Name a random Canuck

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jan hlavac

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Garth Snow.

Played parts of three seasons in Vancouver and provided some reasonable backup level goaltending - started a career high 65 games in the 98/99 season and posted respectable stats. But Brian Burke said something to the effect of "I'm tired of us being down 2-0 before the puck drops" when he tried to resolve Vancouver's goalie graveyard issues by acquiring the likes of Weekes, Potvin and Cloutier. Snow was eventually allowed to walk as a UFA.

Corey Schwab.

When the Canucks ran into issues with goalies getting injured, Schwab was signed mid-season as a UFA. Dressed in 6 games for the Canucks before spending the 2000-2001 season in the minors, but then had a few more years as a backup at the NHL level, winning a Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 2003.

 

[kaiser matias]

View attachment 929683

Garth Snow.

Played parts of three seasons in Vancouver and provided some reasonable backup level goaltending - started a career high 65 games in the 98/99 season and posted respectable stats. But Brian Burke said something to the effect of "I'm tired of us being down 2-0 before the puck drops" when he tried to resolve Vancouver's goalie graveyard issues by acquiring the likes of Weekes, Potvin and Cloutier. Snow was eventually allowed to walk as a UFA.

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Corey Schwab.

When the Canucks ran into issues with goalies getting injured, Schwab was signed mid-season as a UFA. Dressed in 6 games for the Canucks before spending the 2000-2001 season in the minors, but then had a few more years as a backup at the NHL level, winning a Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 2003.

Keeping in line with this era and topic, Peter Skudra.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Keeping in line with this era and topic, Peter Skudra.

Another guy who multiple teams picked up mid-season when he was toiling in the minors, and he usually turned in decent backup performances. One of three Latvian goaltenders to have played for the Canucks.

 

[Bgav]

Patrick Coulombe

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Patrick Coulombe

Believe it or not, he's still playing! Skating this year in France with Cergy-Pontoise.

Only ended up playing in 57 AHL games, spending the bulk of his time after his 7-game stint with the Canucks in the AHL before going overseas in 2012-2013. Two years in Austria, and he's been in France ever since.

 

[Bgav]

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Believe it or not, he's still playing! Skating this year in France with Cergy-Pontoise.

Only ended up playing in 57 AHL games, spending the bulk of his time after his 7-game stint with the Canucks in the AHL before going overseas in 2012-2013. Two years in Austria, and he's been in France ever since.

That's wild

 

[MS]

View attachment 929712

Believe it or not, he's still playing! Skating this year in France with Cergy-Pontoise.

Only ended up playing in 57 AHL games, spending the bulk of his time after his 7-game stint with the Canucks in the AHL before going overseas in 2012-2013. Two years in Austria, and he's been in France ever since.

The strangest player to make an opening-night Canuck squad in all my years watching the team, for a lot of reasons :

1) He was quickly outed as an ECHL-level player before the year was out.
2) The best Canuck in the 2006 preseason was Alex Edler (by a mile) but he was inexplicably cut so Coulombe and Bourdon could make the team
3) Would never have pegged a 5'9 undrafted overage skill defender to capture the fancy of the generally very traditional Alain Vigneault.

It only took a couple weeks to realize that Coulombe was horrible and that Bourdon was horribly unready, and Edler was back up and straight into top-4 minutes, never to return to the AHL.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

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Believe it or not, he's still playing! Skating this year in France with Cergy-Pontoise.

Reminder that France somehow supports 76 pro hockey teams in 4 tiers of leagues with promotion and relegation.

 

[PavelBure10]

Wade Brookbank

I remember his first game as a Canuck. The Nucks were playing the Calgary Flames. During the Canucks morning practice Krzysztof Oliwa came to the Canucks practice and sat in the bleachers mocking and taunting the rookie enforcer Wade Brookbank. If karma exists it certainly did that night, Brookbank KO'd Oliwa in a decisive win, and a Canuck fan favorite was born.

 

[RobertKron]

The strangest player to make an opening-night Canuck squad in all my years watching the team, for a lot of reasons :

1) He was quickly outed as an ECHL-level player before the year was out.
2) The best Canuck in the 2006 preseason was Alex Edler (by a mile) but he was inexplicably cut so Coulombe and Bourdon could make the team
3) Would never have pegged a 5'9 undrafted overage skill defender to capture the fancy of the generally very traditional Alain Vigneault.

