Vancouver Canucks 1987 NHL Draft Retrospective

The Canuck Way continues our series where we look at how the Vancouver Canucks have drafted over the years. Today we look at the 1987 NHL Draft.

By now, this is starting to feel like a broken record. The Vancouver Canucks continued to have very little success in the draft. In 1987, the Canucks picks would go on to play less than 1,000 games in the NHL as a unit.  A total of 918 games were played by Canucks picks that year, with 777 of them being from one single player.

Let’s take a look at the bunch.

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Rob Murphy played parts of four seasons with the Canucks, never playing more than 42 games in a season. He later played for the Ottawa Senators and Los Angeles Kings. He split the rest of his non-NHL career in the IHL and Germany.

Steve Veilleux played in the IHL and the AHL after leaving the QMJHL. Doug Torrel played in the IHL, AHL,, as well as the WCHL and Germany after his junior career. Sean Fabian never played professional hockey after leaving the University of Minnesota.

Garry Valk was the success of the draft for the Canucks. However, again, he only played parts of three seasons with Vancouver. He joined the Anaheim Mighty Ducks when he was selected in the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the middle of the 1996-97 season and spent a season and a half there. In 1998, he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He spent four seasons with the Leafs, playing an important role with Pat Quinn as coach. He signed with the Chicago Blackhawks for the 2002-03 season, his final in the NHL.

Todd Fanning was done with hockey after leaving Ohio State University. Viktor Tumeneu never left Russia. Craig Daly played two seasons in the ECHL. After leaving Clarkson University, John Fletcher spent his entire five-year career in the ECHL, playing for five different teams. Roger Hansson split his playing career with Sweden and Germany.

Neil Eisenhunt’s NHL career, all 16 games of it, were split between two seasons. He played 13 games with the Canucks in the 1993-94 season and three more with the Calgary Flames in the 1994-95 season. He split the rest of his career with the AHL, IHL and Germany. Matt Evo never played professionally after leaving Ferris State University.

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