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Canucks owner: We plan on retiring Bure’s number

Pavel Bure

There’s no question that Pavel Bure was a tremendous hockey player, but was his 428-game tenure with the Vancouver Canucks long enough to warrant the team retiring his number?

Bure’s time with the Canucks ended on a sour note with him demanding a trade, but Vancouver fans put that behind them as they gave the retired superstar a standing ovation Thursday night.

That should serve to fuel owner Francesco Aquilini desire to retire his number.

“This is something we’re going to work on and definitely it’s in the plans,” Aquilini said, according to a Vancouver Province report. “We think that Pavel is going to be a great addition to all the members who are retired up there.

“He’s such a great guy and he’s such an exciting player. You could see the fans. The standing ovation went on for at least five minutes.”

Aquilini also defended the way Bure ended his playing career with Vancouver.

“He never had problems with the fans,” Aquilini said. “He had problems with management, but never the fans.”

Bure had back-to-back 60-goal seasons with the Canucks and ended up with a stunning 437 goals in 702 career NHL games.

Related:

Igor Larionov: Canucks should retire Bure’s jersey