The Canucks joined the league in 1970 as an expansion team along with the Buffalo Sabres.

The team played its inaugural game against the Los Angeles Kings on October 9, 1970. Although they lost 3-1, defenseman Barry Wilkins did score the first goal in franchise history, a backhander against goaltender Denis DeJordy.

During his career, Daniel was known as a goal-scorer (150+ more career NHL goals than Henrik), while Henrik was known as a playmaker (150+ more career NHL assists than Daniel).

Roberto Luongo finished the 2006-07 season with a career-high 47 wins, one shy of league-leader Martin Brodeur, who broke Bernie Parent's thirty-three-year-old NHL record for wins in a season.

Fin the Whale is an anthropomorphic orca that debuted as the Canucks' mascot during the 2001-2002 Season. His trademark move consists of steam emitting from his blowhole and his "chomping" of unsuspecting heads.

How is it possible that Pavel Bure, one of the most naturally gifted players the Canucks have ever had, was still available 113 picks into the 1989 draft? While most teams believed Bure to be ineligible for the '89 Draft, the Canucks' top scout, Mike Penny, discovered, while rifling through near-incomprehensible Soviet game sheets, that Bure had played several exhibition games, thus making him draft eligible at 18 years of age. His draft status took a year to be verified by the league, but he eventually joined the team, becoming one of the biggest draft-day steals in NHL history.

Prior to the start of the 1999-2000 season, in a pre-season game against the Ottawa Senators, a deflected puck struck Miattias Öhlund in the right eye, and he collapsed in a pool of blood. "After a couple minutes I realized I couldn't see anything," Öhlund said. "It was scary. The first thought I had was I was going to be blind." The injury forced him to miss the first 38 games of the season, but after undergoing surgery to correct his vision, he returned to the Canucks the same season and scored 20 points in 42 games, winning the Babe Pratt Trophy as the Canucks' best defenseman.

In 1992-93, Pavel Bure improved on his 34-goal rookie season with the first of two consecutive 60-goal seasons. His 110 points that season stood as the team record until it was broken by Henrik Sedin's 112 points in 2009-10.

Nicknamed "Steamer" for his relentless and hard-nosed style of play, Stan Smyl served as captain for a team record eight seasons. At the time of his retirement, he was the Canucks' all-time leader in games played, goals, assists and points. His #12 jersey has the distinction of being the only Canucks jersey retired at the team's original arena, the Pacific Coliseum.

Left winger Donald Brashear was involved in one of the most publicized incidents of on-ice violence in NHL history on February 21, 2000, when he was slashed in the head by a frustrated McSorley with 4.6 seconds left in the game. Brashear suffered a seizure after his head hit the ice. McSorley later received an indefinite suspension from the NHL and was charged with assault with a weapon.