(Article) Trevor Linden speaks about Canucks 50th anniversary celebrations and life after hockey

[Roger Neilsons Towel]

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Trevor Linden speaks about Canucks 50th anniversary celebrations and life after hockey

Rob Williams
Oct 25 2019, 4:31 pm

 

Canucks legend Trevor Linden is in the fitness business now (Orangetheory Fitness)

 

Trevor Linden will be a part of the Vancouver Canucks’ 50th anniversary celebrations.

 

That qualifies as a notable statement given the way he parted ways with the franchise, as well as his absence from opening night, where the team celebrated a number of former players.

It’s been 15 months to the day that the Canucks sent out a press release stating that Linden and the organization had “amicably” agreed to part ways. Since then, the team has been without one of its most popular figures.

 

But that will change this season.

 

In a telephone interview with Daily Hive, the Canucks legend confirmed he will be a willing participant in the 50th anniversary to some degree.

 

“Nothing specific at this point, but I’m in contact with Chris Brumwell (Canucks vice president of communications, fan, and community engagement) and his team, so I’ll definitely part of something along the way for sure.”

 

Asked if the Sedins’ jersey retirement would be something he’d be interested in, Linden said “Yeah, for sure. No question about it.”

 

Sedin Week

NHL / Twitter

 

Instead of dedicating one night to the careers of Henrik and Daniel Sedin, the Canucks will celebrate “Sedin Week” in February.

 

There would be something missing if Linden would be unable to attend. He was a teammate of theirs for six seasons and worked with them during his time as Canucks President of Hockey Operations.

“Outside of what they’ve accomplished in their hockey careers, they’re incredible people,” Linden said. “I just feel so lucky that I was able to get to know those guys way back in 2001, got to play with them as long as I did, then watched them go onto greatness… And then I got to work with them again at the end. I’m very thankful for the time I got to spend with those guys.”

 

Like a lot of people, Linden doesn’t think we’ll see two players like them ever again.

 

“The one thing that is special about these guys is I don’t know that we’ll ever see people play the game like they did. You can talk about great combinations — Gretzky-Kurri, Hull and Oates — but these guys had this special connection between them and they did things that I don’t think hockey fans had ever seen before.

 

“They didn’t do it out of power and speed, they did it out of the connection they had and just their smarts and their ability to think the game so well. That’s what made it fun for me to watch.”

 

Sedin Week will begin with “Legends Night” on February 10 with the expectation that the team will invite all the other players that have had their jersey retired by the team — Stan Smyl, Markus Naslund, Pavel Bure, and Linden — to attend. Henrik and Daniel will have their jerseys officially retired two nights later on February 12, while February 16 is “Legacy Night” focusing on the Sedins’ impact on the community.

 

Life after hockey

 

Hockey doesn’t consume Linden’s life anymore.

 

“I don’t watch much,” he admitted.

 

The 49-year-old described himself as a “full-time dad” to his two-and-half-year-old son. “It’s been pretty awesome to be around a lot,” he said.

 

Linden is also heavily involved in the fitness business as an owner of Club 16 Trevor Linden Fitness and Orangetheory Fitness.

 

“The real growth has been Orangetheory Fitness which has been fun to be back and part of that,” Linden said of the company that recently opened its 100th studio in Canada, making it the fastest growing fitness brand in the country. Linden and his ownership group are preparing to open their 10th club in Abbotsford next week.

 

“After that, [I’m doing the] things I love to do, which are skiing, mountaineering, riding my bike, and enjoying life.”

 

“I’ve got a pretty good balance.”

 

Opening night

 

Linden says the reason he was unable to attend opening night was because he was preparing to head out of town the next day on a fishing trip with his brother, and wanted to spend the time with his son.

 

“I wanted to put him to bed that night, because I was leaving the next day.”

 

While he didn’t watch the ceremonies live, he did catch some of it on Twitter.

 

On seeing Kirk McLean back in full 94 gear: “That was cool. It was fun to see those colours, and obviously Kirk was such a special guy. I loved playing with him and we had a lot of fun when we played together.”

 

On the ovation for Todd Bertuzzi: “Todd’s time here was filled with greatness. He has a special place in Canucks fans’ hearts because he was such a big part of that team we had in the early 2000s.”

 

“I just think that people, fans especially — sports fans, hockey fans, Canuck fans — people move on and they want to celebrate the great things that he did and not get hung up on one incident and an unfortunate situation.”

