Todd Bertuzzi looks almost unrecognizable from his Vancouver Canucks glory days
It’s been almost 20 years to the day that Todd Bertuzzi was traded away from the Vancouver Canucks.
Often, that might illicit a reaction that makes you wonder how time flies by so quickly. In this case, however, Bertuzzi’s new look might make you feel like the 20-year timeline is, in fact, accurate.
Todd Bertuzzi skates before a game with the Canucks in 2006 (Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY)
The Canucks legend just completed his first year as head coach of the GOHL’s Cambridge Redhawks, which is two levels below the OHL.
Around the time this made news last year, Bertuzzi had nothing more than the recognizable stubble that he sported during his days with the Canucks.
But in the months since, he grew a playoff beard that would make Joe Thornton proud.
Bertuzzi’s new look made the rounds earlier this week, as he led the Redhawks to a Sutherland Cup in his rookie year as head coach.
“Our boys came out like men,” Bertuzzi told the media after his team won the championship.
Greater Ontario Hockey League/YouTube
“They faced adversity. It was a long season. These kids are my boys. They’re my family. I didn’t get to go see my kids during the year. It was a long year. So, I got pretty tight with a lot of the fellas, and I couldn’t be more proud of a group, man.”
Bertuzzi alluded to one special aspect of winning that may make Canucks fans feel bittersweet.
“I wanted it so bad for these kids,” he said. “I wanted them to experience something that I wasn’t able to experience, which was winning a championship.”
“I was fortunate to play 1,200 games and came up short a handful of times. And you live with hockey regrets, sometimes not being able to win.”
“I’ve got a lot of friends that won the Stanley Cup. And I’m not going to say I was envious because I was very happy for them, proud of them. I wanted to make sure that these kids left everything on the ice to have that feeling that I never was able to have.”
While Bertuzzi never won a Stanley Cup, he did just lead the Redhawks on a remarkable run. Cambridge lost just one playoff game, going 16-1 before locking up their championship last Saturday.