The Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL in 1970 along with the Buffalo Sabres, and the forthcoming 2018-19 NHL season will be the 50th NHL season in the history of the team. The team roster was built through the 1970 NHL Expansion Draft, the second one in the League's history. The NHL Canucks had a predecessor, also known as the Vancouver Canucks, which played in the WHL in 1945-1970, and six players of this WHL team started the NHL inaugural season with the Canucks along with the players acquired via the expansion draft.
In the 49 seasons of existence as an NHL franchise the Vancouver Canucks has advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals three times (in 1982, 1994 and 2011), but lost all three series. They also won the Presidents' Trophy (the most points during the NHL regular season) in 2010-11 and 2011-12 NHL seasons, and 10 division titles in total. In 1995 Canucks moved from the Pacific Coliseum to the new General Motors Place (later renamed Rogers Arena). And they changed five logos in 49 years.
As the part of the 50th anniversary celebrating, the Vancouver Canucks selected an alternate jersey for select games in the forthcoming season. Fans voted for one of the three retro jerseys and selected the "Flying Skate" jersey which was used in 1989-1997 before the Orca appeared on the chest of the Vancouver players for the first time.
Also the "Flying V" and the "Original Orca" was in the poll, but 70% of the fans voted for the "Flying Skate". A good choice, I think.
A short look back how the Canucks' jersey changed
The Vancouver Canucks entered the NHL in 1970 with the stick-in-a-rink logo and uniform in the blue, white and green colors.
They used this design until the 1978 when the new "Flying V" uniform was presented. Team colors changed crucially: the new jerseys were black, yellow and red. The big "V" letter ran from shoulders to the bottom edge of the jersey, another Vs were on the pants and socks. The primary color of the home jersey was black and the one of the away jersey was yellow.
This logo and uniform was used another eight year before the next change. In 1985 the "Flying Skate" moved from sleeves to the chest, and following three seasons the jersey design reminded the previous one - the same "V" letters on the shoulders and wide stripes at the bottom edge and on the sleeves.
In 1989 the design of the jersey changed a little bit, the "V" letters disappeared from the shoulders, stripes became narrower and in general the uniform got a sticter look. The modern version exactly of this jersey will be used by Canucks this season.
These colors became a thing of the past 1997 when the Orca logo was presented for the first time. The new colour scheme of the Canucks included blue, red and silver and became an another crucial change in less than 30 years.
And ten years later, in 2007, the Vancouver Canucks returned to the original colors - blue, green and white. The orca is still on the chest, but the jersey design itself is similar to the original one, with the green stripes at the bottom of the jersey and on the sleeves.
By the way, the first Canucks' logo was updated and since 2007 used as an alternate logo and located on the shoulders of the primary jersey.
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