NHL Trivia: Vancouver Canucks Retired Numbers

The Vancouver Canucks have just four numbers that have been retired and permanently raised to the rafters. However, there are three other numbers that have been taken out of circulation. The last player to be honoured in this fashion was Pavel Bure in 2013. Bure's number 10 now hangs from the rafters of the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

Interestingly, Bure switched to number 96 for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. Esa Tikkanen wore number 10 for parts of those two years. Tikkanen was traded to the Canucks shortly into to the 1995-96 season and was then shipped to the New York Rangers near the end of the 1996-97 season. Pavel is the only one of the four players to have a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame, inducted in 2012.

Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge with these four questions regarding the retired jersey numbers of the Vancouver Canucks, etc.

Q. Number 12 is retired by the Canucks in honour of what player?

A. Stan Smyl played his entire NHL career, from 1978-79 to 1990-91, in a Vancouver Canucks uniform. Smyl was team captain from 1982 to 1990 and had his number retired in the fall of 1991. Stan won the Cylcone Taylor Award as team MVP on three occasions.

An Alberta boy, Smyl played his junior hockey in the Vancouver area for the New Westminster Bruins. He was team captain and Memorial Cup champion with the Bruins in his final two years, 1976-77 and 1977-78. Stan then stayed in the area after retiring as a player and is still with the Canucks organization today.

Q. What two numbers have been taken out of circulation in honour of fallen hockey heroes that left too soon?

A. Number 11 was worn by Wayne Maki, a Canuck from 1970 to 1973. Maki died of brain cancer in 1974. The number 11 has since been worn by one other Vancouver player, Mark Messier. During the summer after his first partial season with the Canucks, Luc Bourdon succumbed to injuries resulting from a motorcycle accident. Bourdon’s number 28 has since been taken out of circulation. There is a third number, 99, that has been taken out of circulation by every team in the NHL in honour of Wayne Gretzky.

Q. Number 16 is retired in honour of what long time Canuck?

A. Trevor Linden played nineteen seasons in the NHL, the majority in a Canucks jersey. Linden began his career with Vancouver in 1988-89 after being the second overall pick in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, behind just Mike Modano who was selected by the Minnesota North Stars. Along the way, Linden played for the New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals before returning to Vancouver to finish out his NHL career. Number 16 was retired in December of 2008.

Interestingly, like Smyl, Linden is an Alberta boy and like Smyl, Trevor won consecutive Memorial Cup championships. However, it was with a team in Alberta, the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Q. Before Pavel Bure, who was the most recent Vancouver player to have his number retired by the club?

A. Number 19 belonging to Markus Naslund was retired in December, 2010. Naslund was originally the 16^th overall pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. Markus played with Vancouver from 1995-96 to 2007-08. He played one more season in the NHL with the New York Rangers before retiring.

He was the Ted Lindsay Award winner in 2002-03. Perhaps the truer measure of the league's MVP over the Hart Trophy, simply because it's an award selected by the players. That year, Naslund finished second in goal scoring with 48, behind Milan Hejduk of the Colorado Avalanche. Markus finished two points behind Peter Forsberg of the Avalanche in the race for the Art Ross Trophy with 104 points.

When Naslund went to the Rangers, he wore number 91. At the time Scott Gomez was wearing 19 for New York and Markus lost the battle for the number.

1992-93 NHL Top 5 Goal Scorers

The 1992-93 National Hockey League season saw all of the top 5 goal scorers with 60 or more goals. Offense was rampant over the 84 game schedule, largely due to the combined 21 wins by the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks in a total of 168 games.

Two players tied for the goal scoring lead at 76 goals apiece. Alexander Mogilny of the Buffalo Sabres got the nod in the tie break over rookie Teemu Selanne of the Winnipeg Jets, playing seven less games.

Alex Mogilny – Buffalo Sabres

It was a career year for Mogilny with the 76 goals and 127 points in his fourth year in the NHL. He played in the league from 1989-90 to 2005-06 with the Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs. Alex had one more 50+ goal season, scoring 55 with the Vancouver Canucks in 1995-96.

 

Alex played 990 regular season games in the NHL and scored 473 goals. Those numbers would have been much higher considering Mogilny never played the full schedule in any of his 16 seasons.

