page_title: Brent Sopel
section_title: Vancouver Canucks
hierarchical_section_title: Brent Sopel / Playing career / Vancouver Canucks
caption_attribution_description: English: Vancouver Canucks forward Matt Cooke warming up in GM Place before playing the Los Angeles Kings on April 3, 2007.
context_page_description: Brent Bernard Sopel is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League. Sopel was originally selected 144th overall at the 1995 NHL Entry Draft by the Vancouver Canucks, the organization he began his NHL career with. He has also played for the New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Montreal Canadiens, winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 with Chicago.
  In addition to his NHL career, Sopel has also played in the Kontinental Hockey League with Metallurg Novokuznetsk and Salavat Yulaev Ufa, also briefly playing for the American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves before retiring from professional hockey in 2015.
context_section_description: On April 3, 1996, just under a year after being drafted, Sopel signed his first professional contract with his draft team, the Vancouver Canucks. He was told by Coach Marc Crawford that he would never play in the NHL, but Sopel scored his first NHL goal on April 10, 1999, against the Edmonton Oilers' Tommy Salo. In 2002, Sopel won the Fred J. Hume Award for Unsung Hero voted by the Vancouver Canucks Booster Club. On December 31, 2001, and January 21, 2002, Sopel won USA Today's NHL Player of the Week award.
  Sopel was traded back to the Canucks during their 2006–07 season on February 1, 2007, the NHL trade deadline day. He missed the first game of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Dallas Stars after he injured his back while picking up a cracker that was dropped by his daughter. The Canucks beat the Stars in quadruple overtime, in the sixth longest game in NHL history.
caption: Sopel (right) and Matt Cooke during warm-ups with the Vancouver Canucks in 2007.
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