Top 5 Goalie masks in Vancouver Canucks history
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.