It only took a couple weeks to realize that Coulombe was horrible and that Bourdon was horribly unready, and Edler was back up and straight into top-4 minutes, never to return to the AHL.

I think you're misremembering this.

Coulombe came to camp on a Moose deal and, IIRC, wasn't signed to an NHL deal until the season was already underway and then was called up when Bourdon got sent back to junior, as I think they had a bunch of injuries on the back end. Edler had already been recalled to the Canucks at that point to cover a previous injury, and was up and down throughout that season.

I'm not sure how many players I can think of, though, who as a rookie pro basically went from NHL debut to career ECHLer in a single season.

 

[MS]

I think you're misremembering this.

Coulombe came to camp on a Moose deal and, IIRC, wasn't signed to an NHL deal until the season was already underway and then was called up when Bourdon got sent back to junior, as I think they had a bunch of injuries on the back end. Edler had already been recalled to the Canucks at that point to cover a previous injury, and was up and down throughout that season.

I'm not sure how many players I can think of, though, who as a rookie pro basically went from NHL debut to career ECHLer in a single season.

Holy shit, you’re right. His games were in November.

I would have bet my house that they were straight out of camp after his surprising preseason.

Instead he was sent down, went -8 in his first 12 games in the AHL … and somehow got called up.

 

[RobertKron]

Holy shit, you’re right. His games were in November.

I would have bet my house that they were straight out of camp after his surprising preseason.

Instead he was sent down, went -8 in his first 12 games in the AHL … and somehow got called up.

I think they signed him to the NHL deal in late October as insurance when the team got hit with a bunch of injures, and then had to call him up when they sent Bourdon back to junior because they were borderline out of bodies.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

[wrong thread]

 

[mossey3535]

Steve Kariya, another in a long list of the wrong brothers

 

[RobertKron]

Steve Kariya, another in a long list of the wrong brothers

I'm always so baffled by his rookie pro season. He scored at like a 50g/110p pace in the AHL, and was actually fairly effective for a good stretch in the NHL, and then just kind of gradually fizzled out over the course of the next couple seasons.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

In the 3rd round of the 95 entry draft the Canucks selected Brandon Wheat Kings forward Peter Schaefer. I was so stoked and thought Schaef was going to be a longterm Canuck with potential of being a good second line winger. Schaefer only lasted a few seasons before rounding out the rest of his career as a good two-way 3rd liner with Ottawa and a short stint with Boston. I was really rooting for him at the twilight of his career when he came back and tried out for the Canucks. Sadly his NHL career came to a end shortly after that.

The negotiation of Schaefer’s second contract was weird. Both Burke and Schaefer’s agent, Ron Perrick, did a lot of peacocking to the press.

Fortunately one of the better trades in franchise history resolved the stalemate when we dealt Schaefer for Sami Salo. Ottawa was happy with the deal too as Schaefer was a very productive forward for them.

I remember Tom Larscheid breaking the trade during, I think, a pre season game - which was very rare.

had covid recently and watched some old games while confined to a room. one was the canucks / red wings game a month into the 2010–11 season that showed us all that the 2011 team was something else. in particular, our new third line of torres - malhotra - hansen terrorized the red wings and even had lidstrom coughing up the puck not wanting to get plastered on the end boards.

anyway, i was surprised to see schaefer in this game. fourth line was schaefer - rypien (RIP) - glass. it was his fourth last game in the league (and, sadly, ryp’s sixth last).

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

His FO is really good now

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

had covid recently and watched some old games while confined to a room. one was the canucks / red wings game a month into the 2010–11 season that showed us all that the 2011 team was something else. in particular, our new third line of torres - malhotra - hansen terrorized the red wings and even had lidstrom coughing up the puck not wanting to get plastered on the end boards.

anyway, i was surprised to see schaefer in this game. fourth line was schaefer - rypien (RIP) - glass. it was his fourth last game in the league (and, sadly, ryp’s sixth last).

I still shake my head at us not offering Morrison a contract out of camp that year. He still had 40 point seasons left in him, would have provided valuable secondary offense and two way play, and was available for peanuts. That we signed Schaefer instead to give him 18 games and then sail off into the sunset was weird.

