Ex-Vancouver Canucks defenceman Murzyn throws shade at Messier, Keenan
Mark Messier left town 25 years ago, but his three-year stint with the Vancouver Canucks still gets plenty of talk to this day. And apparently, that includes from former Canucks defenceman Dana Murzyn.
The Messier era was a dark time for the franchise, with the Canucks posting the third-worst record in the NHL (excluding expansion teams) from 1997-98 to 1999-2000.
Not everyone blames Messier for that run of futility. Notably, Markus Naslund singled out Messier as a player who taught him a lot as a young player.
“He cared about each and every one of us,” Naslund said in an interview five years ago.
But it’s clear that many of the players from the Canucks team that made it to the 1994 Stanley Cup Final viewed things differently. The Canucks’ dressing room was divided between players that were loyal to former captain Trevor Linden and the new captain, Messier.
“It was a disaster for us when he came to Vancouver,” legendary Canucks enforcer Gino Odjick said back in 2020.
Murzyn, who played 452 games across nine seasons with the Canucks, was also not a fan. In a recent interview with Steve Ewen of Postmedia, Muzyn spoke candidly about former Canucks head coach and interim general manager Mike Keenan, who later admitted he was hand-picked by Messier.
“I’m not a big Mike Keenan fan at all,” Murzyn said, adding that “it actually caused so much destruction” when he arrived.
Messier was Vancouver’s No. 1 centre throughout his three seasons with the Canucks. Murzyn would have preferred to see him on the third line.
“You had a Hall of Fame player who felt he could be a first-line centre, when, if he slotted in at third line and not blow everything up, I think we would have been a better team. The team almost became about Mike and Messier and not the Canucks.”
But blow it up they did.
Linden, Odjick, Kirk McLean, Dave Babych, and Martin Gelinas were all traded by Keenan in his first season on the job. Murzyn played his last NHL season in 1998-99.
The news wasn’t all bad, though, as the Linden trade later helped bring the Sedins and Roberto Luongo to Vancouver.