43 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Matt Cooke (43e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
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43 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Matt Cooke (43e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
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43. Matt Cooke — 566GP | 83G | 120A | 203P | 1999-2008
Matt Cooke was a 6th round selection in the 1997 NHL entry draft by the Vancouver Canucks. At 5’11” ~200lbs, Cooke was a scrappy winger playing for the Windsor Spitfires. He also had a knack for scoring. In his draft season he had 45-goals, & 95-points in 65-games. He also racked up 146 PIMs.
Cooke stayed in the OHL for one more year in 1998. He also made the world junior roster for Team Canada where he put up 2-points in 6-games.
The following year, he got his first taste of NHL action with the Canucks, but spent a good chunk of the season with AHL Affiliate Syracuse Crunch.
Cooke never became a bona fide star, but he certainly found a role within Vancouver’s bottom-six under head coach Marc Crawford. Cooke’s best season was in 2002-03 when he had 42-points in 82-games all while playing less than 14-minutes per game. Cooke finished 9th in Selke voting that year and won the team’s unsung hero award.
Cooke also got an opportunity to wear the Canadian sweater again when he won gold in 2004 at the World Championships. He also got an opportunity to play on the top line for Vancouver with Bertuzzi being suspended for the remainder of the 2003-04 season. Cooke’s most memorable moment as a Canuck came in the playoffs that season . He scored a short handed goal with 5-seconds remaining to tie the game and force overtime. Unfortunately, the Canucks lost in overtime and were eliminated by the eventual cup finalists.
Cooke played a few more seasons with the Canucks, but he had an expiring contract in 2008 and was traded to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Matt Pettinger.
Although Cooke was a fan-favourite in Vancouver for his gritty playstyle, it eventually caught up to him and controversy started to follow after leaving Vancouver. He got a reputation for dirty hits or collisions with a multitude of star & non-star players.
Cooke did try to change the way he played the game after he was given a lengthy suspension in 2011 from an elbow to the head of Ryan McDonough.
In 2012, he put together his lowest penalty season (44 PIMs) but his antics still crept back into his play.
In 2013, Cooke was involved in a skate injury on the boards with Erik Karlsson where Cooke’s blade ruptured Karlsson’s achilles. It was quite the controversy at the time, but Cooke did not face any punishments from the league.
Further in the 2014 playoffs, Cooke had a knee-on-knee collision with Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie which resulted in a 7-game suspension.
All-in-all Cooke had quite the career for a 6th round pick. For his draft class, he finished 3rd in PIMs, 8th in games played and 10th in scoring with 398-points and 1135 PIMs over 1046-games. He is also 43rd all-time in Canucks scoring & 18th in PIMs.
Really liked him when he was a good grinder for us.
Really hated him when he turned in to a dirty player after he left us.
You chose Matt cooke, a piece of shit player who literally ruined careers over our captain? That’s definitely a choice