Pavel Bure

Pavel Bure
Hockey Hall of Fame, 2012
A hockey player on the ice before spectators. He wears a white jersey with a big "C", and his youthful face has a serious expression.
Bure with the Vancouver Canucks in 1997
Born (1971-03-31) 31 March 1971 (age 53)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union[1][2]
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight 191 lb (87 kg; 13 st 9 lb)
Position Right wing
Shot Left
Played for CSKA Moscow
Vancouver Canucks
Spartak Moscow
EV Landshut
Florida Panthers
New York Rangers
National team  Soviet Union and
 Russia
NHL draft 113th overall, 1989
Vancouver Canucks
Playing career 1987–2003
Medal record

Pavel Vladimirovich Bure (Russian: Па́вел Влади́мирович Буре́, IPA: [ˈpavʲɪl bʊˈrɛ]; born 31 March 1971) is a Russian former professional ice hockey player who played the right wing position. Nicknamed "the Russian Rocket" for his speed,[3][4] Bure played for 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers between 1991 and 2003. Trained in the Soviet Union, he played three seasons with the Central Red Army team before his NHL career.

Selected 113th overall in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by Vancouver, he began his NHL career in the 1991–92 season, and won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's best rookie before leading the NHL in goal-scoring in 1993-94 and helping the Canucks to the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. After seven seasons the Canucks traded Bure to the Panthers, where he won back-to-back Rocket Richard Trophies as the league's leading goal-scorer. Bure struggled with knee injuries throughout his career, resulting in his retirement in 2005 as a member of the Rangers, although he had not played since 2003. He averaged better than a point per game in his NHL career (779 points with 437 goals in 702 NHL games) and is fourth all-time in goals per game.[notes 1] After six years of eligibility, Bure was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in June 2012. In 2017, an NHL panel named Bure one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.[5]

Internationally, Bure competed for the Soviet Union and Russia. As a member of the Soviet Union, he won two silver medals and a gold in three World Junior Championships, followed by a gold and a silver medal in the 1990 and 1991 World Championships, respectively. After the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, Bure competed for Russia in two Winter Olympics, claiming silver at the 1998 Games in Nagano as team captain, and bronze at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. Following Bure's retirement in 2005, he was named the general manager for Russia's national team at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.[6] Bure was later recognized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for his international career, and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2012.

  1. ^ "Pavel Bure, NHL.com - Players". nhl.com. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  2. ^ "Pavel Bure, HHOF". hhof.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  3. ^ "Pavel Bure". Hockey Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 19, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
  4. ^ "Russian Rocket hangs up skates". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. November 2, 2005. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
  5. ^ "100 Greatest NHL Players". NHL.com. January 27, 2017. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  6. ^ "Cox: Bure as Russian GM? Peculiar news". 2 November 2005. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2011.


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