Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

A up-close look at one of the most popular faces in the Canucks room and the reasons behind his move north of the border.

Forbes recently released their Best Hockey Fighters for the Buck and Darcy makes the list at #7.

In the National Hockey League, top goal scorers like Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Vincent Lecavalier bring spectators to their feet with blazing speed and dazzling moves.

They also make it possible for their teams to land bigger profits by drawing fans to the arena and challenging for the Stanley Cup. But these players wouldn’t be as good without their enforcers–tough guys who typically don’t score much but are willing to pummel anyone who dares to get rough.

Enforcers have a long tradition in the league. Bob Probert helped the Detroit Red Wings regain prominence after 14 straight losing seasons by dishing out punishment to anyone who took liberties with Steve Yzerman. Ditto for the Philadelphia Flyers’ Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, who protected Bobby Clarke in the mid-1970s as the team won two Stanley Cups. The Edmonton Oilers used Dave Semenko as their policeman in the mid-1980s to keep Wayne Gretzky safe as the Oilers captured their first two championships.

Says Lacavalier, a three-time All-Star who led the Tampa Bay Lighting in points last season: “We need [fighters]. If there weren’t fights, players wouldn’t be accountable for their actions.” With NHL payrolls capped at 57% of revenue, having an inexpensive enforcer enables teams to spend more money on skilled players.

The Lightning recently signed Lecavalier to an 11-year, $85 million contract extension. But he’s off to a slow start through seven games this season, and the Lightning sit in last place after free-agent enforcer David Koci was unable to fill the void left by the off-season departure of Lecavalier’s longtime bodyguard Andre Roy and was cut by the team earlier this month.

In Pictures: Best Hockey Fighters for the Buck

To determine the best fighters for the buck, we compared player fighting stats since the start of the 2006-07 season to their pay last year. Since a game’s momentum usually swings to the team whose player prevails in a fight, we awarded a bonus for each win and subtracted points for each loss, as determined by fan voting at hockeyfights.com, an online Mecca for pugilism at the rink.

When comparing salaries, we took experience into account by contrasting a player’s pay with a pool of enforcers that have similar longevity in the league, since younger players have pay-limits set by the NHL. Only the 15 players currently active on NHL rosters who dropped their gloves 20 or more times while playing in at least half their team’s games over the past two seasons were included in our ranking.

The best fighter for the money is Colton Orr of the New York Rangers. Orr fought 34 times during the past two seasons (the most in the Eastern Conference), winning 21 of them (tops in the NHL). His $525,000 salary last year was only $50,000 above the league minimum, 9% less than the average of other enforcers who have qualified for restricted free agency.

Georges Laraque of the Montreal Canadiens ranks second, despite being hockey’s highest-paid enforcer last year, earning $1.3 million playing for Pittsburgh. Reason: If there was a heavyweight title for hockey fighting, the belt would be around his waist. Laraque holds a record of 19 wins, zero loses and two draws over the past two seasons, while commonly dropping the gloves against hockey’s premier fighters.

Some enforcers can do more than fight. Colorado Avalanche forward Ian Laperriere, ranked 11th on our list, racked up 48 points over the last two seasons while fighting 37 times.

Coming out of the lockout that cancelled the 2004-05 season, the league marketed itself as “The New NHL,” which among other changes, meant a commitment to reduce fighting. Hockey fights dropped from 789 in the season before the lockout to 466 during the 2005-06 season. But last season the number of fights increased 33%, to 664, and is on pace to reach 879 this year.

It seems that the NHL now recognizes this trend and fighting’s place in the game. The league recently reversed course, deciding to show video clips of fights on their Web site for the first time, and it expects fans to continue doing the same on outside sites. Says Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, “It’s like oxygen, get used to it.”

Full List from Forbes

1 on 1 with Darcy Hordichuk and Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun.

Q. Early in September, our paper ran a sports front photo of you and your fluffy little Shih Tzu dogs Franklin and Chandler. As the new tough guy on the Canucks, did that draw some reaction?

A. The reaction was the boys were a little hard on me in the dressing room because they really didn’t know me yet. It was fun. You don’t get to be on the front page of the sports section in Tennessee too many times. In Nashville, it’s a little tougher to get recognized but here everybody knows the game and loves the game. I was happy to share the photo with my dogs.

