Vancouver Canucks: Top 5 Radim Vrbata Goals as a Canuck

Wonder where the Vancouver Canucks would have been had Radim Vrbata scored goals like these this year.

Radim Vrbata’s stint with the Vancouver Canucks has come to an abrupt and somewhat bitter ending. After scoring 31 goals last season and putting up 62 points, last year’s winner of the Canucks’ Most Exciting Player award has certainly fallen out of favours with the box score keepers.

Now that his season has been terminated after suffering a leg injury against the Edmonton Oilers, Vrbata is almost certain to be the next victim of Jim Benning‘s youth movement and will try his luck in the open market as his contract yields to an unrestricted free agent status. One has got to wonder if an aging player like him will be able to find himself a new home after being passed at the trade deadline as a rental.

Vrbata is set to leave the Canucks (unless he does not, a case that our Jeff Godley proposes) with 44 goals and 46 assists in 142 games as a Canuck, good for 90 points in total. Despite being a plus-six player last year, he will end his Canuck career as a cumulative minus-24. Tells you how bad the Canucks have been this year.

Recapping the two-year stay that the 34-year-old Czech enjoyed with the Canucks and mourning his lack of production this season, here are the top-five Radim Vrbata goals in a Vancouver Canuck uniform. But first of all, the honourable mentions.

Next: Honourable Mentions

Honourable Mentions

Kicking off out honourable mentions is one of Vrbata’s first goals as a Canuck. This blast from just off the faceoffs showed how potent the Canucks’ powerplay would be for the rest of the season with Vrbata playing the shooter for the first powerplay unit with the Sedins. What a rocket of the shot there!

This second goal makes the honourable mentions not for its flashiness but for Vrbata’s scoring cleverness. He fakes as if going around the net for a backhanded wrap-around to the glove side of Antti Niemi and halts behind the net to use his reach and tuck it in short side, blocker side. Nice give-and-go with nick Bonino and great awareness to bank the puck off of Niemi.

Isn’t that look on Niemi’s face just priceless? Anyhow, for our third goal on our honourable mentions list is his game-winner against the Winnipeg Jets last season. Great speed to deke out the netminder and not being tempted to go to his go-to backhand shot. Interesting to note that the netminder is catching with his right and nice job by Vrbata to take advantage of it.

And this final goal is from last year’s playoffs. See what the Sedins can do! Just get to the front of the net, go with speed, shake off the defenceman, and have your stick at the right place. A true scorer’s tip to extend the Canucks’s lead to three. Watching these makes me sad — why wouldn’t he make such moves this year!

Whether it be for the good of the Canucks’ and their point totals or for the sake of his own trade value, it saddens me to see Vrbata disappear all of a sudden.

Next: Best of Radim Vrbata #5: Remember me?

Best of Radim Vrbata #5: Remember me?

This is a “remember me” on two accounts and a great goal too. Firstly to the Arizona Coyotes — the old man hasn’t forgotten his old team. After years of being the Coyotes’ best sniper, Vrbata responded with his best goal of the 2015-16 season.

And yes. The city of Vancouver had nearly forgotten that Radim Vrbata could score. This was also a reminder to Vancouver that the ancient #17 could still pull his favourite forehand-backhand move. Of course, it had to come a week after the 2016 NHL Trade Deadline that saw nothing happen aside from the Edmonton Oilers claiming forward Adam Cracknell.

This goal makes the list as it shows the best of Vrbata in the 2015-16 season with his signature move at full speed. He split the defence beautifully and broke Louis Domingue‘s bid for the shutout.

After Vrbata’s goal to cut Arizona’s lead in half, the Canucks went on to score two more unanswered, including Markus Granlund‘s overtime winner to take it 3-2 in extra time. Vrbata recorded four shots and finished the night with 2:33 of power play time.

Next: Best of Radim Vrbata #4: The Scorer's Patience

Best of Radim Vrbata #4: The Scorer’s Patience

Who thought the Sedins would need more patience on their line? Radim Vrbata, of course, in all his 2014-15 glory.

