Not officially retired, Bieksa wants to sign one-day contract with Canucks

Kevin Bieksa hasn’t retired from pro hockey yet.

Not officially, anyway.

The 40-year-old former Vancouver Canucks defenceman isn’t planning a comeback. He’s a star broadcaster for Hockey Night in Canada now, after all.

But Bieksa is planning to sign a one-day contract with the Canucks so that he can retire with the team that gave him his NHL start. Or at least, he was planning on it.

“I was going to sign a one-day contract and retire as a Canuck two years ago, on March 28,” Bieksa revealed in an interview with Lisa Dillman in The Athletic. “I don’t even know where it stands. We had it planned, but COVID shut things down on the 15th. I had my flight booked and everything.”

The timing Bieksa outlined above coincided with a scheduled game at Rogers Arena against the other NHL team he played for, the Anaheim Ducks, during the Canucks’ 50th anniversary season in 2020. It would have occurred about a month and a half after Bieksa MC’d the Sedins’ jersey retirement night.

Bieksa said the idea was his father’s.

“It was actually my dad’s idea. I don’t need to retire – officially. I don’t need the attention. My dad was like, ‘It’s good for the Canucks. Good for your legacy.’ I’m basically doing it for my dad. I’m supposed to retire as a Canuck.”

COVID-19 had other ideas, of course, but Bieksa told The Athletic that the Canucks were looking to do something this season instead. It never came to fruition.

“We were talking (with the Canucks) at the start of the season and they were kind of figuring out when we were going to do it and they said they were definitely going to do it. Then Jim Benning gets fired. Now there’s a whole new regime. I was there for the mental health night but it wasn’t the time to bring it up. Who knows? If we get to it next year, fine. I’m not going anywhere.”

Having Bieksa retire as a Canuck would be a huge PR win for the franchise. Bieksa played 597 of his 808 career NHL games with the Canucks, and is one of the most popular players in franchise history.

Maybe he’ll retire in conjunction with being named to the Canucks’ Ring of Honour, beside his old friend Alex Burrows?

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