Quinn’s Questions: Should Bieksa Go in the Ring of Honour?

Quinn’s Questions is a feature where you the fans tell us your thoughts, through your vote and hopefully in the comments, as well. It’s named after Quinn Hughes, Pat Quinn, or both, depending on your age and era.

Results of previous Quinn’s Questions: How confident are you in Spencer Martin?

60% - Confident — He’ll be solid

27% - Somewhat confident — I’m skeptical, but we’ll see

9% - Extremely confident — He’ll be great

4% - Not confident — I do not think he’ll be good

This about lines up with what I would have expected. I’m definitely in the somewhat confident-to-confident range, and I’m not surprised there are only a few readers on either extreme. Odds are he’ll be a perfectly competent, if unspectacular backup net minder.

In case you missed it, the Canucks announced they are signing Kevin Bieksa — long-time Canucks defender — to a one-day contract so that he can retire with the organization officially:

So, in honour of this fact, we’re asking a simple (and often asked question) this week: should Kevin Bieksa be inducted into the Canucks’ Ring of Honour?

There are reasonable cases to be made on either side.

Bieksa certainly fits the Ring of Honour mold. He was never a superstar, but he was beloved by the fanbase. He was a pillar of the Vancouver community, did a lot of good charity work (particularly around mental health and his relationship to Rick Rypien), and he has a cornerstone moment he’s remembered by, in his 3OT stanchion winner that sent the team to the Western Conference Final in 2011. He’s also just a charismatic likeable character — his speech at the Sedins’ jersey retirement received rave reviews. His stats also aren’t too shabby — he’s seventh among all defenders in games played with the team, sixth for points, and eighth for goals. It’s a perfectly respectable stats package to put forth.

On the other hand, some may argue, well, those stats aren’t amazing. And they’d be right. Doug Lidster, Dennis Kearns, Jyrki Lumme — these are all guys who rank ahead of “Juice” in counting stats categories, and are largely never pondered as Ring of Honour candidates. There’s also a segment of the fanbase who thinks we recognize too many players for having never won a Stanley Cup. I’m sympathetic to that, even if I don’t necessarily agree; they do have quite a few jerseys hanging, in addition to the ROH.

Overall, though, I think the Ring of Honour is more about the stuff you can’t measure. It’s about being a heart and soul guy, being a “Canuck”, and having a deep connection to the fanbase and community. Of course you still have to be a good player, but to me, Bieksa easily meets a baseline level of quality with his play. He’s a prototypical Ring of Honour guy — the kind of guy it’s all about.

I’d love to see where our readership sits though. Should he be in? Is he an edge case? Feel free to throw around your favourite KB3 memories in the comments, too.