This goal, just like the one on our honourable mentions against the Edmonton Oilers how clinical of a finisher Vrbata can be, from set plays — and on the powerplay, too. It is just like watching soccer players score right off the corners or the free kicks. Vrbata waits in front of the net after a broken faceoff execution from the Sedins and shreds Antti Niemi and his netminder’s dignity into pieces.

This goal makes this list as it shows the true scorer’s patience. You can see Vrbata’s smooth footwork keep the lateral movement going to pull Niemi out of his socks while remaining in shooting position square to the net. That is how he was able to roof the shot past the defenceman trying to block the shot in the crease.

Talk about the assist, too. Great focus from Daniel Sedin to get the puck on Vrbata’s stick for his second goal of the night. The first? You saw that in our honourable mentions when he tucked the puck short side from behind Niemi’s net.

The Canucks went on to win 3-2. Eddie Lack was in net on that night, notching 38 saves on 40 shots on his way to a W. Oh, the glorious days when the San Jose Sharks were fifth in the Pacific Division standings!

Next: Best of Radim Vrbata #3: Brewin' the Bruins

Best of Radim Vrbata #3: Brewin’ the Bruins

Well, this goal makes the list as one of the best goals a Canuck has scored against the Big Bad Boston Bruins as part of the never-ending post-riot rivalry.  Remember the game that saw Cody Hodgson rip a slapshot past the dumbfounded Bruins? This was just as good, if not better from Vrbata.

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Playing with the Sedins taught him to go to the front of the net. This was not an exception. Welcome back Chris Higgins, you return to the highlight reels with a great Henrik Sedin-like assist on a Radim Vrbata goal.

Funny how all three of the players who contributed to that goal are set to leave the Canucks. Would Linden Vey and Chris Higgins even play a single game as a Canuck next year?

This goal actually is a great one. Vrbata pulls the puck across his body to his backhand and eludes Tuukka Rask’s desperation reach for the puck that came from a great no-look, between-the-legs pass from Higgins behind the goal mouth. A moment of patience was all that Vrbata needed to let Rask slide out from the goal mouth and score.

Sad that the Canucks-Bruins rivalry is starting to get lost, but this goal will go down as one of the nicest against-Bruin goals in the Canucks’ memory.

Of course, the Canucks got past 5-2 against the visitors as ex-Canuck Shawn Matthias scored a hat-trick and got more hats than Daniel Sedin got earlier this year. Funny, as Zack Kassian also recorded a point that night. Look where they all are and where Vey, Higgins, and Vrbata are going to end up next year. Not with the Canucks.

Next: Best of Radim Vrbata #2: A Goaltender's Nightmare

Best of Radim Vrbata #2: A Goaltender’s Nightmare

Let me tell you as a guy who used to play in net when on the ice. That goal is just so filthy from Vrbata that if I were Craig Anderson,  I am just taking the rest of the night off. You do everything right as a netminder — you commit to the shot and let the defencemen take the pass. You don’t go down to the knees until the very last moment.

And the puck goes around you and into the net. Well, that’s what the 2014-15 Radim Vrbata could do to a netminder. This goal makes the list as the best deke that Vrbata dished out in his Canuck career and the best solo effort from Vrbata as a Canuck. Many goals came off of the Sedins’ stick for Vrbata. This one was all his.

Vrbata slows it right down, lets Anderson lock his skates onto the ice and evades the Ottawa netminder’s poke check to make sure the puck crosses the line past net-crashing defencemen in red. He keeps his head up the whole way and demonstrates again the patience of a goal scorer.

Sadly, though, the Canucks would go on to give up four unanswered goals, including the overtime loser to Erik Karlsson. Vrbata added an assist later in the game on a Kevin Bieksa goal.

Brad Richardson also tallied for the Canucks. Funny how Richardson and Vrbata eventually got to trade places, eh?

Next: Best of Radim Vrbata #1: When Sedinery Meets Vrbata-ry