Most memorable moments of the last 5 Vancouver Canucks seasons

The last five years have been transition years for the Vancouver Canucks. As a result, they’ve qualified for the playoffs only once in the past five years, but have still had some memorable moments during the regular season.

You may think it’s crazy if you’re on the outside looking in, but the Vancouver Canucks have some diehard fans who support this team through thick and thin. Through all the questionable trades and free-agent signings, the Canucks have drafted well over the past five years and have begun to reap the rewards as of late.

But during those five years, there were some dark days. They’re the dark days that Canucks’ owner Francesco Aquilini believes are finally behind his team. It’s only up from here, so while you may be better off trying to get the last five years of Canucks’ hockey out of your head, let’s take a trip down memory lane and look back on the most memorable moments from the Canucks’ last five seasons.

2014-15: Horvat’s First Career Playoff Goal

This was the Canucks’ first season under current general manager Jim Benning. It’s also the last time that the Canucks qualified for the playoffs. Benning inherited a roster full of ageing veterans, many of whose deals carried no-trade clauses; and a near-empty prospect pool, with one glimmer of hope, Bo Horvat, who played his first season in the NHL in 2014-15.

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The Canucks finished second in the Pacific Division with a record of 48-29-5 under first-year NHL head coach Willie Desjardins and found themselves facing the Calgary Flames, who finished third in the Pacific that year.

Fans will remember that it was a forgettable series for the Canucks, as they were eliminated in six games by the Flames. The thing most fans probably remember from that series is how well then-rookie Micheal Ferland played against the Canucks in that series. In fact, Ferland was one of the key reasons that the Flames were able to beat the Canucks in that series.

For Canucks fans, the most positive memory from that season is watching Bo Horvat take strides into becoming the reliable centerman and leader that we now know and love today. At the time, Horvat was the Canucks’ youngest player and was soaking it all in; now, Horvat is a huge part of the new Canucks’ core, but 2014-15 was our first look at Horvat.

Horvat is one of the few players on the Canucks’ current roster with any playoff experience. In fact, he performed relatively well in those playoffs too. In six games, Horvat scored one goal, picked up four assists, and only took one penalty throughout the entire series.

It was good to see the young Horvat get that experience, and watching the jubilation on his face after scoring his first playoff goal will not only give you goosebumps, but it will also make you want to see Horvat compete in the playoffs soon. For me, Horvat’s first career playoff goal is the most memorable moment from the 2014-15 season.

2015-16: The New Kids on the Block

You may start to see a trend with this list; that the majority of the memorable moments that come up in it are young players making an impact on some pretty subpar Canucks’ teams. First, it was Horvat the year before, then it was 2014 first-round pick Jake Virtanen, along with Ben Hutton, Sven Baertschi, and Jared McCann.

While Virtanen’s journey up to this point has been rather up and down, the hype surrounding Virtanen was unbelievable due to his hometown status and draft selection spot. It was the highest the Canucks have picked in a draft since drafting Daniel and Henrik Sedin 2nd and 3rd overall in 1999, so you can understand why fans would be excited about the sixth overall pick arriving to the NHL right out of junior hockey.

In fact, Virtanen got some time with the Sedins on the top line. As a rookie who grew up watching the Canucks and the twins work their magic, that was an incredibly surreal moment for the 19-year-old Virtanen.

Hutton was a welcome addition to an ageing defence corps and managed to pick up 25 points in his first year. He would then suffer from a bit of sophomore slump, and is currently a free agent, as the Canucks chose not to qualify his contract this offseason; but during that season, Hutton was another promising young player wearing a Canucks’ uniform.

Sven Baertschi is always noted as a win when it comes to Jim Benning’s trade history. When he was acquired in exchange for a 2015 second-round pick late in the 2014-15 season, fans were excited after seeing the chemistry he sparked with Bo Horvat the following season.

The Canucks also selected Olli Juolevi with the fifth overall pick in the 2015 draft, and while many fans were hoping to see the team add fellow London Knight Matthew Tkachuk, who was selected next by Calgary in that draft, fans were nonetheless pleased to add another young body

Canucks fans didn’t have much to be excited about, but young players coming in surely provided them with a bit of hope during what were relatively hopeless times.

2016-17: A glimpse into the future and Ryan Miller fights Matt Martin

2016-17 was the season in which the Canucks seemingly hit rock bottom. They had no shot at making the playoffs, and had very, very little to get excited about. This was the year that the Canucks were embracing the rebuild, and as a result, the lone memories will come from the few glimpses into the future fans got.

Most notably, fans got to see Bo Horvat reach the 20 goal mark for the first time in his career, and emerge as a young leader on a Canucks team which was quickly becoming younger and faster.

Fans also got to see Brock Boeser arrive from the University of North Dakota and play nine games with the team, in which he scored four goals and tallied one assist. With Horvat’s emergence and Boeser looking good, fans were given a quick glimpse into the promising future that lied ahead for the Canucks. But there was one more crucial piece to the puzzle added at the 2017 draft.

2016-17 marked former head coach Willie Desjardin’s final season with the team, as he was fired after the team finished with the second-worst overall record in the NHL that year. Some have given Willie the nickname “tank commander Willie” because if the Canucks hadn’t done so poorly that season, they may never have been able to draft Elias Pettersson at the draft. Thanks Willie?

A less broad memorable moment that stands out to me from this season is when former Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller dropped the gloves with Maple Leafs forward Matt Martin, who decided to jump then-rookie Troy Stecher in just his fourth NHL game, while the puck went up the ice the other way.

Stecher was down on the ice with his gloves on while Martin began to throw right hands at him. Miller saw this and immediately jumped in, which caused a line brawl. In a rather abysmal season, the Leafs Canucks rivalry, particularly this event, was rather memorable.

2017-18 Two Legends Retire

If you don’t know who Daniel and Henrik Sedin are, it’s tough to call yourself a Canucks fan. It’s as simple as that. The Sedin twins were selected all the way back in 1999, but they provided countless memories for Canucks fans right up until the final buzzer went on their final game.

There were multiple instances of shifts where the twins seamlessly cycled the puck in the offensive zone, tiring their opponents out profusely as they tried to find a way to regain control of the puck. There were all the slap passes and one-timed goals, and all the instances of the magical “Sedinery” that the twins brought on an almost nightly basis.

Over the years as the game got faster and younger, it was easy to see that the Sedins were beginning to have a harder time keeping up, despite being amongst the fittest Canucks year after year.

The twins provided Canucks fans with essentially everything but a Stanley Cup, and it really is a shame that 2011 ended the way it did. The Sedins deserved to have cup champions on their hall of fame resumes. Quite nobly, the twins didn’t want to receive that accolade anywhere but Vancouver.

The twins stuck it out in the worst of times, and made the decision to retire after they both enjoyed bounce-back campaigns in 2017-18. In classic Sedin fashion, the twins announced their retirement with just three games remaining in the regular season.

They didn’t get a retirement tour that some players experience, but their final moments as Canucks will give fans everywhere chills forever.

The Sedins retired as a pair of legends who came into the league together, and left the league together, as brothers. They handed the keys to Horvat and Boeser, and a new core piece soon emerged.