in 1988, after arriving back from playing with canadian national men's hockey team, where he spent most of the 1986–87 nhl season playing, bradley was traded to the vancouver canucks. during the 1989 playoffs, bradley would tie rookie trevor linden with a team-leading 7 points in seven games. his best regular season totals with the canucks came in the 1989–90 season when he scored a team respectable 48 points and was awarded the canucks' "most exciting player award" by canuck fans. he started out the 1990–91 season playing strongly, only to be traded to the toronto maple leafs for mobile defenceman tom kurvers.