Q. You have you own website, www.darcyhordichuk.com, which chronicles your exploits in hockey. How did it all come about?

A. It goes back to my Orlando Solar Bear days [2000-01] when the team folded. The lady who was in charge of the Solar Bears website had nothing to do so she got my domain name and ended up starting the website because people were always calling her to see how I was doing. It kind of snowballed from there.

Q. Are you still working with that lady and how much time do you spend on your website during the season?

A. No, I’m not with her anymore. Another company kind of ended up revamping it a little bit. Actually, it’s not a company but somebody who does athletes’ websites. I work on it when I have some down time — we do Q&As and we’ve got a blog going and some of my fights — but it’s been tough lately because I’m still trying to get my furniture to Vancouver.

Q. Your first NHL coach with the Atlanta Thrashers was Curt Fraser, who was originally a Canuck and also wore No. 24. Did Curt ever tell you how tough he was?

A. No, he never talked about himself too much but I heard stories. Everybody I talked to said he was a guy who could hurt you. It’s funny because my first couple of years with him in Atlanta, there wasn’t too much of a system for me. It was just kind of run around and kill guys and do whatever you want. I think that was kind of his style and he saw a little bit of himself in me. Curt’s a great person but I’ve lost touch with him now.

Q. You’re from a Ukrainian background and you love your perogies and cabbage rolls and borscht. Is your wife also of Ukrainian descent?

A. No, she’s got some Swedish in her and some Irish. She’s an American, from Fresno, California. I met her in Phoenix when I was playing for the Coyotes.

Q. Have you managed to convince her of the delights of Ukrainian food? Is she a fan?

A. Oh, yeah. That’s one of the things you have to do if you want to be a Hordichuk. You have to like my Baba’s cooking. [Baba is grandmother in Ukrainian.] It’s tough on my wife because I want her to make the perogies and borscht and she can’t do it quite like Baba. The standards are pretty high.

Source

The Vancouver Canucks have been hit by a slew of injuries on their current road trip.

Forward Rick Rypien (viral infection) was sick enough to be sent home before Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Blackhawks for further examination.

Canuck coach Alain Vigneault said Darcy Hordichuk will be out 7-10 days with a sprained ACL after colliding with teammate Ryan Johnson, while Sami Salo (pulled groin) and Pavol Demitra (torso injury) will be reexamined today in Columbus, where Vancouver ends its road trip on Tuesday.

It seems unlikely, however, that any of the injured will be back by then.

Recently demoted Kyle Wellwood and Matt Pettinger are expected to be recalled from the Canucks farm team in Manitoba.

Darcy takes on Andrew Peters of the Buffalo Sabres, 10.17.08

The return of Darcy Hordichuk to the fourth line and the removal of Kyle Wellwood seemed to re-energize this team, so perhaps the second guessers may have had a point. The best thing about Hordichuk is that he gives you energy, he gives this team presence and courage — and he does so without taking minor penalties. How a team can let that kind of player just walk out of town is a mystery.

Source: Tony Gallagher, The Province

Hello Andre Roy. Darcy goes against Flames Andre Roy in the Canucks 5-4 OT win. 10.11.08

One of the hardest things in hockey for Darcy Hordichuk is turning down a fight.

He did just that in Thursday night’s regular-season opener, but it’s not likely to happen again tonight when the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames meet for what figures to be a spirited rematch at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

Hordichuk skated away when Flames’ tough guy Andre Roy issued him a dance invitation during the second period of Thursday night’s 6-0 Vancouver win. The Canucks had a 3-0 lead at the time.

“If it was just up to me, I’d do it,” Hordichuk said Friday. “I can’t back down from a fight, but you have to listen to what the team wants and what the coaching staff wants. I kind of looked at the bench to see if they wanted me to go and if I get the nod, I’m going to do it. “But at that point it’s not about me, it’s about the team and not changing the momentum. . . It’s 3-0, there’s really no point.”

Tonight figures to be different. The Flames were sliced and diced by the local media after Thursday night’s lopsided loss and figure to try to run the Canucks right out of the Saddledome.

Hordichuk, who has been around the block a time or two as a NHL enforcer, knows he’s likely going to have to drop ‘em tonight.

“If it’s there, I’ll take it,” he said. “It’s different, it’s not 3-0 anymore. That’s my role and I think it’s going to be a fun game tomorrow.”

Full Story: Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun