The best defencemen in Vancouver Canucks franchise history
With the Vancouver Canucks heading into a new era, boasting some young and talented defensive prospects, let’s take a look at some of the best defenders in franchise history.
With the emergence of highly touted prospect Quinn Hughes, the Vancouver Canucks have plenty to look forward to for the future. despite this, we should reflect and look back at the best defenders that have played in a Canucks sweater.
This list is in chronological order of when they played in their first season with the Canucks.Jyrki Lumme (1989-1998)
Career stats: 985GP, 114G, 354A, 468TP
stats with Vancouver: 579GP, 83G, 238A, 321TP
Over Jyrki Lumme‘s 9 seasons with the Canucks, he is the only defenceman on this list that was apart of the 1993-1994 cup run ending in a 3-2 loss in game seven against the New York Rangers. Lumme’s best year production-wise with the Canucks was in the 1995-1996 season where he produced 17 goals and 37 assists for 54 points in 80 games, his highest point total with the Canucks came in 1993-94 where he had 55 points in 83 games.
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Tied with Dennis Kearns for third all-time in franchise defencemen scoring (with 321 points,) Lumme was also one of the most offensively consistent defenders in franchise history, leading all defencemen on this list with points-per-game over his time with the Canucks, with 0.554 ppg.
Lumme was drafted 57th overall in the 1986 NHL draft by the Montreal Canadiens, where he played his first 75 games. Other than the Canadiens and Canucks, Lumme played for the Phoenix Coyotes after becoming a free agent in the offseason of 1998, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Lumme should be very familiar to any fan who watched the Canucks in the ’90s.
Mattias Ohlund (1997-2009)
Career stats: 909GP, 93G, 250A, 343TP
Stats with Vancouver: 770GP, 93G, 232A, 325TP
Drafted 13th overall in the 1994 NHL draft, Mattias Ohlund is second among all franchise defenceman in points, recently surpassed by another player on this list. Ohlund’s best year production-wise was in the 1999-00 season, where he produced 4 goals and 20 points in 42 games (0.476 ppg,) but his highest point total as a Canuck was 36 points in the 2001-2002 season. Ohlund faced a fair amount of injuries over his career, most notably when he took a puck to his right eye forcing him to miss 38 games in the 1999-00 season, and when he had to have knee surgery that forced him to miss the end of the 2007-08 season.
Ohlund helped the Canucks reach the Western Conference semifinals three times, in 2002-03, 2006-07, and in the 2008-09 season. In his last season with the Canucks, Ohlund was the current longest-tenured player, and served as an alternate captain. Ohlund ended his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning after becoming an unrestricted free agent in the 2009 offseason.
Ed Jovanovski (1998-2006)
Career stats: 1128GP, 137G, 363A, 500TP
Stats with Vancouver: 434GP, 57G, 177A, 234TP
Acquired in a seven player deal that saw Pavel Bure heading to the Florida Panthers, Ed Jovanovski spent his first three seasons in the league with the Panthers as they selected him first overall in the 1994 NHL draft. Jovanovski immediately became the top defenceman on the team as the Canucks were in the midst of a rebuild. Jovanovski played alongside both Ohlund and the “West Coast Express” (forward line of Markus Naslund, Brendan Morrison, and Todd Bertuzzi,) in the middle of his tenure with the Canucks.
Jovanovski helped the Canucks reach the western conference finals in the 2002-2003 season where they lost to the Minnesota Wild in game 7. Jovanovski’s best season production-wise was in the 2005-06 season where he posted 8 goals and 33 points in 44 games (0.75 ppg,) whereas his highest point total was 17 goals and 48 points in 82 games in the 2001-02 season.
In the 2006 offseason, Jovanovski did not receive a contract extension as the Canucks were tight on cap space as they had to extend the contracts of Roberto Luongo, Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Jovanovski would then go on to sign with the Phoenix Coyotes, and ended his career where he started, with the Florida Panthers.
Alexander Edler (2006-present)
Career stats (as of 07/04/2019): 814GP, 94G, 274A, 368TP
Being the only currently active player on this list, Alex Edler has played his whole career so far as a Canuck, recently signing a two year, 12 million dollar deal to stay in Vancouver. Selected 91st overall in the 2004 NHL draft, Edler is the only defenceman on this list that was apart of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final team, where the Canucks lost 4-0 in game seven to the Boston Bruins.
Edler has been the Canucks most consistent defender over the recent years but has faced many injuries, only completing a full 82 game season once in his career in 2011-12. Edler has also been one of the team’s best shot blockers over his career with a high of 203 in 2017-18.
Over his 13 seasons, all with the Canucks, Edler’s best season production-wise was in 2010-2011, where he produced 8 goals, 25 assists for a total of 33 points in only 51 games (0.647 points per game,) and his highest point total was 49 in 82 games in the 2011-2012 season. Edler is the current all-time defencemen point leader for the franchise currently sitting at 368 points, but the 33-year-old still has time to make an impact and improve his legacy with the Canucks.
Honourable Mentions (with point totals with Canucks)
Bringing the list down to four defencemen is hard to do with 50 years worth of hockey, so here are five more defencemen that should be in consideration.
Listed by point totals
Sami Salo: 566GP, 74G, 162A, 236TP
Dennis Kearns: 677GP 31G 290A 321TP
Doug Lidster: 666GP, 65G, 242A, 307TP
Kevin Bieksa: 597GP, 56G, 185A, 241TP
Harold Snepts: 781GP, 35G, 160A, 195TP
Over the past 50 seasons, there have been many memories, fan favourite players and disasters, as well as many up and downs, however a new age dawns with the likes of prospects Quinn Hughes, Jett Woo, and Olli Juolevi on the blueline. Canucks fans have plenty to look forward to in the near future.