He didn’t win a Stanley Cup or put up gawdy numbers, but it was the relationship he had with people and the city of Vancouver that made him worthy of being honoured.

VANCOUVER – It's a love affair here, one that can only really be understood if you grew up on Stan Smyl, Tiger Williams and some of the ugliest jerseys ever slapped on to the backs of a hockey team.

Because to be honoured on the level that Linden was being honoured Wednesday night in Vancouver, you've got to do more than just score goals and win Stanley Cups.

"He treated everybody the same off the ice. He wasn't the guy to walk on by when somebody would yell ‘Hey Trevor,'" Canucks defenceman Willie Mitchell said. "We can be busy as hockey players, and sometimes it's taxing on your time. But he always found a way to give 20 seconds to the fan. He acknowledged people and respected them, that's why he has this relationship with the city."

The Canucks sent Linden heli-skiing Wednesday night, and the owners bought him a trip to The Masters.

Linden thanked everyone from Pat Quinn to the Griffiths family, the Canucks' original owners. He saluted Harold Snepsts, his first pro roommate. Garth (The Strangler) Butcher, Stan Smyl, Bob McCammon and Markus Naslund, the Canucks captain who welcomed Linden back for his second tour in Vancouver.

And the fans cheered him the way only those who have seen the full Trevor Linden picture could.

He is Lanny McDonald in Calgary. Wendel Clark in Toronto. Ryan Smyth in Edmonton. The way it will be with Saku Koivu when his days in Montreal are done.

He didn't win a Stanley Cup for the Canucks, but he damned near perished trying, his face a raccoon-mask by the time Game 7 of the '94 Cup final had closed, the Canucks one goal short of the New York Rangers.

Even in that close-but-no-cigar scenario, Linden -- for better or worse -- stands as the ultimate Canuck, a team that has never been able to coax ol' Stanley west of the Rockies.

"Heading into that game, you recognized you were one game -- 60 minutes -- away from carrying the Stanley Cup. It was a pretty special place to be," said Linden, a franchise tonic from a town called Medicine Hat, Alberta.

The picture of Linden with his arm around goaltender Kirk McLean, leaning and holding each other up in equal parts, might be found in the dictionary next to the heading: Noble in Defeat.

"You'd left it all out there," he recalls. "It was a very empty feeling. It was tough. You'd accomplished some good things, but it was a very empty feeling."

"They gave us a handful," said Oilers coach Craig MacTavish, a Ranger back in '94. "With Trevor, it's a combination of everything. He was a good person, a good leader. He was a pretty hard-nosed guy, had some touch around the net. He did everything well."

On Wednesday, as veterans from around the National Hockey League pause to spend a moment or two in recollection of a colleague whose No. 16 was retired by the Canucks, the picture that is painted is one of the consummate NHLer.

"I wasn't the most talented guy in the world," assessed Linden, "but think I applied myself. I worked hard; a guy who tried to play the right way. Do things properly."

Of course, his former opponents say it better than Linden ever will. To them, he was a pro's pro.

"A real complete player," said defenceman Sheldon Souray, who played with Linden in Montreal for a time. "You couldn't say he was a real physical guy, like a Rick Tocchet. You couldn't say he was a fighter, or a top defensive forward. But he did everything well. He was a penalty killer. A powerplay guy. He got matched up against other teams' top lines… And above that, he was a great leader."

A leader the hard way. By example.

"He was strong along the walls, he won his battles, got his pucks out. He laid down in front of shots, paid the price in front of the net," Souray said. "Tough things that players respect."

You can tell, as a reporter, how well respected a player is at a time like this, by how many players return your phone messages left asking for a quote on a guy like Linden. Personally, every veteran I called this week called me back to talk about Linden.

That says something, especially for a guy whose final years were splashed with fallout from his role on the NHL Players’ Association bargaining committee. The union imploded, and some of the blame flung far and wide hit Linden, rightly or wrongly so.

"It's always easy to be an armchair quarterback, to sit back and critique," said Anaheim defenceman Chris Pronger. "At the end of the day, he was the one in there during the lockout spending time away from his family, spending time trying to do what was right for the players and for the game.

"Towards the end, he didn't see eye to eye with Bob (Goodenow). I don't think there were a lot of us who did. Trevor stood up for the game."

Linden was a talking point from Day 1, drafted No. 2 overall by the Canucks in '88. The Minnesota North Stars took the other kid from the Western League, Mike Modano, an American pretty boy, some thought.

Today, you can still spend a few beers on that conversation: which draft pick was better? Linden ended with 867 points in 1,382 games; Modano has 1,304 points in 1,350 games.

Each has become the face of the franchise that drafted them, even if the Canucks traded Linden away before welcoming him back four years later.

"I was drafted here, played 10 years here, and I was able to come back in a slightly different role, and was able to finish here," Linden said. "That's not lost on me -- I recognize how special that is. It means a lot to me."

And you to Canucks fans, Trevor.