 

Advice for the new captain

Vancouver Canucks / Twitter

 

Getting the captaincy is a whole lot different today than when Linden first had the C stitched on his jersey in 1990.

 

Linden was first a co-captain at age 20, before getting the mantle all to himself the next year.

 

“For me, it was one of those things. I was young, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted that pressure, I wanted that expectation. And I wanted that responsibility… We were just coming into some good years there with the job that Pat Quinn had done and I had some great people around me that were very supportive and that’s always important for every captain.”

 

While Horvat now has to deal with similar pressure and expectations that comes with wearing the C, Linden certainly didn’t have to deal with the same fanfare.

 

Horvat’s anointing included a one-season wait, followed by an elaborate ceremony at centre ice.

 

“We didn’t do those sorts of public presentations. It was probably the coach mentioned it in a scrum after a practice. It’s very different from [when] I was named captain. It’s a very different way of doing things. It was very fun and a tremendous honour. I know Bo will do a great job.”

 

When asked to give advice for the new captain, Linden said: “Bo doesn’t need my advice. He’s a great kid and has a ton of respect for the game. He’ll be fine.”

 

Source: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/trevor-linden-canucks-anniversary

Thought this was a good insight into what Trevor Linden has been up to and his priorities in life right now. I’m happy to see he has found balance in his life and seems happy. He deserves it. 
 

P.S. This really didn’t want to be copy and pasted here. I tried to fix the formatting as much as possible. My apologies if it’s hard to read. 
 

 

Edited October 26, 2019 by Roger Neilsons Towel
Tried to adjust formatting to make it as easy to read as possible without losing the pictures or tweets.

[#Canucks]

Linden had the biggest heart out of any captain. He will always be a captain for this team. I always love his insight. Oh and uhh FU*K Keenan for trading him.

[JM_]

Good read, glad he can be part of the legends night. 

[Ghostsof1915]

Pretty much confirms what I've been saying all along. He has a young son, and wants to just focus on being a Dad. Hockey, and the Canucks presidency was consuming too much of his life. And given how badly some where treating Benning and Linden, I think it just wore him down. And he woke up one day and said "What am I doing this for?". 

If I had millions, and a thriving development company, along with a chain of fitness clubs. I'd want some me time as well. I'm happy for Trevor and wish him nothing but the best. I understand people wanting constructive criticism. But some just take it way too far. 

[189lb enforcers?]

Too bad his name and stature within the market was used as a human shield and bug deflector during the re-thingy’s messy beginnings here.

 

Glad to see him separating himself from all of it now. He’s earned it. 

[RWMc1]

He'll attend, you know he'll attend. He'll attend on crutches.

[DADDYROCK]

Lets just face facts TREVOR LINDEN is a class act,this is why fans love the guy and always will.

[Canuck Surfer]

Fantastic!

 

Bury the hatchet.  We still love Trev! 

[DownUndaCanuck]

Interesting to hear how much of a step back he's taken from hockey. Just hope there's no bad blood there and he can still influence the current team in some way.

[higgyfan]

8 minutes ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

Interesting to hear how much of a step back he's taken from hockey. Just hope there's no bad blood there and he can still influence the current team in some way.

Well, as Trev said about Bert in this recent interview..."people move on and they want to celebrate the great things that he did and not get hung up on one incident and an unfortunate situation.”

[CanuckleHorse]

Not that it matters now but I’m thinking that him and the org have a little bad blood and that fishing trip was a good way to avoid attending.

[Westcoasting]

6 hours ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

Interesting to hear how much of a step back he's taken from hockey. Just hope there's no bad blood there and he can still influence the current team in some way.

There is bad blood but only for F.A.  Trevor is too classy to let it bother him about the franchise itself. He will always be a Canuck!

[Sedinyoureyesontheprize]

Good guy Trev remember a signing back in the day where they cut off the line but he still waved us over to meet him. 

[Roger Neilsons Towel]

1 hour ago, Setyoureyesontheprize said:

Good guy Trev remember a signing back in the day where they cut off the line but he still waved us over to meet him. 

That’s happened to me too. Class act. 

[CRAZY_4_NAZZY]

Still remember the day when I first met him at a signing and I drew him a picture (i was 7) and he lauded over the picture (even though is was crap after looking at the photo my mom took of it), but he made you feel special. Despite being super busy and having tons of others waiting to get his signature, he sat there for a good 5 minutes asking me about school, my interests, etc.

