Top 3 Nucks Captains

Stan Smyl and Trevor Linden; what more needs to be said?

Orland Kurtenbach was tough. Unfortunately his leg break the first season really hurt the Canucks, and he never fully recovered.

Stan Smyl was a little before my time (as a Canuck fan at least), but I think Linden was over-rated as a player in his first stint as a Canuck (and under-rated the second). Great guy in the community who scored a couple of big goals, but he never did much else. I think the only reason Vancouver has such a hard-on for Linden is because it's a city that's starved for hockey heroes and on ice success.

What would Vancouver do if they had someone to idolize like Stevie Yzerman, Mario Lemeiuex (as a Captain) or Joe Sakic?

Then again, what makes a good captain? Community involvement? Performance on the ice? Leadership in the dressing room? We can comment on the first two, but not the third. One thing's for sure that you need to be someone that makes other people want to go to war for/with you, and if you don't have a lot in one area, you'd better make up for it in the others. (and if Linden was a strong enough leader in the room to make up for his lack of on-ice performance, the team would have done better).

It's a common misconception that the "best" player should be the captain.

Captains don't have to be the best player or score the most goals; they have to captain the team. They have to lead by example.

Both Smyl and Linden were excellent at that.

Even at the end of his career, Linden was still putting out extra effort when his team was lax. The number of times Smyl's crashing checks got the team riled up is probably a Guiness record. Their teammates respected these guys. Their coaches respected these guys. Heck, all players in the league respected them. Look at Linden - he was head of the players association for quite a while.

It's a common misconception that the "best" player should be the captain.

Captains don't have to be the best player or score the most goals; they have to captain the team. They have to lead by example.

Both Smyl and Linden were excellent at that.

Even at the end of his career, Linden was still putting out extra effort when his team was lax. The number of times Smyl's crashing checks got the team riled up is probably a Guiness record. Their teammates respected these guys. Their coaches respected these guys. Heck, all players in the league respected them. Look at Linden - he was head of the players association for quite a while.

I agree that the best Captains don't have to be the best players (contrary to most people dishing out the 'C's lately). Heck, I think that Jason Smith was probably one of the best captains of the modern era.

I didn't see the sort of inspirational play you're talking about from Linden while he was Captain, I saw more of it when he returned and wasn't captain. I'll have to qualify my position by saying that I only started going to games on a regular basis in 97.

I'll concede that Linden may have been a good captain for the Canucks, but he's one of the best of a poor lot.

On a related note, why isn't Bure's jersey retired or at least going into the 'ring of honour'? Probably the best player to ever wear a 'nucks jersey.

Bure is prolly the most talented Canuck ever. No one had the moves he had. I agree with others; Nazzy comes up short because of his quietness. Linden, Smyl [HTML_REMOVED] Kurtenbach for me are the top 3 captains.

I thought Kesler would make a great captain until he opened his mouth and made an ass of himself during the olympics. It's tough to know what these guys are like in the locker room though and that's obviously much more important than they impression we get through their play and through the media.

At this point I think Henrk's a pretty good choice - but we can't really know too much from the outside.

I didn't see the sort of inspirational play you're talking about from Linden while he was Captain, I saw more of it when he returned and wasn't captain. I'll have to qualify my position by saying that I only started going to games on a regular basis in 97.

I'll concede that Linden may have been a good captain for the Canucks, but he's one of the best of a poor lot.

On a related note, why isn't Bure's jersey retired or at least going into the 'ring of honour'? Probably the best player to ever wear a 'nucks jersey.

I am sure that many (myself included) judge Linden's leadership based mainly on '94.

As for Bure, he was awesome to watch and I wouldn't doubt that he ends up on the ring of honour, but McLean and Kurtenbach deserved to get there before him.

i think Linden was over-rated as a player in his first stint as a Canuck

why is that?

why is that?

The fact that he was considered one of the best players in the league by many of the Canucks fans, but never amounted to more than above average. His totals in the 'legendary' 93-94 season and even his top season (95-96) were pretty pedestrian compared to the hype.

This isn't really his fault, the expectations of the city were incredible, and he just wasn't that player.

So you are again equating captaincy to point performance. That's not how it works.

Originally Posted by sAFETY View Post
i think Linden was over-rated as a player in his first stint as a Canuck

So you are again equating captaincy to point performance. That's not how it works.

He's not equating anything with captaincy. He's just saying that as a player before he came back from the Islanders, just a meh.

If we're honoring Nasland, the least we could is also honor Bure for being one of the most exciting players to ever wear a Canuck jersey. I always wonder how Bure would do if he entered the NHL in today's game.

But I digress.

On a related note, why isn't Bure's jersey retired or at least going into the 'ring of honour'? Probably the best player to ever wear a 'nucks jersey.

+1 if I could for the Bure love.

nucks should retire #3 for beiska and sopel next

Dennis Kearns before those two.

Dave Babych's mustache would have made a better captain than Naslund.