth Butcher, on the other hand, fully deserves his name. He is remembered fondly for his battles, but maybe more famous for his perpetually-black-eyed look. The home-grown talent was drafted tenth overall in 1981 and handily the team’s penalty minutes leader by the time he was traded away a decade later. In 610 games, Butcher had 33 goals, 140 points, and 1668 penalty minutes.
The Vancouver Canucks had some miserable seasons after their 1982 Stanley Cup run. Butcher – and Murzyn – made sure no other team who came to town enjoyed themselves much, either. Because of his endurance, his grim look, and really his nickname (“Strangler”) we’re saying the Vancouver Canucks best number five is Butcher’s.
4 – Rick Lanz
A defender who the Canucks drafted seventh overall in 1980, Rick Lanz hit the ice running in Vancouver. His seven goals and 29 made him their second-highest-scoring defender that season. Injuries cost him games and, later, some of his mobility, but he played seven years and 417 games with the team. He was top-two in defenceman scoring in four of his six full Canucks seasons.
By the time those 417 games were up, Lanz had scored 56 goals and 227 points for Vancouver. He held the team’s blueline record of 14 power-play goals until Adrian Aucoin smashed it 15 years later. But he might be better known for his coaching, returning to British Columbia when his playing days concluded.
The Czech-born Lanz was also good enough to represent Canada in the World Junior Championships and World Championships. He’s also good enough to take the title here.
3 – Kevin Bieksa
You want sleepless nights? Trying to choose between the British Columbia-born Doug Lidster and Grimsby’s Kevin Bieksa. This is how you get sleepless nights. Both were picked by Vancouver, and both were with the club for parts of ten seasons – the usual rookie season silliness applying here.
The two players up for Canucks Best at Number Three are both long-time players with the club. Both played in the top pairing for almost their entire Canucks tenure. Both wore an “A” for five seasons, though Lidster also shared the “C” with two other players for a season.
One was relatively quiet, efficient, and held the team’s single-season record for points by a defenceman (63) for 35 years. He also has two Stanley Cup rings – one playing against Vancouver. He was drafted 133rd overall by the Canucks and had a near-900-game career.
The other is, in a word, “boisterous”. Not only did he drop the gloves regularly, but he also had a signature move. He’s a regular on national television hockey broadcast, often talking up his former club. He was drafted 151st overall by Vancouver and broke the 800-game mark before retiring.
Lidster played 666 games with Vancouver – which really you’d expect from Bieksa, if anyone. In that span, he scored 65 goals and 307 points. Bieksa dressed for 597 Canucks games, scoring 56 with 241 points. Bieksa had 879 penalty minutes to Lidster’s 526.
BOOM Goes the Coin Flip
In the end, two things decided this and both were out of Lidster’s control. Not only did he win the Stanley Cup playing against Vancouver, but the way he ended up in Manhattan was just goofy.
In an expansion year, Vancouver talked the Rangers into trading them John Vanbiesbrouck so they could protect Kay Whitmore. The deal was for a “player to be named later”. Five days later, that player was Doug Lidster, who promptly won his first Stanley Cup.
Vanbiesbrouck, of course, went on to have five excellent seasons in Florida, eventually taking that club to the Stanley Cup Final.
2 – Mattias Öhlund
With a respectful nod to local boy Dan Hamhuis, we’re giving this one to Mattias Öhlund pretty handily. Hamhuis averaged almost 23 minutes a night in his six seasons with Vancouver and signed up just in time for their 2011 run.
In 389 games he scored 32 goals and 142 points with 438 penalty minutes. He was a rock out there, and the team knew it.
Öhlund, on the other hand, could justifiably be considered their best all-around defenceman in nine of his eleven seasons with the club. And those nine include his rookie year. He averaged over 25 minutes of ice time six seasons in a row.
He scored 93 goals and 325 points in 770 games during the regular season, but turned it on in the playoffs. In his 52 Canucks playoff games, he scored 9 times with 19 assists while averaging over 26 minutes a night. He’s an easy pick for the Canucks best to wear number two.
He’s also in the world of weird stats by wearing an “A” for two seasons: as a sophomore in 1998-99 and in his last year with the club in 2008-09. This club has a lot of weird in it, and sometimes that includes the captains. Speaking of which…
1 – Roberto Luongo
First things first, and first off “Captain” Kirk McLean has earned all his plaudits.
In eleven seasons with Vancouver, he finished as a Vezina finalist twice. He led the league in games played, wins, and losses once each. His astounding .928 save percentage while playing every second was a cardinal reason the Canucks came within a goal of a Stanley Cup in 1994.
He has legendary status in Vancouver, and for good reason.
Roberto Luongo, on the other hand, is a legitimate Hall of Fame goaltender. His eight seasons in Vancouver were a wild ride. His first season with the team – his seventh in the league – saw him as a finalist for the Vezina and the Hart trophies. It was also his first taste of the playoffs, where he dialled up a .941 save percentage in 12 games.
Oh, Captain! My- Wait, What?
When Markus Näslund was allowed to walk in 2007-08, Luongo was named captain of the team. The league refused to accept this, and the team ignored them for two seasons. Luongo was never “officially” the captain to the league, so as a compromise defenceman Willie Mitchell did the on-ice captain’s duties.
Luongo wasn’t allowed to wear a “C” on his jersey, so one was added to his mask. He kept the captaincy for two seasons, eventually giving it up in favour of Henrik Sedin in 2011. Coincidentally, he led the league in wins that season, had the best save percentage and goals aginst of his Canucks tenure, and made the Stanley Cup Final.
Some fans blame him for the 2011 Stanley Cup loss to the Boston Bruins, but that’s way off. Look wherever you want to place blame, but the guy who recorded two 1-0 wins in the Final probably ain’t it.
All lively things must come to an end, and the arrival of coach John Tortorella was a herald. While there were many disagreements between Luongo and management, the last straw was Canucks’ only outdoor game in their history.
He had been reassured at the beginning of the season that yes, the game was his if he was still a Canuck then. Then on March 1st, the day before the game, Tortorella changed his mind. Luongo was on the bench for the game, much to fan outrage, and it was the last time he dressed for Vancouver.
The Vancouver Canucks Best to Wear Number One
There’s no hiding it, here. Of goalies to play more than 100 games, Luongo leads the team in career goals against average and save percentage. He leads the team in career wins (252) and shutouts (38) as well, all in 448 games. He got the single-season shutout record with nine in 2008-09.
So Luongo doesn’t have his jersey retired. That’s tough to do with number one, as there aren’t a lot of “goaltender numbers” out there. But – funny story. Nobody’s worn it in the decade since he was traded back to the Florida Panthers in 2014.
We’ll see what happens in training camp, but the Canucks “unofficial” captain may have had his #1 “unofficially” retired.
Main photo by: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
