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[Report] Canucks MIGHT retire Pavel Bure's #10

hockeyville88

By hockeyville88
in Canucks Talk

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Buddhas Hand Canucks First-Line

Buddhas Hand

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Why Pavel Bure Left Vancouver

The article is from January 20th, 1999

Have a read for yourself, but here's the Coles notes:

  1. Bure arrived in LA waiting to meet with the Canucks who left him sitting for weeks.

  2. Bure was asked to pay $50,000 of his salary towards buying him out of his Russian contract

  3. After winning the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year, the Canucks felt he needed to prove his value more before signing a new contract.

  4. After agreeing to a contract of similar value to Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny, the Canucks pulled the rug out from under Bure by making the numbers in Canadian dollars instead of American dollars, a very uncommon practice.

  5. Canucks refused to pay a signing bonus they owed him.

  6. Broken promises about moving Pavel, and a handful of other instances destroying trust.

In light of this, I personally have a lot more sympathy for Pavel than I did at the time. He probably had to undergo unfair treatment from fans and the media who did not have the whole story.

When it comes to retiring his jersey though, who even knows if Pavel would want that from an organization that in his mind mistreated him so?

Stan Smyl, Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund were long-time captains. They were ambassadors of the game, excellent hockey players, great in the community, are well-respected both on the ice and off. Pavel Bure may have the on-ice credentials - as he was probably better than all three of the current players whose banners hang from Rogers Centre.

However, while skill set is one of the criteria to get your jersey retired, I'm not sure Pavel has checks in all the remaining boxes. Bure did not spend his entire career in Vancouver, although I suppose he is best remembered as a Canuck. Moreover, Pavel does not have the reputation as a leader that Smyl, Linden and even Naslund have, nor the longevity, nor the reputation for community involvement.

It may be a shame that Pavel's number will not be retired by the Canucks any time soon, but probably the right decision.

From the Province:

Pavel Bure's reasons for leaving the Canucks began accumulating before he'd even arrived in Vancouver.

Upon arrival in New York to join the Florida Panthers after his Sunday trade from the Canucks, Bure finally sat down to outline his reasons for wanting to leave.

He was convinced to do so only because he wants Canucks fans to know his reasons had nothing to do with the city, the people or even the rain. In one discussion, he detailed years of pent-up frustration over the silence he's maintained. The litany of neglect from Canucks management seems almost too absurd for words.

For starters, he first asked to be traded in 1993, five years and three months ago. But by far the most significant reason for wanting to leave came when, he said, somebody in Vancouver management made up a story that Bure threatened to withdraw his services during the '94 playoff run to the Cup final.

``Somebody from management planted that story,'' said Bure.

``They said I threatened not to play and it really pissed me off.

``It's a lie,'' said Bure with steel in his eyes. ``I don't want to say who did it because I don't want to say what I don't know. But I know one thing: I was promised to be traded. The contract was done before the playoffs even started. Ron (Bure's former agent Salcer) agreed with Pat (former GM Quinn) before Calgary. But the story was put out all over and by the time it was denied by Pat Quinn and everybody else, it was too late. It looked like a cover-up.''

While Bure would in no way even indicate whom he thought it might be, reason would indicate it was either then-acting assistant GM George McPhee or then-owner Arthur Griffiths. Quinn has indicated to some insiders he was led to believe Bure had threatened to withdraw his services by ``my guy'' but now says privately and publicly it never happened.

``At that point I just decided to get out for good,'' said Bure.

``It's just not the way you should do business.''

While it might be best to outline Bure's reasons for leaving in order of significance, we have chosen to start from the beginning in order to convey the cumulative effect. And so best to begin when he first left Russia and landed in L.A., where he stayed at Salcer's house.

``I was down there for two weeks before (Canucks management) showed up,'' Bure said. ``It was really hard. I thought they'd be waiting for me when I got there but there was nobody. I'd heard all this about how badly they wanted me and then I'm down there wondering what's going on. Then they finally send down Brian (Burke). We have a quick lunch and then it's another 10 days before they have me fly to San Jose to meet the rest of the guys.''

The club was waiting to settle a court case with the Russian Red Army team that had Bure under contract.

The Canucks ended up buying out those rights for $250,000. Bure had to chip in $50,000 of it out of his first contract to pay off the Russians.

'`In my first year they admitted my first contract ($600,000 Cdn) was not enough, but when we went to talk about it they said, `Hold on, you have to play a little bit more. You have to prove it to us'.''

This started a long, torturous period of stonewalling by the Canucks on a new deal, which led to Bure's first request to be traded in November of 1993.

After 17 months of negotiation, a five-year, $14.7-million contract -- almost identical to the ones Sergei Fedorov and Alex Mogilny were signing in Detroit and Buffalo at the time -- was agreed upon.

