The history of the Vancouver Canucks begins when the team joined the National Hockey League (NHL). Founded as an expansion team in 1970 along with the Buffalo Sabres, the Vancouver Canucks were the first NHL team to be based in Vancouver. They adopted the name of the minor professional hockey team that had existed in Vancouver since 1945.
After initially struggling as an expansion team in the NHL, the Canucks won their first division title in 1975. Vancouver then proceed to set a record for futility in North American professional sports by enduring 16 consecutive losing seasons, although it was in the midst of this streak when the team, led by captain Stan Smyl, made their first Stanley Cup Final in 1982, losing in four straight games to the New York Islanders. After acquiring several key players, including Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure and Kirk McLean, they won consecutive division titles in 1992 and 1993. The Canucks made a second appearance in the Stanley Cup Final in 1994, losing in the seventh and deciding game to the New York Rangers. Returning to several years of slightly less decent play, in the late 1990s, the team improved under the leadership of captain Markus Naslund in the early part of the 21st century.
Background Vancouver became home to a professional ice hockey team for the first time in 1911 when Patrick brothers Frank and Lester established the Vancouver Millionaires, one of three teams in the new Pacific Coast Hockey Association. To accommodate the Millionaires, the Patrick brothers directed the building of the Denman Arena, which was known at the time as the world's largest artificial ice rink (it burned down in 1936). The Millionaires played for the Stanley Cup five times, winning over the Ottawa Senators in 1915 on home ice. It marked the first time the Stanley Cup was won by a west coast team in the trophy's history.
After the Millionaires disbanded following the 1925–26 season, Vancouver was home to only minor league teams for many years. Most notably, the present-day Canucks' minor league predecessor (also known as the Vancouver Canucks), played from 1945 to 1970 in the Pacific Coast Hockey League and Western Hockey League.
1967–1970: NHL application With the intention of attracting an NHL franchise, Vancouver began the construction of a new modern arena, the Pacific Coliseum, in 1967. The WHL's Canucks were playing in a small indoor arena at the time, the Vancouver Forum, situated on the same Pacific National Exhibition grounds as the Coliseum. Meanwhile, a Vancouver group led by WHL Canucks owner and former Vancouver mayor Fred Hume made a bid to be one of the six teams due to join the league in 1967, but the NHL rejected their application. Bid leader Cyril McLean called the denial a "cooked-up deal", referring to several biases that factored against them. Speculation long abounded afterwards that the bid was hindered by Toronto Maple Leafs president Stafford Smythe; after a failed Vancouver-based business deal, he was quoted as saying that the city would not get an NHL franchise in his lifetime. Additionally, along with the Montreal Canadiens, Smythe purportedly did not wish to split Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) hockey revenues three ways rather than two. There were reports at the time, however, that the group had made a very weak proposal in expectation that Vancouver was a lock for one of the new franchises.
Less than a year later, the Oakland Seals were in financial difficulty and having trouble drawing fans. An apparent deal was in place to move the team to Vancouver, but the NHL did not want to see one of their franchises from the expansion of 1967 move so quickly and nixed the deal. In exchange for avoiding a lawsuit, the NHL promised Vancouver would get a team in the next expansion. Another group, headed by Minnesota entrepreneur Tom Scallen, made a new presentation, and was awarded an expansion franchise for the price of $6 million (three times the cost in 1967). The new ownership group purchased the WHL Canucks, and joined the league along with the Buffalo Sabres for the 1970–71 season.
Team history
1970–1982: Early years To fill the Canucks' roster for their inaugural season, the NHL held an expansion draft in the preceding summer. A draft lottery was held on June 9, 1970, determining who between the Canucks and Sabres would receive the first selection in the Expansion Draft, as well as the 1970 NHL amateur draft; the Sabres won both spins. With his first selection in the Expansion Draft, Canucks general manager Bud Poile chose defenceman Gary Doak. Among the other players chosen by Vancouver were centre Orland Kurtenbach, who was named the Canucks' first-ever captain; as well as defenceman Pat Quinn, who later became the team's general manager and coach in the 1990s. Two days later, on June 11, 1970, the Canucks made defenceman Dale Tallon their first-ever amateur draft selection. Tallon played three seasons with the club before being traded away to the Chicago Black Hawks. By comparison, the Sabres chose centre Gilbert Perreault with the first overall selection they won from the lottery; Perrault went on to become a nine-time All-Star and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
At this time, the NHL was divided into East and West Divisions, however the actual makeup of divisions was not strictly determined by geography. Instead, the East consisted of the Original Six teams while the West comprised the teams that had joined in 1967. One of the conditions of the 1970 expansion was that the new teams would join the established East while the westernmost of the Original Six teams (the Chicago Black Hawks) would move to the West. As a result, despite playing on the West Coast, Vancouver made its NHL debut in the East Division. While this arrangement provided the Canucks the benefit of more lucrative dates against the other five Original Six teams (including their Canadian rivals in Montreal and Toronto) it also all but assured the team would finish well out of playoff contention for its initial seasons, since at the time playoff qualification was limited to the top four teams per division.
