Gallagher making case to be considered Vancouver Giants’ greatest of all-time
Now a stalwart with the Canadiens, it’s worth looking back on 136 WHL goals
Craig Cunningham likes talking about history, specifically Vancouver Giants history.
He likes talking about scouting, too.
The 29-year-old Cunningham dropped into Langley Events Centre on Tuesday in his capacity as an Arizona Coyotes scout to watch the Prince George Cougars upset the uninspired Giants 3-0.
He also took the opportunity to talk about his former Giants teammate Brendan Gallagher, who was in Vancouver the same night helping the Montreal Canadiens knock off the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 at Rogers Arena.
“To be honest, when we were playing together it didn’t click for me what Gally was really capable of until he almost made their (Canadiens) team out of camp in his first year,” said Cunningham, the former Giants fan favourite who’s second on Vancouver’s all-time regular-season games-played list with 295.
“Now as a scout analyzing the game from a different set of eyes, I’d like to think I would have seen it when you watched how hard he competed every single shift, every single game.
“He was an unreal kid who worked his tail off every day. I think now while scouting I get excited to try and find the next Gallagher.”
You look at him eight seasons into his career with the Canadiens and more than 500 NHL games under his belt, and you can forget how far he’s come.
Gallagher is still a smaller player by hockey standards, listed at 5-9 and 184 pounds, but he was all of 5-3 and 125 pounds when the Giants used a ninth-round pick in the 2007 WHL bantam draft to nab his rights.
Former Giants general manager Scott Bonner has admitted the club was leery about selecting him, since dad Ian Gallagher was the team’s strength and conditioning coach and they worried about perceived conflicts of interest. He kept dropping through the draft, though, and Vancouver finally reacted.
Now you speak about Gallagher and his playing time with Vancouver and you can find yourself heading toward conversations about the Giants’ best player ever. So much of the criteria for that lofty position depends on your definition of the category.
Jon Blum (2005-09) had the most on-ice success of anyone while wearing a Giants jersey. He was a key member of four 100-point teams, won a WHL championship, a Memorial Cup championship, had two stints at the world juniors with Team USA, and was named CHL defenceman of the year.
Milan Lucic (2005-07) helped spearhead that 2007 Memorial Cup national championship on Pacific Coliseum home ice, and also has a Stanley Cup ring with the Boston Bruins. Evander Kane (2006-09) was a fourth overall NHL draft selection out of Vancouver and Gilbert Brule (2003-06) was a sixth pick.
That said, is there anyone who is more synonymous with the Giants with mainstream hockey fans currently than Gallagher, who played for Vancouver from 2008 to 2012? It was Lucic for a time, when he was the prototype for power forwards, but Gallagher gets more attention these days.
With 14 goals through 34 games, Gallagher looks as if he’s on his way to a third consecutive 30-goal season, and he’s one of the key faces of one of the most celebrated franchises in the sport.
You don’t see a Montreal highlight pack on TV these days without a clip from Gallagher.
He’s the Giants’ all-time leader in goals (136) and points (280) in regular-season play. He’s tied for 14th in regular-season games played (244), while Blum is 11th (248) and Lucic (133), Kane (134) and Brule (165) are well down the list.
As of Wednesday morning, Gallagher was fifth in goals (165) and 10th in points (318) from the 2010 NHL draft class, despite the fact he was a fifth-round pick by the Habs, going 147th overall.
“The only time I’ve ever been surprised by Brendan’s success
was his draft year,” said former Giants forward James Henry, 28, who’s playing his seventh season with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder.
He was impressed with Gallagher’s 41-goal campaign with the Giants in 2009-10, a jump from 10 goals in his rookie season.
“I obviously knew he was gifted before that, but the way he showed everyone how determined and relentless he is, he kind of put the league on notice. Since then, his success shouldn’t surprise anyone.”
All his NHL success has come in the pressure cooker that is Montreal. He’s one of the team’s alternate captains. It wouldn’t be a stunner to see him become captain one day.
Gallagher, according to capfriendly.com, is signed for two more years with Montreal and is a cap hit of $3.75 million per year. As of Wednesday morning, he was tied for 20th in the league in goals this season and 289th in cap hit.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate to have been around some pretty strong leaders, right back to my junior days,” said the 27-yearold Gallagher, whose captains in
Vancouver included Blum, Henry, Cunningham and Lance Bouma. “Not a lot of players have gotten the opportunities to learn under these guys.
“I’ve been in situations on teams where you are relied upon and counted on to be a leader. It’s part of my personality and my game that’s been able to grow throughout the years.
“My style of leadership is to drag guys into it. It’s mostly leading by example. I have a strong belief if you’re not willing to do the work yourself, you have no right to stand up and say anything.
“For me, first and foremost, I want to take care of my own business and then you earn the respect of your teammates that way. And then when you feel passionate about saying something, you’re able to say it and guys will buy in.”
COUGARS POUNCE ON GIANTS
The Vancouver Giants missed an opportunity to make up some ground in the Western Conference playoff race Tuesday.
Vancouver came out flat against the last-place Prince George Cougars and dropped a 3-0 decision before a crowd of 3,055 at Langley Events Centre.
As of Wednesday morning, the Giants were 14-15-1-1 and seventh in the 10-team West.
That’s good enough for one of two wild-card playoff spots.