Each week I look back at a moment in Vancouver Canucks history. I explore big stories and small stories, solemn stories and silly stories. Each week is an excuse to talk about old-timey, and not so old-timey, hockey and hockey players. This week: The beginning, and almost immediate end, of the Mike Duco era.
Who is Mike Duco? Did he really play for the Vancouver Canucks? Did he do something memorable during this week in history?
In short: You’ll see. Yes. Sorta.
Of course, more important things happened during this week in Vancouver Canucks history. The Canucks celebrated minor milestones for players, and the league ended the 2012-13 lockout on January 12, 2013. But, looking back can yield interesting discoveries as well. One of the pleasures of research is finding the universal in a particular story.
Short-time Canuck Mike Duco is an incredibly common story, which is uncommonly told. He is a reminder that the path to our dreams is circuitous and renegotiable. Mike Duco teaches us that success is a spectrum and not a finish line.
And, on January 10, 2012 he scored his first NHL point for the Canucks.
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He would add a second assist during his six games for Vancouver that seson. That would also be his last point, during his last stint in the NHL.
His career NHL stat page reads: 18 games played, zero goals, two assists, two points.
But this is not a story of heartbreak, or unfilled potential. It isn’t a story of overcoming the odds, or of triumph against adversary. This is one of thousands and thousands of untold hockey stories which make up professional hockey.
Duco first played junior A hockey as a 14-year-old, in the OPJHL. As a 16-year-old, he played five regular-season and four playoff games for the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. As a 17-year-old rookie, he scored 50 points in 62 games. It was good enough for sixth in team scoring, and he was the highest-scoring player of his age by 36 points.
He was feisty, talented and scoring at an elite level of hockey. He was also 5-foot-10 tall and was never drafted. He played four full seasons for Kitchener and was able to catch on with the Rochester Americans of the AHL in his first season out of junior hockey.
I don’t intend to retell the whole story of Duco’s life. Frankly, I couldn’t. Before I started reading about him, I barely recalled his name. Or else my mind is tricking me to believe I remembered him. I remind you, he played six games for the Vancouver Canucks.
But, I want to focus on the fact that this undrafted hockey player, who lived his ultimate dream for a short period of time was able to stretch the contours of his dream and keep playing hockey. Too many young men miss the great prize and stop. They realize they will not be NHL players and they move on with their lives. But the NHL is not the only pro hockey league in the world.
Duco was, and is, an extraordinarily successful professional hockey player, despite the fact you don’t who he is. He played in five pro leagues: NHL, AHL, ECHL, EBEL (Austria) and EIHL (United Kingdom). He is currently a player/assistant coach for the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL.
He never became Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky or Wendel Clark. But in his ninth year of professional hockey, he is a player/coach for a minor pro hockey team.
I really, really want to make a Reg Dunlop joke here. But Mike Duco’s life, and career, are not a joke. He was, and is, an incredibly skilled hockey player. He turned his talent and work ethic into a life playing professional hockey.
He is an example of the most common type of inspirational, but untold story. He is an example of someone who couldn’t defy odds or fully realise their dreams, but who put their head down and worked until life turned out pretty great anyway.