With the Canucks' roster set, the team played its inaugural game against the Los Angeles Kings on October 9, 1970. They lost the contest 3–1; defenceman Barry Wilkins scored the Canucks' lone goal in the game and first in franchise history, a backhander against goaltender Denis DeJordy. Two days later, the squad recorded the first win in franchise history, a 5–3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Not surprisingly given the tough divisional alignment, the Canucks struggled in their early years, failing to make the playoffs in their first four seasons. In an effort to compete in the East, Poile assembled a core of players during this period led by Kurtenbach that included defencemen Tallon and Jocelyn Guevremont, as well as wingers Andre Boudrias and Dennis Ververgaert. Boudrias emerged as the team's leading point-scorer in four of their first five seasons.
Prior to the 1974–75 season, Scallen and his ownership group from Minnesota sold the team to local media mogul Frank Griffiths for $9 million. Also in the summer of 1974, the NHL continued to aggressively expand in the face of competition from the rival World Hockey Association. The previous season, the upstart WHA placed a team in Vancouver, the Vancouver Blazers. The Canucks aggressively lobbied for a new divisional alignment, arguing they needed to be competitive on the ice to successfully compete with the Blazers at the box office. Because of this and other considerations, the East Division was dissolved and the Canucks were re-aligned into the new Smythe Division, which was a much weaker division.
The Canucks responded with their first winning record (38 wins, 32 losses and 10 ties) and their first division title with 86 points. This not only gave them their first-ever postseason berth but a bye to the quarterfinal round of the expanded Stanley Cup playoffs, however the Canucks lost in five games to the Montreal Canadiens. Head coach and general manager Phil Maloney (the third GM in team history after Poile and Hal Laycoe) recalled the importance of a successful season for the Canucks in that year specifically, as they were in direct competition with the Blazers. The Canucks easily outdrew the Blazers and the latter team relocated to Calgary the following season. The Canucks posted a second consecutive winning record and made the playoffs in 1975–76, but were edged out by the Chicago Black Hawks for the division title and swept by the New York Islanders in a best-of-three preliminary series.
The Canucks missed the playoffs in the two seasons thereafter. Meanwhile, Kurtenbach had since retired and assumed a coaching position with Vancouver. His departure as a player marked the beginning of a seven-year period in which the Canucks had four different captains – Boudrias, Chris Oddleifson, Don Lever and Kevin McCarthy. Following their post-season loss to the Islanders in 1976, Vancouver did not have another winning season for 16 years, nevertheless due to the expanded playoff format the Canucks still made the playoffs nine times in that span. Following the 1976–77 season, Maloney was replaced as general manager by Jake Milford, who acquired such players as Stan Smyl, Thomas Gradin and Richard Brodeur, a core that would lead the team throughout the 1980s.
1982 Stanley Cup run
The Canucks made their first significant playoff impact in the post-season of 1982. In their previous five playoff appearances, the team had failed to win a single series. Though the Canucks finished three games under a .500 win percentage in the 1981–82 regular season, they began gaining momentum by finishing the campaign on a nine-game unbeaten streak. Meanwhile, Smyl emerged as the club's leader, replacing McCarthy as captain after the latter was sidelined with an injury late in the season (he would retain that position for a team-record eight years). Continuing their success in the playoffs, the Canucks made the Stanley Cup Final with a combined 11–2 record in series against the Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Black Hawks. Despite having a losing regular season record, Vancouver had home ice advantage in the first series, having finished second in the Smythe Division to the Edmonton Oilers. The Canucks also had home ice advantage during the second round series against the Kings, who upset the Oilers in the first round.
During the Conference Finals against the Black Hawks, Vancouver interim head coach Roger Neilson, frustrated with what he felt was the poor officiating in the game, placed a white towel on the end of a hockey stick and held it up in a gesture mocking surrender (waving the white flag). The players on the Canucks' bench followed suit. At the next game, the team's fans cheered their team on by waving white towels above their heads. The habit stuck, becoming an original Canuck fan tradition now seen across the NHL and in other sports, known as "Towel Power". The Canucks proceeded to win the series, reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in their history.