Pavel Bure

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Position Right Wing
Shot Left
Nickname(s) The Russian Rocket
Height
Weight		 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
191 lb (87 kg/13 st 9 lb)
Pro clubs NHL
 Vancouver Canucks
 Florida Panthers
 New York Rangers
RSL
 HC CSKA Moscow
 HC Spartak Moscow
Nationality Flag of Russia Russia
Born March 31, 1971 (1971-03-31) (age 37),
Moscow, Soviet Union Flag of the Soviet Union
NHL Draft 113th overall, 1989
Vancouver Canucks
Pro career 1987 – 2003
Olympic medal record
Men's ice hockey
Silver 1998 Nagano Team
Bronze 2002 Salt Lake City Team

Pavel Vladimirovich Bure (Russian: Павел Владимирович Буре; born on March 31, 1971 in Moscow, USSR) is a former professional ice hockey player. He was a right winger and played in the National Hockey League (NHL), as well as for the Soviet Union and Russia internationally. He won a bronze medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and a silver medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. During his career in the NHL, he played for the Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. Currently, Bure serves as the General Manager for Russia's Olympic hockey team.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Pavel was named after his great-grandfather, a watchmaker to Tsar Alexander III. Bure's family made precious watches for the tsars from 1815-1917. In 1996, Bure presented 3 of the 50 gold replicas of the company's last model to then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov.

Bure comes from an athletic family; his father, Vladimir Bure, was an Olympic swimmer who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1968, 1972, and 1976 Olympic Games. In the '72 Games he won the bronze medal (100m), and lost the gold by half a second to swimming legend Mark Spitz. Pavel Bure's younger brother, Valeri Bure, also played in the NHL.

Bure began his hockey career at 16, playing for the Soviet Red Army team.

Bure did the first ever Sports Live Chat on the Internet in Canada in 1995 with Bob Kerstein, CIO of the Vancouver Canucks.

[edit] Playing career

Nicknamed "The Russian Rocket" for his speed and skill, Bure was picked 113th overall in the 6th round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks out of the Central Red Army. He started playing for the Canucks in the 1991-92 NHL season. In his first game, November 5, 1991, Bure dazzled Vancouver fans with spectacular rushes up the ice, though he failed to score in a 3-3 tie against Winnipeg. He scored 34 goals and 60 points in 65 games and was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year for 1991-92. In the following two seasons, he registered sixty goals each. He was an integral part of the Vancouver Canucks' scoring department for many years to come, helping them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1994. In the 1994 playoffs, Bure played perhaps the best hockey of his career with blazing rushes up the ice, many brilliant goals, and even some big hits and strong defensive play. He recorded 16 goals and 31 points in 24 games and scored what is probably the biggest goal in Canucks history. In the seventh game of the opening round series in Calgary, Bure beat Mike Vernon on a breakaway in the second overtime period to win the series for the Canucks.

After injuries hampered him for the better part of the next three seasons – the worst of which involved a torn ACL at the hands of Steve Smith[2] – Bure returned to top form in 1997-98, scoring 51 goals and finishing 3rd in the NHL with 90 points. In addition, he was one of the stars of the 1998 Olympic tournament in Nagano, Japan, scoring nine goals in six games for Russia. This included a brilliant five-goal performance in a 7-4 semi-final win over Finland. The Russians earned the silver medal after losing 1-0 to the Czech Republic in the final.

After the season was over, Bure announced that he would not play for the Canucks again, and did not report to the club for the 1998-99 season. On January 17, 1999, he was traded to the Florida Panthers with Bret Hedican, Brad Ference, and Vancouver's 3rd round choice in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft for Ed Jovanovski, Dave Gagner, Mike Brown, Kevin Weekes, and Florida's first round draft choice in the 2000 draft. In Florida, his goal-scoring continued, as he led the league with back-to-back 58- and 59-goal seasons in 1999-2000 and 2000-01. However, the Panthers failed to win a playoff game in Bure's tenure there, getting swept by New Jersey in his only series as a Panther.

