5 random players you forgot were on the Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver Canucks: Joe Kocur

For the majority of his 15-year NHL career, Kocur was a Red Wing or a Ranger. Between those two franchises, he won three Stanley Cups in five years.

The first of those titles was at the Canucks’ expense. As it happened, while Kocur dressed for 20 of the Rangers’ 23 postseason games in 1994, he missed Game 7 of the final round. As Forever Blueshirts noted, the habitual puncher’s hands were too swollen for him to see action in that historic contest.

That championship season was also the 10th and final time Kocur crossed triple digits under the penalty minute heading. That was chiefly because he suited up less often in his last five seasons.

One of those, the 1995-96 campaign, saw the Rangers send him to their recent Cup final foe shortly before the trade deadline. In seven regular season contests, Kocur logged 19 PIM for Vancouver.

The Canucks then dressed him for Game 1 of their six-game conference quarterfinal loss to the eventual champion Colorado Avalanche. That playoff opener ultimately marked the end of Kocur’s time in British Columbia.

Midway through the next season, the Wings brought Kocur back via free agency. During his previous seven-year tenure in Detroit, he led the league with 377 PIM in 1985-86 and posted a career-high 16 goals and 36 points in 1989-90.

Upon his return, Kocur tallied a rare goal in Game 1 of Detroit’s championship sweep of the Flyers. He added four more strikes in the 1998 tournament, including another Cup final Game 1 goal en route to a repeat title.

He was later on the Detroit coaching staff when the Wings won another Cup in 2002, eliminating the Canucks in the first round.