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Gilbert Brule and fellow former Giant Evander Kane will be taking part in Legends Night at the Langley Events Centre on Saturday.
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Published Nov 20, 2025 • 4 minute read
Brule
Gilbert Brule of the Giants in action against the Prince George Cougars during a WHL game at the Pacific Coliseum on Oct. 13, 2004, in Vancouver. Photo by Chris Relke /PNG
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Gilbert Brule was the Vancouver Giants’ Pavel Bure.
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Brule could make opponents look like they were skating in soup and bring you out of your Pacific Coliseum seat on a coast-to-coast goal, much like Bure did with the Vancouver Canucks during his era. And, just like Bure, Brule could rattle a rival with a heavy check.
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Brule was with the Giants from 2002-06, and the game, particularly at the junior level, was rougher than it is now. He frequently dropped the gloves, despite his 5-foot-10 and 185-pound frame. Brule’s Giants career regular-season totals included: 165 games, 87 goals, 185 points and 309 penalty minutes.
The Giants host their Legends Night on Saturday when the Tri-City Americans provide the opposition at the Langley Events Centre, and the team will honour both Brule and Evander Kane, the Vancouver Canucks winger who was with the Giants from 2006-09. Brule and Kane are slated to take part in a pre-game hot stove at the banquet hall at the LEC.
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The Giants are celebrating their 25th anniversary season.
It’s easier to visualize Kane’s Giants time, because he’s still front and centre in the hockey world. The same goes for guys like Brendan Gallagher and Milan Lucic.
Memories of Brule with the Giants aren’t necessarily as fresh. He’s 38 now. He played his last NHL game in 2013-14, played his last pro game in Poland in 2020-21. These days he’s running Brule Hockey, an academy on the Sunshine Coast. He’s working there, too, with the Coastal Tsunami of the Pacific Junior Hockey League as a skills coach, and this summer he helped guide the team of nine- and 10-year-olds who made up the Jr. Canucks for the celebrated Brick Tournament in Edmonton.
You can still find the odd Brule highlight from his time with the Giants when you do a deep-dive on YouTube. It’s worth the effort. He was that good as a junior.
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“Gilbert was the most talented guy in the history of the franchise,” explained former Giants general manager Scott Bonner. “He had elite skill and grit. He could play any way you wanted.”
He didn’t have the best Giants career ever. We won’t say that. That’s Gallagher, who had three 40-plus-goal seasons on his way to team career records in goals (136) and points (280). You could make a case, too, for it being defenceman Jon Blum (2005-09), who was a key member in four straight 100-point regular season teams with Vancouver, as welling as being the franchise leader in career assists (155), winning the CHL defenceman of the year and playing in two World Juniors for the Americans.
Kane
The Vancouver Giants’ Evander Kane in 2009. SunMediaArchive
The best pro to come out of the Giants is either Gallagher, Kane or Lucic. They’ve all surpassed 800 regular-season games in the NHL.
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Kane scored 48 goals as a 17-year-old with the Giants in 2008-09 and set the standard for highest draft pick in franchise history when he went No. 4 overall to the Atlanta Thrashers that summer. Defenceman Bowen Byram equalled that when he was selected in the same spot by the Colorado Avalanche in 2019.
But high-water mark as a Giant? The best in a particular moment? It’s hard to argue with Brule.
He was the No. 6 pick in the 2005 NHL Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets. That was the Giants’ top showing at a draft before Kane.
Columbus kept Brule as an 18-year-old to start the 2005-06 season. His teammates included current Canucks bench boss Adam Foote and current Abbotsford skipper Manny Malhotra.
The Blue Jackets reassigned Brule to the Giants midseason, and he went off for 23 goals and 38 points in 27 regular-season games. The Giants won the playoff crown that spring, and Brule led the circuit in scoring, his 30 points — including 16 goals — in 18 games giving him nine points more than the next best finisher, despite Brule playing four fewer games.
That WHL championship advanced Vancouver to the four-team Memorial Cup national tournament in Moncton, N.B., and they lost out there in the semifinals. The Giants scored 15 goals in the five games, and Brule was in on 80 per cent of them — his 12 points, including six goals, led the tournament in scoring. He had seven more points than the next best top scorer from Vancouver.
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“He was the best Giant ever,” Gallagher explained. “In junior, he was the most dominant. He did it all. He scored. He hit. He fought.”
These Giants (9-12-0-1) broke a four-game losing skid Wednesday with a 6-3 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes (8-16-0-1) at the LEC. Winger Cameron Schmidt had a goal and an assist and, as of Thursday morning, the Dallas Stars prospect was fifth in the WHL in points (32) and goals (15).
Vancouver visits the Penticton Vees (10-7-3-2) on Friday.
The 18-year-old Schmidt, who had 40 goals last season for Vancouver, is currently tied with Brule for eighth in career regular-season goals (87) with the club. The team active leader is forward Ty Halaburda (89), who’s slotted for sixth in all-time history with former forward Cain Franson (2010-14).
Halaburda, 20, had two goals Wednesday to give him 13 on the season. He had a career-best 29 goals last year.
Tri-City (8-9-2-0) is winless in three games heading into a Friday visit from the Regina Pats (9-10-2-1).
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