Top 50 Canucks players of all time: #21 – Cliff Ronning

Join us this summer as we count down the top 50 Vancouver Canucks players of all time! #21: Cliff Ronning

A hometown boy and an inductee into the BC Sports Hall of Fame, Cliff Ronning was a highly skilled forward throughout his 17-year NHL career.

After a dominant 197-point season with the New Westminster Bruins of the WHL, Ronning was drafted in the seventh round of the 1984 NHL draft by the St. Louis Blues.

A year after being selected by the Blues, he spent the season with the Canadian National Team, where Ronning recorded an impressive 55 goals and 118 points in 71 games. He would then make his first appearance in a Blues sweater later that year in the playoffs, where he scored one goal and one assist in five postseason games.

Fast forward to 1991, the Canucks and Blues team up for a mid-season trade that sends Ronning to his hometown Canucks.

Despite his small 5-foot-8 stature, Ronning quickly became a fan favourite in Vancouver due to his dog-on-a-bone style of play. In his first full season with the Canucks, he put up 71 points in 80 games, which was second in team scoring.

Ronning’s second season with the Canucks was his best. In 79 games, he tallied a career-high 29 goals and 85 points. He finished that season second in team scoring, trailing only the great Pavel Bure.

Coming into the 1993-94 season, Ronning had developed into a consistent offensive weapon for the Canucks. His strong offensive play in his third season helped lead the Canucks to the playoffs. Ronning finished third in team scoring with 25 goals and 68 points in the regular season, which he carried into the playoffs.

During the Canucks 1994 run, Ronning was a solid contributor for the Canucks. Coming into the finals against the New York Rangers, Ronning had been a key offensive producer, but it wasn’t until the start of the finals that Ronning truly began to show his worth.

Despite the Canucks failing to get the job done against the Rangers, Ronning was a standout player during the series. In seven games, he scored one goal and six assists, including the famous goal in Game 4 that p ut the Canucks up 2-0 after he finished off a Bure rebound.

Following the 1994 Stanley Cup final defeat, Ronning played just one more season with the Canucks before signing with the Phoenix Coyotes as a free agent in the summer of 1996.

Ronning went on to play for two seasons with the Coyotes, four years with the Nashville Predators, and one-year stops with the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild and New York Islanders before hanging up the skates in 2004.

In six seasons with the Canucks, Ronning played 366 games and sits 25th in goals (112), 23rd in assists (216) and 24th in points (328) in franchise history. However, his 0.896 points per game sits 10th all-time in Canucks history. Despite his Canucks short Canucks tenure, Ronning’s legacy in Vancouver continued to grow. In 2018, the Burnaby native was honoured with an induction into the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Our previously ranked top 50 Canucks of all time:

#50 – Curt Fraser
#49 – Dave Babych
#48 – Martin Gelinas
#47 – Chris Oddleifson
#46 – Jannik Hansen
#45 – Ivan Boldirev
#44 – Gary Smith
#43 – Jacob Markstrom
#42 – Orland Kurtenbach
#41 – Harold Snepsts
#40 – Darcy Rota
#39 – Thatcher Demko
#38 – Geoff Courtnall
#37 – Dennis Ververgaert
#36 – Petri Skriko
#35 – Dan Hamhuis
#34 – Doug Lidster
#33 – Patrik Sundstrom
#32 – Brendan Morrison
#31 – Richard Brodeur
#30 – Sami Salo
#29 – André Boudrais
#28 – Kevin Bieksa
#27 – Don Lever
#26 – Bo Horvat
#25 – Brock Boeser
#24 – Dennis Kearns
#23 – Ed Jovanovski
#22 – Greg Adams