Top 5 Goalie masks in Vancouver Canucks history
Over their 50 years in the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks have had many goaltenders, and have seen many unique and interesting mask designs as a result. Here are my top five favourites.
Not many other NHL franchises can boast that they have had many jersey colours and designs, but the Vancouver Canucks sure can. In fact, they’re marketing their 50th anniversary season around fans “showing their colours” by wearing whichever jersey they please.
Whether your go-to jersey as a fan is the black and orange flying skate, or the new heritage jersey, the Canucks are really pushing fans to wear whatever jersey they please to games. The multitude of colours over the years have lead to a long list of uniquely designed goaltenders masks.
Whenever I played hockey, (don’t look up my statistics for my high school team) I always wanted to be in goal. It could just be the result of having an older brother who wanted to practice his shooting more, but one thing is for certain, I loved to play goalie.
What really intrigued me was the unique goalie pads and different mask designs. I would go to any garage sale I could in hunt of a new goalie mask. While this was likely extremely unsanitary, nothing could stop me from getting a goalie mask that I could add to my growing collection.
Here are just some of the goalie masks from Canucks’ goaltenders that I think are some of the nicest.
5. Corey Hirsch
I’m not a huge film buff or anything, but I’ve always enjoyed Alfred Hitchcock films. The first I ever watched was the classic Psycho, followed by the film that could have easily just been shot in metro Vancouver, The Birds.
Obviously, former Canucks goaltender Corey Hirsch was a big Hitchcock fan, because his mask design was inspired by the filmmaker. Hirsch detailed the thought process behind the design in a telling article he wrote for The Players’ Tribune back in February of 2017.
On either side of the mask were haunting mirror images of the Bates house. In the middle, there was a silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock. The sky was blood red and orange, like the air was on fire. It was the perfect representation of what was going on inside my head. Every single day, when I woke up in the morning, it felt like the front of my brain was on fire. Believe it or not, my first season in Vancouver, I kept it together. I was functional. It was a fresh start, closer to my family. Plus, I was focused on making an NHL team, so everything was exciting. I was still full of anxiety, but when I was on the ice at least I could obsess over the puck instead of my own thoughts.
The mask becomes even more intriguing after knowing what Hirsch’s thought process behind the design was. As many already know, Hirsch is a huge advocate for mental health and ending the stigma surrounding mental illness. If you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to read the story he wrote for The Players’ Tribune in which he discusses his battle with mental illness.
Ryan Miller
Add Ryan Miller to the list of goaltenders we Canucks fans took for granted. Signed to a three-year deal shortly after Roberto Luongo was dealt to the Florida Panthers, Miller backstopped some pretty weak teams during his tenure with the Canucks.
You have to remember, this was before Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson were even members of the team. In Miller’s first season, the Canucks were still trying to be competitive but had many ageing veterans such as Jannik Hansen and Chris Higgins, whose best days were behind them.
The teams were still built around the Sedin twins, but the wheels really fell off in 2016-17, when the Canucks finished with the second-worst record in the entire NHL. Lucky for them, however, it was the same year that they were able to draft Pettersson.
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From the start of the 2014-15 season all the way to his final game with the Canucks in 2016-17, Miller was solid night in and night out for the Canucks. Despite facing a multitude of high-quality scoring chances and having little to no goal support on most nights.
Over his three seasons in Vancouver, the Canucks record was 109-110-27. Despite all the losing the Canucks did over those three seasons, Miller maintained an average save percentage that was actually above league average at .914. After Miller left, the goaltending all of a sudden became a weakness for the Canucks; fans definitely didn’t know how good they had it while Miller was still in Vancouver.
Miller’s mask with the Canucks was a unique design that was similar to the styles used by both Alex Auld and Peter Skudra. Miller wanted to play off the design that he used with his former team, the Buffalo Sabres, in which Miller had a Buffalo head as his mask. Miller asked his designer to use the Canucks’ orca emblem and to expand it over the mask.
He asked for a thunderbird head totem pole design at the chin, similar to the one that can be seen at Stanley Park in Vancouver. This mask had a good mix of the vibe of Vancouver and the unique looking design of the Orca head. It will always be one of my favourites.
Johan Hedberg
Coming in at number three on my list is Johan Hedberg. Hedberg’s mask paid homage to the Canucks’ AHL affiliate at the time, the Manitoba Moose. Hedberg had two masks during his one season with the Canucks, both featured the Moose logo.
The one in the attached picture is the mask of Hedberg’s that I personally like more, the other one has too much silver and the orca logo is too big in my opinion. This one, however, is one I like much more. The side has the word “Moose” written on it in black letters with a red and white stroke, which to me is unique and for some reason works well with the Canucks jerseys of that era.
Although he only suited up in 21 games for the Canucks, Hedberg’s mask paying homage to the Moose has much more significance because he actually played in 60 games for the Moose when they were still competing in the now-defunct International Hockey League.
It was funny how that worked out, that the Moose were the farm team of the Canucks during Hedberg’s tenure with the team. What a coincidence that turned out to be! Hedberg’s mask’s unique design and backstory are why it ranks third on my list.
Roberto Luongo
The franchise’s most winningest goaltender of all-time Roberto Luongo, had some absolutely beautiful mask designs over the course of his eight seasons spent with the Canucks, and it’s hard for me to pick just one. This is the one that I went with, as the Johnny Canuck logo and insignia is one of my favourite designs, and I still believe that it would make a great main crest on an alternate jersey of the future.
The team likes to show clips of a live-action Johnny Canuck and got him to lead the new Viking clap that the team apparently does now; so why wouldn’t they want to embrace their beloved lumberjack? Luongo definitely did, and was sure to include Johnny Canuck in some capacity on most of his masks.
This mask, in particular, is especially neat because it makes Luongo look like he himself is Johnny Canuck. He’s certainly got the beard to pull off the look, but I think this mask is just missing some ears painted onto the sides. We know how much Canucks fans love seeing ears on a goalie’s mask design!
Who knows, maybe Luongo will have a future donning the Johnny Canuck tuque and plaid shirt at a Canucks game. Maybe a surprise appearance where Luongo reveals his true identity after surprising a young fan? Could be cool to see.
Luongo had many beautiful mask designs during both his Canucks and Florida Panthers tenures, but this one is hands down one of my favourites. Now, to number one. The question is, who wore my favourite goalie mask of all time?
Kirk McLean
Although I’m personally too young to have seen the ’94 cup run backstopped by a Kirk McLean who caught fire at the right time, I’m old enough to realize that McLean’s mask design still holds up today as one of the nicest masks ever worn by a Vancouver Canucks goaltender.
The flying V design, the incorporation of the flying skate logo. It has just the right amount of white on it to make it look slick in both the Canucks home and away jerseys of that era. Everything about that mask just screams perfection at you, and although the photo above was taken in 1989, McLean’s other mask designs were incredibly similar and just as slick looking.
There doesn’t seem to be one mask I can find of McLean’s that I personally don’t like. I’m still waiting for a sealed 1996-97 McDonald’s Mini Goalie Mask collectible with McLean’s design on it to become available again. I know they’re rare to find sealed, but to add one of those to my growing Canucks memorabilia collection would be the cherry on top for me.
Especially since Kirk’s mask design is my favourite of all time.
Those are my five favourites in Canucks history, but I’m eager to see what all of you say are some of your favourites! Let me know in the comment section below a goaltender I didn’t mention whose mask was one of the nicer goalie masks in Canucks history!