Linden played for four teams during his 19 NHL seasons, but is best known for his time with the Vancouver Canucks. He played 1,140 of his 1,382 games with them, including all six of his 30-goal seasons, and is arguably the most popular player in team history.

The Canucks selected Linden with the No. 2 pick in the 1988 NHL Draft, and he scored 30 goals for Vancouver as an 18-year-old in 1988-89, then had four consecutive seasons with at least 31 goals from 1990-91 through 1993-94). He was named captain in 1991, a role which he held for seven seasons.

Linden excelled for the Canucks in the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs, finishing with 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in 24 games. The last two of those goals came in Game 7 of the Cup Final, but the Canucks lost 3-2 to the New York Rangers.

His best offensive season was 1995-96, when he had NHL career highs in assists (47) and points (80) and matched his NHL best with 33 goals (also 1992-93). Injuries limited Linden to 49 games and 40 points (nine goals, 31 assists) in 1996-97, but his contributions to the Vancouver community were recognized that season when he won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy.

The Canucks signed Mark Messier in the summer of 1997, and Linden gave up the captaincy before the 1997-98 season. Linden struggled before being traded to the New York Islanders on Feb. 6, 1998, a few days before representing Canada at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

Linden spent 1 1/2 seasons with the Islanders before being traded to the Montreal Canadiens on May 29, 1999. Montreal traded him to the Washington Capitals on March 13, 2001, and eight months later he was traded back to the Canucks on Nov. 10, 2001.

Though Linden wasn't the scorer he'd been during his first stint with the Canucks -- his 19 goals and 41 points in 2002-03 represented his best season in his second stint with Vancouver -- he became an effective checker and role player. He also began reaching milestones, playing his 1,000th NHL game on March 26, 2002, and becoming the first player in Canucks history to score 300 goals when he scored the game-winner on Oct. 5. 2006. Linden also scored the series-winning goal in Game 7 of Vancouver's first-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars in 2007.

Linden played in the final game of his NHL career on April 5, 2008. Although Vancouver lost 7-1 to the Calgary Flames, Linden was named the game's first star and skated a lap around GM Place to a standing ovation. He finished his career with 867 points (375 goals, 492 assists) in 1,382 NHL games, and 99 points (34 goals, 65 assists) in 124 playoff games.

The Canucks retired Linden's No. 16 on Dec. 17, 2008, and he served as team president from 2014-18.