It will be a very significant night
General manager Mike Gillis said the club will pay tribute to Naslund with as much fanfare as it did when retiring Linden's sweater last season.
"It will be a very significant night for the franchise and it will occur during the 40th anniversary," said Gillis. "I think it'll be absolutely fantastic."
Gillis said Naslund, who played 12 of his 15 seasons with the Canucks, was ecstatic when he called him and gave him the news.
"His reaction was great -- very honoured and very excited and, I think, a sense of relief because he did a lot here," said Gillis. "These kind of things are very important to people and very important to their families, and I think that he was really excited and very pleased about it."
Naslund served as Canucks captain between 2000-01 to 2007-08 before signing with the New York Rangers as a free agent. He won the Lester B. Pearson Award as the NHL's most outstanding player, as voted by his peers, in 2002-03 and led the club in scoring for a team-record seven seasons.
