Vancouver Canucks to induct former captain Mark Messier into Ring of Honour

The Vancouver Canucks made a splash on Monday when they announced plans to add former captain Mark Messier into the club’s Ring of Honour at Rogers Arena during the 2024-25 regular season.

Messier, 63, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007, his first year of eligibility, after winning the Stanley Cup six times during his 1,756-game playing career with the Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, and New York Rangers.

The famously bald centre signed with the Canucks as a free agent in 1997 and spent three seasons with the team, collecting 162 points in 207 games. He succeeded Trevor Linden as captain and wore his familiar No. 11 throughout his time in Vancouver.

Messier bade farewell to Vancouver in 2000, returning to the New York Rangers to finish his playing career. To this day, his Canucks tenure remains a regular topic of fervent discussion among hockey fans in British Columbia.

“It simply felt overdue for us to recognize Mark Messier for his enduring legacy in this city,” Canucks mascot Fin said in a press release on Monday. “Although his teammates called him ‘Mess’, the Canucks were anything but during his years with the team.

“If anything, we weren’t sure whether it’d be better to recognize Mark with a spot in the rafters next to Bure, Linden, Naslund, and the Sedins,” Fin continued. “In the end, we decided putting him in the Ring of Honour was the right call. We’re also excited to partner up with Lay’s to hand each fan in attendance one single potato chip as they enter Rogers Arena on the night of the ceremony.”

The Stanley Cup is expected to be on display at Rogers Arena in the week leading up to the special evening. Sources close to Messier indicated that “he is excited to get the chance to lift the trophy on the ice in Vancouver after missing the chance to do so in 1994.”

In addition, a collection of Messier’s former coaches and teammates will be in attendance for the ceremony, which is slated to be held prior to Vancouver’s home game against the Rangers next season. Mike Keenan, Lonny Bohonos, and Bill Muckalt are among the confirmed attendees on the star-studded guest list.

Early reactions to the announcement among fans and other onlookers in Vancouver have been generally positive, with considerable praise for the special blue, red, silver, and white throwback uniforms the Canucks will wear in their pre-game warmup after the ceremony.

“While I was growing up in Vancouver, one name more than any other meant ‘leadership’ to me: Mark Messier,” devoted Canucks season-ticket holder Robson Dobson, 36, said Monday. “Whenever I saw the captain’s face at the rink, on TV, or in old newspaper articles about the 1998 Canucks missing the playoffs, I just had a feeling everything would be alright.

“Besides, those blue jerseys the team brought in with Messier just looked great,” Dobson added. “They were always so much better than that ugly old Flying Skate thing they used to wear before he came along.”

As of press time, the Canucks had not confirmed rampant rumours that the statue of Roger Neilson in Toyota Plaza would be replaced by a 15-foot bronze bust of Messier’s round head.