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.

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.

 

4 Pittsburgh Penguins Draft Picks to Play 1,000 Game NHL Careers

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been drafting players since they came into the National Hockey League for the 1967-68 season. Yet, over the forty plus years, just four players drafted by the Penguins have gone on to NHL careers consisting of more than 1,000 regular season games. One of the players is still active in the league and three of the four are most likely destined for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Doug Bodger

Doug Bodger was drafted ninth overall by Pittsburgh at the 1984 NHL Draft after two seasons of junior with the Kamloops Junior Oilers of the WHL. The big defenseman played with Pittsburgh from 1984-85 until a trade sent him to the Buffalo Sabres ten games into the 1988-89 season.

In total, Doug played 1,071 NHL regular season games between 1984-85 and 1999-00. Besides the Penguins and Sabres, Bodger also dressed for the San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils, Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks.

Mark Recchi

Mark Recchi was a fourth round pick of the Penguins at the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, 67^th overall. Recchi, like Bodger, was a product of the WHL, playing for the New Westminster Bruins and Kamloops Blazers. Mark played for the Penguins from 1988-89 until being traded to the Philadelphia Flyers during the 1991-92 season. He returned to Pittsburgh to play between 2005-06 and 2007-08.

Recchi retired after the 2010-11 season, going out a champion as a member of the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup winning team. At 1,652 career regular season games, Mark sits behind just Gordie Howe, Mark Messier and Ron Francis for the all-time lead in games played. Throughout his career, Recchi also played for the Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Jaromir Jagr

After three years playing in Russia’s KHL, Jaromir Jagr has returned to the NHL to add to his games played total. Jagr was the fifth overall pick at the 1990 NHL Entry Draft by the Penguins. He played with Pittsburgh from 1990-91 to 2000-01. He has also been a member of the Washington Capitals, Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers. Jaromir is currently a member of the New Jersey Devils and will pass the 1,400 game plateau in 2013-14 unless something drastic happens. He currently sits at 1,391 as of the end of the 2012-13 season.

Markus Naslund

Markus Naslund was drafted by Pittsburgh, sixteenth overall at the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. Naslund was traded from the Penguins to the Vancouver Canucks near the end of his third year with the club. He played with the Canucks until the end of the 2007-08 season, finishing off his NHL career with the New York Rangers in 2008-09. Naslund played a total of 1,117 NHL games, mostly as the heart and soul leader of the Vancouver Canucks.