It's pretty amazing watching those clips. I would have liked to see what a prime Bure would do in the NHL right now. IMO, his skills back then are still ahead of today's era.
I agree that he was the most exciting, talented player to ever pull on a Canucks sweater.
He also demanded a trade virtually as soon as he arrived here, really only had 3 great seasons as a Canuck, and eventually walked out on a signed contract.
This is the player were going to bestow our greatest honour on?
As an aside, this team had better win a Stanley Cup pretty quickly. Assuming Bure's number is retired, you've also got to put #22 and #33 up there in a few years. That's a lot of retired numbers for a franchsie that's never won anything.
He also demanded a trade virtually as soon as he arrived here, really only had 3 great seasons as a Canuck, and eventually walked out on a signed contract.
..which is just as many as Stan Smyl, Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund.
Great news!
He's a Hall of Famer!
And all of the stuff that happened in the past is old news. It's like a feud you have with a family member. After this much time passes its time to forget about it and mend fences. The most exciting player in Canucks history and maybe in the whole NHL should defeinitely be up there. I think I'll try to get tickets to that game when they retire it.
I wouldn't have retired 12 or 19, but those players didn't demand to be traded and withdraw their services like Bure did.
You should look into the reasons why things happened the way that they did. The management is more to blame for the situation than Bure. You're pretty much in the minority of people who are upset about this.
You should look into the reasons why things happened the way that they did. The management is more to blame for the situation than Bure. You're pretty much in the minority of people who are upset about this.
I know full well the "history" of events as provided by luminaries such as Tony Gallagher, Al Strachan, and Wetcoaster. I'm also able to apply logic and think for myself.
But this has been debated to death.
Presumably, this decision has been made by smarter hockey people than me. I suppose the HHOF entry made this inevitable. It just feels a little "off" to me, that's all.
Thank you. Bure should definitely be honoured, moreso than Naslund if you ask me. At least Bure and Linden brought us to game 7 of the SCF, that's more than the Naslund & Bertuzzi era was able to accomplish. Not every player hung from the rafters needs to be the community's golden boy, recognize him for his accomplishments on the ice. It's quite likely we'll never see another player like Bure in the NHL, he was special, and that's worth it enough for me.
I know full well the "history" of events as provided by luminaries such as Tony Gallagher, Al Strachan, and Wetcoaster. I'm also able to apply logic and think for myself.
But this has been debated to death.
Presumably, this decision has been made by smarter hockey people than me. I suppose the HHOF entry made this inevitable. It just feels a little "off" to me, that's all.
I understand your point of view but I think that both sides need to take some of the blame. Bure was no saint but the amount of time that has passed, the fact that we have new ownership and that Gillis was his agent make the timing seem right to me. The Hall of Fame entry also makes it timely.
I also think that it's important for a team to have connections to its past stars the way that Montreal and other franchises do. This team needs all the connections it can get as we don't exactly have an illustrious past. Watching those clips of Bure gives me goose bumps. I can even remember the first game he played. He was electric!
I've been kind of on the fence in the past about whether the Canucks should do this (some days I'm for, some against), but for right now, I feel pretty good that this means that some sort of fence has been mended by the Canucks Organization and Bure. For too long they've avoided each other, when really at the very least he should be celebrated as one of the best players we've ever had. Sure, things didn't end all that well when he was here, but time should heal wounds.
So I'm glad that's happened and I'm looking forward to seeing Bure stand on Canuck ice when his night comes along.
I've long said that Bure and Theo Fleury (for Calgary) not having their jerseys retired really just invalidates the whole practice. One down, one to go.
People forget that the requirements for retiring a jersey number vs entrance in the HHOF aren't necessarily the same. A guy could be a total **** but his statistical accomplishments will get him in the hall (not implying in any way Bure was this).
A guy doing things like tons of community work locally carries a significant amount of weight (it's how much weight it should carry is debatable). It's not just the goals.
It speaks volumes about the type of player Bure was that noone has trolled the thread on the main boards yet (albeit in the limited number of posts). Figured there would be some Canucks-bashing by now
