Brent Sopel
Brent Sopel was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and began his career with the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL. He played with the Blades until midway through the 1994-1995 season and moved on to the Swift Current Broncos. Sopel was drafted in 1995 by the Vancouver Canucks, going 144th overall. He spent time with the Broncos and the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL before he hit the big club in the 1998-1999 season. Sopel played 5 games for the Canucks in that season and scored a goal. He was sent back down to the Crunch for more conditioning, but continued to see more action with the Canucks in the 1999-2000 season, playing in 18 games and landing 6 points. Sopel, after spending a bit of time with the Kansas City Blades of the IHL, hit a full-time spot on the Canucks roster in the 2000-2001 NHL season as he played in 52 regular season games and 4 playoff games. He worked a full-time schedule with the Canucks for the next three seasons leading up to the lockout, with his best season coming in 2003-2004 as he scored 10 goals and added 32 assists in 80 games. Sopel sat out the lockout season and was traded in August of 2005 by the Canucks to the New York Islanders. He spent the majority of the 2005-2006 season in Long Island, but was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in March of 2006. Sopel played in Los Angeles until the Vancouver Canucks came knocking again and brought him back into the fold in February of 2007 to help with the playoff drive. Sopel is known for his character and his hard shot. He is defensively responsible and has great personality in the room. Sopel loves Vancouver and would like to finish his career there.
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