Or at least Bure thought.

When he sat down to sign it, he found the Canucks had put everything in Canadian funds when in fact Fedorov and Mogilny were getting U.S. funds. No NHL star ever signs a Canadian-funds deal and the Canucks knew this.

``I was really happy with that contract. I would have been happy to sign that deal (in U.S. dollars). But then I finished the season with another 60 goals. And the market was going up.''

``About two months later, when I was starting slowly, they (most likely McPhee) told me, `You were lucky to get 60 goals,' and that I would never do it again. They told me I'd be lucky to get 30 again. I told them,

`Forget about the contract, just trade me. You don't trust me, just trade me.' ''

``After that they said, `Sorry, let's start a whole new relationship.' But then (before he'd even signed the new contract) I'm already hearing how I threatened not to play in the playoffs.''

When a $25-million-US, five-year deal with staggering bonuses was finally agreed upon before the '94 playoffs, it was executed just before Game 3 of the final against the Rangers in Vancouver. Quinn apparently was not present at the signing. Bure refused to sign without Quinn there. Quinn was told of this and came in.

``I just felt like he didn't want to give me that contract and I really didn't want the contract.

``I asked for a trade, don't give me a contract! Ronnie said to sign the contract, but I had asked for a trade before that.''

``Part of the signing bonus was due on execution of the contract, but they were three months late. I didn't get any money until September.''

``I specifically asked Ron to put in (the new deal) that I was to get paid (if there was a lockout) because I thought there probably would be one. And the contract is pretty clear that I was to get paid.

``But they refused.''

Bure remained out of training camp after the lockout for five days, but was talked into going back after the

Canucks agreed to negotiate. Quinn claimed he was told by the league not to pay guaranteed contracts until it was settled for all NHL players. But the issue dragged on and on and Bure became increasingly steamed.

``I didn't want to sue the team. I didn't think it would be proper to sue the team you were playing for.''

Bure was owed $1.7 million US under the terms of the deal, but after agent Mike Gillis became his agent, he managed to get $1 million of it paid.

``I finally got part of that money three years later.''

Before last season Bure met with Quinn and said that after his two seasons of injury maybe he would get an extra push if he was to be traded. Quinn told him he didn't want to trade him, but if that's what he wanted, he would.

Quinn then asked him to get playing well so the club could get market value for him, but 20 games into the season Quinn was fired.

``Every time I asked to be traded, they always agreed to. Nobody ever said, `We're not going to trade you.' But they always lied. They never did.''

Enter Mike Keenan. It was at this point Bure said he reconsidered the request quietly to himself because he liked the way Iron Mike was running the show. He was playing 27 or 28 minutes a night and loved it. But he decided there had been too much water under the bridge to turn back.

``I can tell you honestly I had no problem with Mike whatsoever and I loved to play for him. He was the coach and general manager at that time and I had 39 goals and a big bonus for 50. He called me in the office and said, `Listen, don't worry about 50 goals. I'll get you 50. I'll help you to do it.' And he was the general manager. I really like Mike.

He claims Keenan's style didn't bother him much and shrugged off the ``you little suck'' name-calling incident the coach engaged in during a game in Ottawa last season.

``That didn't bother me,'' Bure said.

``I played for (Viktor) Tikhonov so that was nothing.''

However Keenan did trade his friend Gino Odjick, which was by this time, the icing on the icing of the cake.

When i first came to your country in 97 and became an icehockey fan , there was one player that stood out from the others , and that player was Pavel Bure .

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Riviera82 Canucks Third-Line

Riviera82

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This is as it should be and long overdue. Personally I dont care if Pavel was good in the community like some other Canucks, he brought his A-game all the time and he was awesome, regular season and playoffs, even though he'd been treated like crap. He was a true superstar and he was tough at the same time. As Tom Larschied once said "he can take a hit and deliver a hit" or something to that effect.

I am ecstatic that #10 will hang in our rafters.

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winacup Abbotsford Prospect

winacup

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This is as it should be and long overdue. Personally I dont care if Pavel was good in the community like some other Canucks, he brought his A-game all the time and he was awesome, regular season and playoffs, even though he'd been treated like crap. He was a true superstar and he was tough at the same time. As Tom Larschied once said "he can take a hit and deliver a hit" or something to that effect.

I am ecstatic that #10 will hang in our rafters.

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Trelane42 Abbotsford Prospect

Trelane42

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OK… BUT…

Given that Henrik & Daniel will get the same honors, we’re looking at a total of 6 sweaters in the rafters within a decade.

There is just something not quite right with us being even with the Islanders and within range of the Oilers in this department.

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