I know it’s a team but what is the word mean.
I searched and came up empty
Term generally used to refer to Canadians. Sometimes considered mildly derogatory… but not really. I’ve usually heard it as a joking reference. I’m not sure enough of the origin to post where it comes from.
At least, that’s what I think… I’ve been known to be wrong.
Not to be snarky, but did you check http://www.m-w.com?
Main Entry: Ca·nuck
Pronunciation: k&-'n&k sometimes -'nuk
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1835
: a Canadian and especially a French Canadian
Thanks but all it says is it a Canadian, esp a French Canadian. How did it come to mean that?
Well, ok. Back to google with the terms ‘etymology canuck’.
The first link offers some insight onto how the word evolved.
Or we have this from Brewer:
Canucks: The name given to Canadians generally, but in Canada to Canadians of French descent. Possibly a corruption of Connaught, a name originally applied by French Canadians to Irish immigrants.
Yes, but if Canuck primarily refers to French Canadians, why is it the name of the Vancouver hockey team?
The word no longer primarily refers to French Canadians.
It is applied to Canadians as a whole, and no, we don’t have a problem with it.
Slip the Canuck
…as long as you don’t pronounce it “Can-nook” 
Good old Mitford Mathews, Dictionary of Americanisms is responsible for finding the oldest cite. It was from 1835 and said "Jonathan distinguishes a Dutch or French Canadian, by the term Kanuk. He(Mathews) offers that Bartlett was responsible for the Connaught theory.
My Lighter which is from the last decade and is the most thorough slang source available, suggests that it is more likely to have come from a Hawaiian word, kanaka which means “South Sea Islander.” And to quote Lighter, "…since both French-Canadians and such islanders were employed in the Pacific Northwest fur trade; later reanalyzed as Canadian + arbitrary suffix. Ignore Mr. Lighter at your peril.
Of course, he qualified it with “perhaps a variety of…” but he is the pro here. He is seldom wrong.
I’ve always thought of it as the equivelant of the term redneck. I have only heard it from Americans used to mockingly refer to Canadians, and I have only heard “Redneck” from Canadians while mocking Americans.
It is the Canadian equivalent of “yankee”.
During World War 2 the flow of Captain Marvel comics etc. into Canada dried up due to paper rationing in the USA. A comic book superhero, Johnny Canuck, was created and distributed in Canada on cheap newsprint.
I have no problem with anyone referring to me as a Canuck as I have never considered the term derogatory.
There was a thread devoted to this in IMHO some time ago, it may be worthwhile to look it up.
Did someone call for me?
SFCanadian
Canuck is not the equivalent of redneck. We have enough rednecks of our own, mostly in Alberta 
It’s not a derogatory term either.
It refers to anyone cooler than thou
:ducks and runs:
Although I know very little about etymology and/or Native American languages, at first glance “kanuk” sure looks like a word that has its origins in native North American language. Could it be that kanuk evolved out of a word that the orginal residents of the northern half of the continent were using to describe colonizing Europeans? Something like haole in Hawaiian, but without the derogatory connotation. Just speculating…
In Hawaiian, kanaka just means ‘a person, a man, a guy, a dude, a bloke’, etc. It doesn’t specifically mean ‘South Sea Islander’. Hmm, most Pacific islands are south from Hawaii’s point of view. Hawaii is the northernmost extent of Polynesia.
Perhaps canuck used to be mildly derogatory, but ever since Humphrey Bogart referred to himself as a “Canuck” in To Have and Have Not, it’s been Cool.