On January 17th, 1999, Jovanovski was involved in a monster seven-player deal. The Panthers received Pavel Bure, Bret Hedican and Brad Reference, as well as a 3rd round pick. In return, Jovanski, along with Dave Gagner, Mike Brown, Kevin Weekes and a 1st round pick, were sent to the Vancouver Canucks.
At the time, the Canucks were in the middle of a rebuild, having missed the playoffs the past two seasons, but showed plenty of promise with their up-tempo and exciting style of play. Jovanovski immediately slotted into the lineup and finished the year with 11 points through 31 games.
Fortunately for the Canucks, he was just starting to scratch the surface.
In his first full campaign with his new club, Jovanovski notched 26 points in 72 games. He became a staple on the first powerplay unit, and was second in average 5v5 ice time with 24:03, only behind Mattias Ohlund. In other words, he was fitting in quite nicely on the back end.
In the next two seasons, he recorded 95 points in 161 games, including a career-high 17 goals in 2002-2003. More importantly, Jovanovski was solidifying himself as one of the better two-way defencemen in the game, and the Canucks knew they needed to keep him around if they wanted to return to their winning ways.
On January 27th, 2003, Jovanovski signed a three-year contract extension worth just under $9 million.
That year, he led the Canucks’ defence in scoring for the fourth consecutive season with 46 points in 67 games, and he followed up that feat with seven goals and eight points in 14 playoff games. As many fans remember, the Canucks made it to the second round but were eliminated by the Minnesota Wild, who came back to win the series in seven games.
Despite the early exit, Jovanovski still recorded the most playoff goals by a defenceman that year, and he also finished 6th in Norris Trophy voting for the second consecutive campaign.
Unfortunately, Jovanovski’s decline in Vancouver would start shortly after.
For the next three seasons, he battled with shoulder, foot and groin issues. He was sidelined for a combined 64 games during the 2003-04 and 2005-06 seasons and did not participate in any semi-professional games or leagues during the lockout year.
He finished the last year of his deal with 33 points in 44 games, and a career-high in points-per-game, but that wasn’t enough. Ultimately, his growing list of injuries, as well as a new wave of franchise players such as Roberto Luongo, Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin, marked the end of Jovanovski’s tenure in Vancouver.