 

Trevor has always been about the people in the large community and was probably the most humble person you could come across.

 

Seriously, still love this guy, and his tenure as the President does not at all change my perception of him at all, and quite frankly I thought he handled the title with dignity and integrity.  

 

Hope one day he finds his way back to our organization in some capacity.

[BarnBurner]

Trevor is a fantastic person. I've run into him a few times and he's always stopped for a minute or two. As busy as he is, he takes the time to genuinely listen, when he can.

 

Great guy. Amazing player/Captain and a pillar in our community. 

[Tiger-Hearted]

On 10/26/2019 at 1:33 PM, #Canucks said:

Linden had the biggest heart out of any captain. He will always be a captain for this team. I always love his insight. Oh and uhh FU*K Keenan for trading him.

Linden, Smyl and Kurtenbach were top-notch Canucks captains.

[Tiger-Hearted]

On 10/26/2019 at 7:19 PM, CanuckleHorse said:

Not that it matters now but I’m thinking that him and the org have a little bad blood and that fishing trip was a good way to avoid attending.

 

On 10/26/2019 at 11:03 PM, Westcoasting said:

There is bad blood but only for F.A.  Trevor is too classy to let it bother him about the franchise itself. He will always be a Canuck!

 

On 10/26/2019 at 1:52 PM, Ghostsof1915 said:

If I had millions, and a thriving development company, along with a chain of fitness clubs. I'd want some me time as well. I'm happy for Trevor and wish him nothing but the best. 

I truly believe he still bleeds Canucks colours and the game of hockey. When he was announced as the new president of hockey operations, Trevor said that the competitive fire and the game of hockey never left him. It's much better for him to enjoy the things in life that he loves instead of working in the toxic environment created by one of the worst ownerships in professional sports. I met Trevor in Kits last month. I told him that if I were owner, he would be the president of the Canucks and CSE and the classic Stick in Rink would be the primary crest. He told me that he heavily pushed for it to be the primary for the 50th anniversary and the Aquilinis promptly dismissed it. Here's a guy so highly respected in the community and cares deeply about the Canucks' heritage and history and then there is Francesco Aquilini and his two brothers who don't care except for making a fast couple of bucks.

 

I do hope, someday, that Trevor will rapidly grow his financial portfolio to the point in which he and other investors can one day get the Canucks out of the Aquilinis' hands.

 

Overall, the very best of luck Trevor. You've rightfully earned it.

[theo5789]

1 hour ago, Tiger-Hearted said:

Linden, Smyl and Kurtenbach were top-notch Canucks captains.

No love for Henrik, Markus or Luongo?

[theo5789]

40 minutes ago, Tiger-Hearted said:

 

 

I truly believe he still bleeds Canucks colours and the game of hockey. When he was announced as the new president of hockey operations, Trevor said that the competitive fire and the game of hockey never left him. It's much better for him to enjoy the things in life that he loves instead of working in the toxic environment created by one of the worst ownerships in professional sports. I met Trevor in Kits last month. I told him that if I were owner, he would be the president of the Canucks and CSE and the classic Stick in Rink would be the primary crest. He told me that he heavily pushed for it to be the primary for the 50th anniversary and the Aquilinis promptly dismissed it. Here's a guy so highly respected in the community and cares deeply about the Canucks' heritage and history and then there is Francesco Aquilini and his two brothers who don't care except for making a fast couple of bucks.

 

I do hope, someday, that Trevor will rapidly grow his financial portfolio to the point in which he and other investors can one day get the Canucks out of the Aquilinis' hands.

 

Overall, the very best of luck Trevor. You've rightfully earned it.

How does Aquilini allegedly rejecting the stick in rink to be the primary logo lead to him just wanting to make a quick buck? Isn't changing to the primary to the stick and rink contributing towards making more money as the idea is to get fans to buy that jersey? Might as well stick to our original logo if we are to "not care" about making money for the business that they're running.

 

Hasn't Aquilini embraced the rebuild and spent buyout money and buried contract money to help with the rebuild? I don't know what Linden and Francesco disagreed upon, but I wouldn't say Francesco doesn't care about the team.

 

Are we not celebrating the past heritage with games wearing the stick and rink (updated) and the skate logo? And having players from the past (including Linden) for this anniversary season?