 

[carjackmalone]

Dan Hodgson

 

[RobertKron]

I still shake my head at us not offering Morrison a contract out of camp that year. He still had 40 point seasons left in him, would have provided valuable secondary offense and two way play, and was available for peanuts. That we signed Schaefer instead to give him 18 games and then sail off into the sunset was weird.

IIRC, it was that Morrison wouldn't sign a two-way and they wanted the option to stash depth with the Moose without having to deal with re-entry waivers - although that went to shit when Schaefer decided to leave for Europe instead of going to the Moose.

 

[Kearns]

Petri Skriko

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I'm always so baffled by his rookie pro season. He scored at like a 50g/110p pace in the AHL, and was actually fairly effective for a good stretch in the NHL, and then just kind of gradually fizzled out over the course of the next couple seasons.

I think Steve Kariya is a guy who could have had a career post-2005 lockout. He was dominant in both college and the AHL, and showed some flashes at the NHL level. But the late stages of the Dead Puck Era/clutch and grab style weren't conducive to his game. He ran into concussion issues later in his career, too.

I have an autographed Steve Kariya red gradient orca jersey (maybe 1 of 1?), from when he came up with the Canucks Alumni to Kitimat in 2018. He and his brothers went to my high school, and his Dad still taught Math there when I went there.

One more fun fact...in Socials Studies in Grade 9, I got Paul Kariya's textbook. Students used to fill in their names and info on a chart on the front page so you could see who had had it for a number of years. I still wish I'd kept that book.

 

[MS]

I'm always so baffled by his rookie pro season. He scored at like a 50g/110p pace in the AHL, and was actually fairly effective for a good stretch in the NHL, and then just kind of gradually fizzled out over the course of the next couple seasons.

I think Steve Kariya is a guy who could have had a career post-2005 lockout. He was dominant in both college and the AHL, and showed some flashes at the NHL level. But the late stages of the Dead Puck Era/clutch and grab style weren't conducive to his game. He ran into concussion issues later in his career, too.

I have an autographed Steve Kariya red gradient orca jersey (maybe 1 of 1?), from when he came up with the Canucks Alumni to Kitimat in 2018. He and his brothers went to my high school, and his Dad still taught Math there when I went there.

One more fun fact...in Socials Studies in Grade 9, I got Paul Kariya's textbook. Students used to fill in their names and info on a chart on the front page so you could see who had had it for a number of years. I still wish I'd kept that book.

Kariya had a dominant preseason and actually a really good start to the 1999-00 season (he was on pace for ~50ish points as a rookie through the start of December) but he also ran into Marc Crawford who didn't really have any time for small skill players and Kariya got his icetime slashed when they called up Cooke/Chubarov/Druken in the middle of that season. And after that was never really given anything more than fringe minutes ever again and I think just had his confidence sucked out of him.

 

[bandwagonesque]

I'm always so baffled by his rookie pro season. He scored at like a 50g/110p pace in the AHL, and was actually fairly effective for a good stretch in the NHL, and then just kind of gradually fizzled out over the course of the next couple seasons.

Kariya had a dominant preseason and actually a really good start to the 1999-00 season (he was on pace for ~50ish points as a rookie through the start of December) but he also ran into Marc Crawford who didn't really have any time for small skill players and Kariya got his icetime slashed when they called up Cooke/Chubarov/Druken in the middle of that season. And after that was never really given anything more than fringe minutes ever again and I think just had his confidence sucked out of him.

He was truly tiny, probably under 5'5". I can't remember who but one Canucks coach or executive, when asked if Kariya's listed height of 5'8" was accurate, replied, "In skates, maybe." I remember him being taken out the play and denied space more and more easily as the season went on.

View attachment 929712

Believe it or not, he's still playing! Skating this year in France with Cergy-Pontoise.

Only ended up playing in 57 AHL games, spending the bulk of his time after his 7-game stint with the Canucks in the AHL before going overseas in 2012-2013. Two years in Austria, and he's been in France ever since.

I feel like if I couldn't quite make the NHL, I'd play all over Europe eating delicious food, living in small but cleverly designed apartments and hanging out with women who smoke and don't wear bras until the last 3rd tier league wouldn't have me.