Vancouver Canucks

Lore & Background

The Canucks joined the league in 1970 as an expansion team along with the Buffalo Sabres. The team has advanced to the Stanley Cup Final three times, losing to the New York Islanders in 1982, the New York Rangers in 1994 and the Boston Bruins in 2011. They have won the Presidents' Trophy in back-to-back seasons as the team with the league's best regular season record in both the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. The Canucks have won three division titles as a member of the Smythe Division from 1974 to 1993, seven titles as a member of the Northwest Division from 1998 to 2013, and one title as a member of the Pacific Division in 2024. The Canucks, along with the Sabres, are the two oldest teams in the NHL to have never won the Stanley Cup. The Canucks have retired six players' jerseys in their history—Pavel Bure (10), Stan Smyl (12), Trevor Linden (16), Markus Naslund (19), Daniel Sedin (22) and Henrik Sedin (33); all but Bure and Daniel Sedin have served as team captain, and all but Naslund were on one of the three Stanley Cup Final rosters. Smyl has the distinction of being the only Canuck to have his jersey number retired at their original arena, the Pacific Coliseum.

In Their Own Story

The ice at T-Mobile Arena shimmered under the bright lights as the final seconds ticked down. A Golden Knights forward skated hard into the corner, battling a veteran Canucks defenseman for possession. The crowd roared, a mix of new desert fans and traveling Canucks supporters creating a deafening wall of noise. As the puck was cleared toward the neutral zone, the tension was palpable; this wasn't just another regular-season game, but a defining moment in the Pacific Division standings that would ripple through the rest of the season.

Reader's Guide

The first professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver was the Vancouver Millionaires, formed by Frank and Lester Patrick. Established in 1911, the Millionaires were one of three teams in the new Pacific Coast Hockey Association. To accommodate the Millionaires, the Patrick brothers directed the building of the Denman Arena, which was known at the time as the world's largest artificial ice rink. The arena was later destroyed in a fire in 1936. The Millionaires played for the Stanley Cup five times, winning over the Ottawa Senators in 1915 on home ice. It marked the first time the Stanley Cup was won by a West Coast team in the trophy's history. Absorbed by the Western Canada Hockey League in 1924, the team continued operations until folding at the end of the 1925–26 WHL season. From 1926 to 1970, Vancouver was home to only minor league teams. Most notably the present-day Canucks' minor league predecessor (also known as the Vancouver Canucks) played from 1945 to 1970 in the Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Western Hockey League. With the intention of attracting an NHL franchise, Vancouver began the construction of a new modern arena, the Pacific Coliseum, in 1966 (with the arena opening in January 1968). The WHL's Canucks were playing in a small arena at the time, the Vancouver Forum, situated on the same Pacific National Exhibition grounds as the Coliseum. Meanwhile, a Vancouver group led by WHL Canucks owner and former Vancouver mayor Fred Hume made a bid to be one of the six teams due to join the league in 1967, but the NHL rejected their application. Bid leader Cyrus McLean called the denial a 'cooked-up deal', referring to several biases that factored against them. Speculation long abounded afterwards that the bid was hindered by Toronto Maple Leafs president Stafford Smythe; after a failed Vancouver-based business deal, he was quoted as saying that the city would not get an NHL franchise in his lifetime. Additionally, the Leafs, along with the Montreal Canadiens, purportedly did not wish to split Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) hockey revenues three ways rather than two. Less than a year later, one of the 1967 expansion teams, the Oakland Seals were in financial difficulty and having trouble drawing fans. An apparent deal was in place to move the team to Vancouver, but the NHL did not want to see one of their franchises from the expansion

Did You Know?

• The Canucks joined the NHL in 1970 as an expansion team along with the Buffalo Sabres.
• The Canucks have never won the Stanley Cup, making them one of the two oldest teams in the NHL without a championship.
• Stan Smyl is the only Canuck to have his jersey number retired at the Pacific Coliseum.
• The Canucks' first-ever goal was scored by defenceman Barry Wilkins in their inaugural game against the Los Angeles Kings on October 9, 1970.