Teemu Selanne – Winnipeg Jets

Teemu Selanne set the mark for first year players with his 76 goals for the Jets in 1992-93, although he was 22 and had played three years of elite level hockey in Finland prior to his arrival in the NHL. Selanne retired from the National Hockey League after the 2013-14 season, playing his final season for the Anaheim Ducks. Along the way, he has had two 50+ goal seasons, both with Anaheim. Selanne has also played for the San Jose Sharks and the Colorado Avalanche.

Mario Lemieux – Pittsburgh Penguins

Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins finished third for goals in 1992-93. However, his numbers were a thing of awe. Lemieux played just 60 of Pittsburgh’s 84 games and scored 69 goals. On that pace, if he’d played the full season he would have scored between 96 and 97 goals. Numbers like that would have topped Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 92 goals.

Luc Robitaille – Los Angeles Kings

Luc Robitaille of the Los Angeles Kings finished fourth with 63 goals. 1992-93 saw career highs for Robitaille in goals and points (125). Luc totalled 668 regular season goals in 1,431 games in a career that spanned from 1986-87 to 2005-06. He had 50 or more goals in three seasons.

Robitaille also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings during his many years in the National Hockey League. Luc is one of five players to have their numbers retired by the Los Angeles Kings.

Pavel Bure – Vancouver Canucks

Pavel Bure rounded out the top five with 60 goals. The second year player would score exactly the same the following season but while playing seven fewer games. Bure played in the NHL from 1991-92 to 2002-03 with the Canucks, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. Pavel scored 437 goals in just 702 regular season games.

Despite his relatively short NHL career, Bure was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012. Pavel joined Mario Lemieux, who was inducted in 1997, and Luc Robitaille, who entered the Hall in 2009.

10 Facts About The Florida Panthers Of The NHL

The Florida Panthers have now spent over 20 years in the NHL. The team, who plays their home games out of the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, has managed to survive in Southern Florida, a region not known for producing hockey players or hockey fans.

Here are ten things you may or may not know about the Florida Panthers:

1. Before starting the 2013-14 season with the Detroit Red Wings, Stephen Weiss established himself as Florida’s all-time leader in assists. Weiss totalled 249 assists with the Panthers between 2001-02 and 2012-13, 18 more than Olli Jokinen. Until his signing with Detroit, Florida was the only NHL team Stephen had played for.

2. The Florida Panthers have not won a playoff series since reaching the Stanley Cup finals in 1995-96 against the Colorado Avalanche. They were swept in that series. Since, the Panthers have lost in the opening round in 1996-97 to the New York Rangers, to the Boston Bruins in 1997-98, the New Jersey Devils in 1999-00 and the Devils again in 2011-12.

3. Florida made it to the Stanley Cup finals in just their third year of existence. The Panthers met the Colorado Avalanche in the finals but were swept in four games. The three victorious rounds en route to the finals stand as the only three playoff matchups the Panthers have won in their relatively brief existence.

4. Goaltender Craig Anderson held the record for the most shots faced in a shutout victory. In a Florida Panthers uniform, Anderson shutout the New York Islanders 1-0 on March 2, 2008 while facing 53 shots. However, on April 3, 2012, Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes stopped 54 shots in a 2-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

5. In an odd twist, Florida’s individual single season record for most goals is higher than the team’s record for most assists. Pavel Bure holds the record for most goals in a season with 59 in 2000-01. Viktor Kozlov holds the Panthers record for most assists in a single season with 53 in 1999-00.

6. For a long time, the only player from the Panthers to win a major NHL individual award is Pavel Bure. Pavel won the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy as the NHL player with the most goals twice. In 1999-00, he led the league with 58 goals and the following season he added one to lead with 59. It was just the second and third years that the trophy was awarded. Since, Brian Campbell won the Lady Byng Trophy in 2011-12 and Jonathan Huberdeau won the Calder Trophy in 2012-13.

7. Florida joined the National Hockey League for the 1993-94 season. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim joined that same season. Unlike the typical NHL expansion team, the Panthers finished ninth in the Eastern Conference, just one point behind the New York Islanders for the final playoff spot. The Mighty Ducks did nearly as well, finishing ninth in the Western Conference, 11 points behind the eighth place San Jose Sharks.

