Vancouver’s path to the NHL was a long one, and by the time the Canucks finally arrived in 1970, the city had already spent years trying to get a team of its own.
The franchise that exists today came out of the league’s second expansion, but hockey in Vancouver had been around well before that. A previous Canucks team was formed in 1945, after minor league hockey returned to the city following the Millionaires’ move to the Maroons in 1922-23 and the eventual disbanding of that club.
That 1945 Canucks team entered the Pacific Coast Hockey League and won the championship twice between 1945 and 1952. When the league became the Western Hockey League, Vancouver kept piling up success, winning four WHL titles in 18 seasons. The last two came in 1969 and 1970, and after that final championship, the team moved into the NHL.
Getting there was not simple. Vancouver made multiple pushes for an NHL team before 1970 and came up short in 1967 and 1968.
The first attempt came during the league’s expansion from six teams to 12, and the city even started building the Pacific Coliseum with an expansion bid in mind. That bid failed because the other Canadian teams were not interested in sharing the television market.
Vancouver tried again in 1968, this time by attempting to buy the Oakland Seals. The league rejected that idea, not wanting a team to move so soon after it had just been created the year before. Still, the NHL told the Vancouver ownership group it would be part of the next round of expansion.
That promise came through in May 1970, when Vancouver and Buffalo were awarded teams. The city finally had its NHL club, and the next question was what to call it.
The answer came from a much older source. “Canucks” traces back to a cartoon created in the 1860s as a personification of Canada, much like Uncle Sam in the United States.
That figure was Johnny Canuck, who later became a patch worn on certain jerseys in franchise history. He also appeared in comics in 1941 as a military spy during World War II.
The team’s current branding leans on the region too. “Fin” and the logo are both orca-based, a nod to the whales off the coast of British Columbia. But the nickname itself comes from that 19th-century cartoon, while also paying tribute to the original Canucks who helped bring hockey back to Vancouver in 1945.
The modern Canucks are still chasing their first Stanley Cup. Vancouver’s hockey history includes championships in the PCHL and WHL, along with a Stanley Cup in 1915, but this version of the franchise is still looking to add its own title to the story.
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