The Vancouver Canucks when they first began were actually called the Vancouver Millionaires. When the team was first established in 1911, the Millionaires were one of three teams in the new Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The Millionaires played their home team games in a building of the Denman Arena, which is located right in the city. It was known at the time as the world's largest artificial ice rink. Historically, Vancouver has won a cup but that was long ago and have since come close only three other times during the new era. The Millionaires played for the Stanley Cup five times, winning over the Ottawa Senators in 1915 on home ice.
Still based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Canucks are now members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Canucks now play their home games at Rogers Arena (next to BC Place), formerly known as General Motors Place, which has an official capacity of 18,910. From 2002 until 2013, it was almost impossible to get tickets to a game, as the team was doing exceptionally well and was always sold out. The team over the years has also gone through some logo changes starting with the ice rink, then to the flying skate and now they have an Orca breaking through the “C” in ice as their logo.
The second time around, the Vancouver Canucks joined the league in 1970 as an expansion team along with the Buffalo Sabres. During it’s NHL history as a team, since they became the Canucks, the team has advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals three times, losing to the New York Islanders in 1982, the New York Rangers in 1994 and the Boston Bruins in 2011. Following their post-season loss to the Islanders in 1976, Vancouver did not have another winning season for 16 years, though they made the playoffs nine times in that span. When they played New York and Boston, both times they went all the way to game 7 until being defeated. They have won the Presidents' Trophy in back-to-back seasons as the team with the league's best regular season record in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. They’ve also won three division titles as a member of the Smythe Division from 1974 to 1993, and seven titles as a member of the Northwest Division from 1998 to 2013.
They have had some elite players over the years including Pavel Bure, nicknamed "The Russian Rocket", and he became the first Canuck to win the Calder Memorial Trophy in 1992 and is the only sixty-goal scorer in team history. He is regarded as the team's first superstar player. Other stars have included Greg Adams, Kirk Mclean, Trevor Linden, Daniel and Henrik also known as the Sedin twins. There was also the player trio that were nicknamed the "West Coast Express.” This came with the rise of captain Markus Naslund and power forward Todd Bertuzzi who together turned into high-scoring wingers and NHL All-Stars. They famously joined by centre Brendan Morrison during the 2001–02 season and scored for the team when they needed it.
The most recent seasons, the team has been going through a rebuilding phase and with Trevor Linden now the President of Hockey Operations. They did not make the playoffs for the 2017-18 season, but have some star players that are developing into major talent like Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat and Christopher Taniv. They were off to a great start for the 2017-18 season, but then injuries and losses added up. Travis Green is currently the head coach and Jim Benning is the general manager.
