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CA’s All-Time Greatest Canucks Team: Cory Schneider
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Jeff Veillette
Sep 9, 2015, 18:28 EDTUpdated: Invalid DateTime
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Picking the goaltenders for the Canucks All-Time team isn’t easy. Yes, two of our candidates are slam dunks, but beyond that, the Canucks haven’t really had a ton of great goaltending over nearly half a century of existence. In the pursuit of goaltenders who both stuck around and played well, you’d be lucky to find guys who match half that description, let alone all of it.
Cory Schneider was in the organization for a while but didn’t really play as much as we all expected him to. But when he was on the ice, well, he was something else.

Career Statistics

Memorable Moments

It’s hard finding crazy Schneider highlights on Youtube from his time here; probably because he played fewer than 100 games with the Canucks. But this is probably my favourite of the bunch, as it showcases his ability to improvise when the going got tough. Plus, it involved him not getting shelled by the Blackhawks, and it’s always nice when a Vancouver goalie survives those games.
I laugh at the Burrows one every time. Impressions are fun. Cory Schneider was fun. He might still be, but he lives in New Jersey now, so I can’t give him the benefit of the doubt.
Amidst all of the controversy towards the end of their tenures here, it’s amazing how well both Luongo and Scheider took things in stride. This might hold up as one of the best TSN skits of all time.

Canucks Milestones

  • 1st all-time, Save Percentage (0.927)
  • 1st all-time, Goals Against Average (2.20)
  • 11th all-time, Games Played (98)
  • 6th all-time, Wins (55)
  • 5th all-time, Shutouts (9)
  • 2011 Jennings Trophy (shared with Roberto Luongo)
  • Represented United States as Canucks Prospect, World Juinor Hockey Championship (2005, 2006)
  • AHL All-Star, GAA Leader, Goaltender of the Year, SV% Leader, First-All Star Team, Goaltender of the Month, Player of the Week as Canucks Prospect (2008/09)
  • NCAA Hockey East All-Academic Team as Canucks Prospect (2005, 2006, 2007)
  • NCAA Hockey East Champion as Canucks Prospect (2005, 2007)

Legacy

Cory Schneider’s time in the organization can be described in a simple, yet completely confusing way; it went so well, that it went wrong. The Canucks drafted him with the 26th overall pick in the 2004 Entry Draft with cautious optimism, hoping that if everything went right, they had their goaltender of the future.
Two years later, everything went right, and they had their goaltender of the future. The issue being, of course, is that it was Roberto Luongo, who had more or less fallen into their laps. But hey, they got to fast track the NHL roster, and Schneider was far from a sure thing, right?
Of course, he continued to exceed the already lofty expectations, and by his second professional season, became a sure bet to be a top-end goaltender. But hey, he was still young and they had some time. It wasn’t the end of the world yet, right?
But as time past, he kept getting better. Eventually, he was a backup who was too good to be a backup. Then, a 1B with elite numbers. Suddenly, he had taken the starting role away from a beloved goaltender with the second longest contract of all time for a netminder.
That didn’t make him a villain. It made him really good. Too good for his own good, if you will. But bless his soul, Schneider kept to himself, waited for the process to solve itself, and kept putting up numbers.
Little did he know that, seeing the opportunity to draft a good prospect and feeling unsure that anybody would ever trade for Luongo, the Canucks were about to cash in on him. So he went, in exchange for the pick that the Canucks used to draft Bo Horvat. Now we wait to see if he blossoms in the same way.
At the end of the day, Cory Schneider was drafted with a hope that he could become the best goaltender in Canucks history. The good news was that they weren’t wrong about him; he’s well on his way to being one of the better goaltenders of this mini-era in the NHL.
The bad news is that they were right about two great goalies at nearly the same time, and eventually ended up with neither of them ahead of schedule. I guess you win some and lose some. It’ll be hard to forget Schneider’s talent, in any event.

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