Vancouver Canucks is an ice hockey team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is one of the seven Canadian teams playing currently in NHL. Vancouver Canucks was founded in 1945 and it played in PCHL and WHL leagues before joining NHL as an expansion team in 1970. Canucks plays in Western Conference, Pacific Division. The team colours of Vancouver Canucks are blue, green, silver and white. Interesting enough, their name comes from Johnny Canuck, a Canadian cartoon hero.

Team History

In Paficic Coast Hockey League (PCHL) and later Western Hockey League (WHL), Canucks won several trophies over the years. Canucks applied the NHL position already in 1965 but they were not approved at that time. Nevertheless, five years later their application was approved along with Buffalo Sabres. Pacific Coliseum was their first home arena and the team used it until 1995, when it was replaced by a new arena called GM Place. Later the arena has been renamed to Rogers Arena. The capacity of Rogers Arena is currently appr. 19,000 spectators.

No Stanley Cup, yet

Canucks has never won Stanley Cup, but the team has been in Stanley Cup Finals for three times (seasons 1981 – 1982, 1993 – 1994 and 2010 – 2011). Thus, the team has achieved three Conference championships for abovementioned seasons. The number of Division championships achieved is ten. In the beginning of 2010’s, Canucks finished two consecutive regular seasons with the highest number of points in the league – the achievement worth of Presidents’ Trophy. Generally, Canucks regular season performances have been good over the years, but the post season success has been limited.

Vancouver Canucks’ Owners and Staff

Currently, the General Manager of Vancouver Canucks is Jim Benning. The current head coach Travis Green was appointed to his position in 2017. The Canadian coach has never actually played for Canucks. The team is owned by a company called Canucks Sports & Entertainment. The company operates also a lacrosse team called Vancouver Warriors. In ice hockey, Vancouver Canucks has two minor league affiliates, those being Utica Comets in AHL league and Kalamazoo Wings in ECHL league.

Trevor Linden – True Canucks Icon

Since 1970, Canucks had several legendary players in their roster. First of all we must start with Trevor Linden. The longest serving Canucks captain played 16 seasons in the team, played 1382 games in Canucks shirt and after his career, was awarded with the membership for Order of Canada. Linden is definitely a true Canucks icon.

Markus Näslund + Other Famous Swedish Players

The Swede Markus Näslund played the most of his NHL career in Canucks. Näslund is the highest scoring player in Canucks history. Näslund has been selected to NHL All Star Team three times and he has been granted with numerous other awards as well. Other famous Swedes for Vancouver Canucks are the Sedin Brothers, Henrik and Daniel – and we should not forget Thomas Gradin and Mattias Öhlund.

The List is Endless

The list of Canucks legends would be a long but in this short presentation, we can mention right wing Stan Smyl, who spent his entire season in Canucks, first ever NHL captain Orland Kurtenbach, super-skilled Russian wing Pavel Bure and legendary goalkeeper Kirk McLean. Canucks continues to pursuit their first Stanley Cup with new faces – some of them to be legends later.