8. Ed Jovanovski has been Florida’s only first overall pick at the NHL Entry Draft. The Panthers took Jovanovski in the 1994 draft after his first year with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League. He returned to play one more year of junior in the OHL before joining the Panthers. Ed played just three and a half seasons with Florida before being traded to the Vancouver Canucks. 2011-12 marks Jovanovski’s return to Florida after spending the past five seasons with the Phoenix Coyotes.

9. The Florida Panthers began play in the Miami Arena. The rink was built in 1988 and had a seating capacity of just 14,703 for hockey. For the 1998-99 season, the Panthers moved to the brand new Bank Atlantic Centre which holds 17,040. The Arena is now called the BB&T Centre. The Miami Arena was demolished in 2008 after just 20 years of existence.

10. Two members of the 2011 Hockey Hall of Fame induction class finished off their National Hockey Careers with the Florida Panthers. Goaltender Ed Belfour played in Florida for just one season, 2006-07. Joe Nieuwendyk played the 2005-06 season and a handful of games in 2006-07 before retiring.

5 Vancouver Canucks With 100 Point Seasons

The Vancouver Canucks entered the National Hockey League for the 1970-71 season, along with the Buffalo Sabres. In their first NHL amateur draft, the Sabres went for offense, selecting Gilbert Perreault and the Canucks went the defensive route picking Dale Tallon. Since 1970, the Canucks have continued with a low key offense. Just five different players have crossed the 100 point line in a season with one player doing it twice. The team’s single season individual record for points is a paltry 112.

Pavel Bure

Pavel Bure was the first of the Vancouver Canucks to finish a regular season with more than 100 points. He is also the only Vancouver player, to date, to do it twice. In 1992-93, just his second year in the league, Bure scored 60 and assisted on 50 for 110 points in 83 games. The following season, he scored 60 again and assisted on 47 for 107 points in 76 games.

Vancouver’s sixth round pick at the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, Bure didn’t finish in the top 10 for points in 1992-93 but placed fifth in 1993-94. His 60 goals in 1993-94 led the league. Pavel played with Vancouver from 1991-92 to 1997-98, earning the Calder Trophy in his first year as NHL rookie of the year. He played in the NHL until 2002-03 with the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. Twice with Florida, he led the league in goals, earning the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Alexander Mogilny

Alexander Mogilny reached 107 points in 1995-96 on 55 goals and 52 assists in 79 games. The point total tied him for ninth and the 55 goals placed him third. This was a far cry from the 76 goals and 127 points he accumulated with the Buffalo Sabres in 1992-93.

Mogilny played for the Canucks from 1995-96 to 1999-00. He was originally a fifth round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 1988. Alex played in the NHL from 1989-90 to 2005-06 with the Sabres, Canucks, New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Markus Naslund

Markus Naslund totalled 104 points in 2002-03 on 48 goals and 56 assists in 82 games. A sign of the lack of offensive during the early part of the decade, Naslund finished just two points behind Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. His 48 goals were two behind the league leader, Milan Hejduk, also of the Avalanche.

Markus was originally a draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, taken 16^th overall in 1991. He played for Vancouver from 1995-96 to 2007-08 and in the NHL from 1993-94 to 2008-09, also appearing for the Penguins and New York Rangers.

Henrik Sedin

Henrik Sedin led the NHL in 2009-10 with 112 points, earning the Art Ross Trophy. The 112 points also topped Pavel Bure’s team record of 110 set in 1992-93. Henrik scored 29 goals and assisted on 83 in 82 regular season games for the Canucks. He finished three points ahead of both Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Henrik was the third overall pick at the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, going to Vancouver. He has played in the NHL since 2000-01 and is still currently active. His entire career to date has been spent with the Canucks.

Daniel Sedin

Daniel Sedin followed up his brother in 2010-11 with an Art Ross Trophy victory of his own. Sedin finished the year with 104 points on 41 goals and 63 assists in 82 games. Daniel was the only player in the NHL in 2010-11 to surpass the 100 point plateau. Sedin was taken second overall by the Canucks in 1999, one position ahead of his brother. He has been with the Canucks since 2000-01.