Ring of Honour induction deserved
Canucks set to salute the former player, coach and executive who brought success to franchise
The Vancouver Canucks will bring down the curtain Sunday night on their sorry 2013- 14 season but, at the same time, they will remember a part of their glorious past.
In a ceremony before the faceoff between the Canucks and Calgary Flames — fans are asked to be in their seats by 5: 45 p. m. — the team will induct former player, head coach, general manager and president Pat Quinn into their Ring of Honour. The big Irishman, now 71, was quick to point out that he isn’t being enshrined for his playing career. He spent two years patrolling the Canuck blue- line from 1970- 72.
“I did score a goal or two, and they might have been significant goals,” he chuckled Friday. “But I was just an ordinary player, not anyone you would hang a banner for.”
It was Quinn’s managing and coaching, from 1987 to 1997, that brought him great acclaim in Vancouver. He took over a downtrodden, money- losing team and turned it into a swashbuckling, high- scoring — and most of all — winning club, one that came within a goalpost ( and then perhaps an overtime goal) of winning the 1994 Stanley Cup.
Quinn was president and GM for his entire 10- year run with the Canucks. He coached them from 1991- 94 and then briefly again late in the 199596 season. As coach, he led them to two division titles, won five playoff rounds and was NHL coach of the year for 1991- 92. As a manager, his teams played in 13 playoff series.
He drafted franchise icons Trevor Linden and Pavel Bure and traded for others like Kirk McLean, Cliff Ronning, Dave Babych, Jyrki Lumme, Greg Adams, Geoff Courtnall and Markus Naslund. He gave a number of league executives their first jobs in the NHL, including Brian Burke, Dave Nonis, Steve Tambellini and George McPhee.
“To be able to go up there in the Ring of Honour as someone who has influenced how this organization has progressed, I believe that’s what I’m being honoured for,” Quinn said. “I’m quite proud of that. When it was brought up by the committee that selects who goes into this ring, I was certainly honoured.
“Even though I worked for other good organizations, coming to this organization makes you feel like you had a lot to do with keeping hockey here because it was a tough time for Canadian teams and Vancouver was one of them. We found a way to keep it, and build the crowd back and then build a new building. We got better and better on the ice and we started to win.”