On March 18, 2002, Bure was acquired by the New York Rangers along with Florida's 2nd round pick in the 2002 draft for Igor Ulanov, Filip Novak and the Rangers' 1st and 2nd round choices in the draft and a 4th round choice in the 2003 draft. Plagued by injuries throughout his career, he did not play in the 2003-04 NHL season due to a lingering knee injury even after two operations. On November 1, 2005, Bure announced his retirement from professional hockey due to complications with his injured knee (injury sustained in 2003).[1] At the same time, it was announced that Bure would be the general manager of Russia's ice hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

[edit] Libel lawsuits

In 2001 a Moscow based newspaper called the eXile published an article claiming Bure broke up with Anna Kournikova after discovering she had two vaginas.[3] . Bure successfully sued the eXile under Russian libel law for 500,000 rubles (about US$20,000) in damages.[2]. The eXile claimed that the original article was a parody and suggested Pavel Bure's influential status may have compromised the judgment.[3]

In 2005, Bure again launched another Kournikova related lawsuit, this time against perfume chain Arbat Prestige for defamation. Bure seeks 300,000,000 rubles in damages.[4]

In August, 2007, a Russian court awarded Bure 67,000 rubles (Cdn $2,750) in a lawsuit he filed against British Airways after being forced to leave a plane. The pilot suspected Bure was a "soccer hooligan", and would not take off until Bure was escorted off the plane.[5]

[edit] Transactions

  • June 9, 1989- Vancouver Canucks 6th round choice, 113th overall, in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft.
  • March 18, 2002- Traded by the Florida Panthers, along with Florida's 2002 2nd round draft choice, to the New York Rangers in exchange for Igor Ulanov, Filip Novak, the Rangers 2002 1st round draft choice, the Rangers 2002 2nd round draft and the Rangers 2003 4th round draft choice.

[edit] Awards & achievements

CSKA

  • Soviet champion - 1988, 1989
  • European champions cup - 1988, 1989

USSR

  • World champion - 1990

NHL

Team

[edit] Records

[edit] Career statistics

    Regular Season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1987–88 HC CSKA Moscow USSR 5 1 1 2 0 — — — — —
1988–89 HC CSKA Moscow USSR 32 17 9 26 8 — — — — —
1989–90 HC CSKA Moscow USSR 46 14 11 25 22 — — — — —
1990–91 HC CSKA Moscow USSR 44 35 11 46 24 — — — — —
1991–92 Vancouver Canucks NHL 65 34 26 60 30 13 6 4 10 14
1992–93 Vancouver Canucks NHL 82 60 50 110 69 12 5 7 12 8
1993–94 Vancouver Canucks NHL 76 60 47 107 86 24 16 15 31 40
1994–95 HC Spartak Moscow RSL 1 2 0 2 2 — — — — —
1994–95 EV Landshut DEL 1 3 0 3 2 — — — — —
1994–95 Vancouver Canucks NHL 44 20 23 43 47 11 7 6 13 10
1995–96 Vancouver Canucks NHL 15 6 7 13 8 — — — — —
1996–97 Vancouver Canucks NHL 63 23 32 55 40 — — — — —
1997–98 Vancouver Canucks NHL 82 51 39 90 48 — — — — —
1998–99 Florida Panthers NHL 11 13 3 16 4 — — — — —
1999–2000 Florida Panthers NHL 74 58 36 94 16 4 1 3 4 2
2000–01 Florida Panthers NHL 82 59 33 92 58 — — — — —
2001–02 Florida Panthers NHL 56 22 27 49 56 — — — — —
2001–02 New York Rangers NHL 12 12 8 20 6 — — — — —
2002–03 New York Rangers NHL 39 19 11 30 16 — — — — —
NHL Totals 702 437 342 779 484 64 35 35 70 74

[edit] International competition

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bure retires, takes Russian GM job. Canadian Press (2005-11-01). Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  2. ^ Sports Illustrated (1998). 1998 Nagano Olympics Athlete profile: Pavel Bure. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved on 2008-01-22.
  3. ^ Anna Kournikova’s dignity yielded half million rubles to Pavel Bure - Pravda.Ru
Preceded by
Ed Belfour		 Winner of the Calder Trophy
1992		 Succeeded by
Teemu Selänne
Preceded by
Teemu Selänne		 NHL Goal Leader
1994		 Succeeded by
Peter Bondra
Preceded by
Teemu Selänne		 Winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy
2000 & 2001		 Succeeded by
Jarome Iginla
Preceded by
Scott Mellanby		 Florida Panthers captains
2001-02
with Paul Laus		 Succeeded by
Olli Jokinen