Report: Rome, Canucks to part ways

The player responsible for one of the most infamous moments in Canucks history is leaving the organization.

Defenseman Aaron Rome won’t be offered a contract extension with the club, agent Kevin Epp told Vancouver’s News1130.

Epp said he wasn’t surprised the Canucks showed no interest in bringing back his client, who fell out of the rotation last year despite putting up career highs in goals, assists and points. Rome appeared just once in Vancouver’s brief five-game playoff run and only appeared in 43 regular-season contests.

While Rome’s departure from Vancouver sounds imminent, it’s unlikely the city will ever forget him.

It was he who laid out Boston’s Nathan Horton in Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup finals, setting off a chain reaction of events that reverberate to this day. Rome’s subsequent four-game suspension — quadruple the length of any suspension ever given in a Cup final — is a record that’s likely to stand for a long time.

The hit also turned the series on its head (Boston outscored Vancouver 21-4 following it) and set off a chain of head injury issues for Horton, who missed 36 games last year with a concussion.