This past week, we found out that a few Vancouver Canucks players will be changing their numbers heading into next season.

Marco Rossi will be taking up Alex Edler’s old number 23. Zeev Buium will nab the number 8 that was most recently worn by Conor Garland and once belonged to Chris Tanev. Filip Chytil will look to make the number 77 his own, with Anson Carter the most notable previous 77 (with apologies to Nikolay Goldobin). Finally, Jonathan Lekkerimäki will take the number 88 from the departing Nils Åman.

These four numbers all have something in common: they have been worn before by other Canucks.

Perhaps surprisingly, the number 23 has been worn by the most Canucks of those four numbers, with 20 players wearing the number 23, including Thomas Gradin, Paul Reinhart, and Martin Gelinas.

That comes up short of the number worn by the most Canucks in franchise history: the number 18, which has been worn by 33 players, including Darcy Rota, Igor Larionov, and a couple of overshadowed brothers, Steve Kariya and Fedor Fedorov.

Those four Canucks won’t be charting new territory with their numbers, nor will any of the new Canucks signed in free agency. Luke Schenn will reclaim the number 2 he wore in his previous two stints in Vancouver; Jamie Oleksiak will wear number 4 — a classic number for a defenceman; Brendan Gallagher will go with the number 7 worn by two previous short kings, André Boudrias and Cliff Ronning.

Only Paul Cotter will have a more unusual number, as he will keep wearing the number 47 he wore with the New Jersey Devils, previously worn in Vancouver by Yann Sauvé, Sven Baertschi, and Noah Juulsen.

You might even call it a missed opportunity. Any of these players could have picked a number never before worn by a Canuck and staked a claim on making franchise history.

11 numbers have been worn by just one player in Canucks history. Before switching to number 23, in fact, Marco Rossi had a unique number as the only player to ever wear 93 as a Canuck. But Rossi had worn 23 for his entire career with the Minnesota Wild, and only changed to 93 because Lekkerimäki was already wearing 23.

50 – Brendan Gaunce
66 – Gino Odjick
70 – Tanner Pearson
75 – Michael DiPietro
76 – Arturs Silovs
78 – Kole Lind
86 – Christian Wolanin
90 – Victor Mancini
93 – Marco Rossi
94 – Linus Karlsson
95 – Justin Bailey

Two other current Canucks still have unique numbers: Victor Mancini is the only Canuck to ever wear 90 — the same number he wore with the New York Rangers — while Linus Karlsson is alone in wearing 94, which he previously wore with Skellefteå AIK and BIK Karlskoga in Sweden.

Of the one-player numbers, the one that jumps out is Gino Odjick and number 66. That number is forever connected to Mario Lemieux, and has been worn by just five other players in NHL history. Odjick is one of them.

But Odjick only wore 66 for one game: his first. That’s the number he was assigned at his first training camp when the team thought they were going to send him back to Junior. Instead, he caught the Canucks’ coaches and management completely off guard with how ready he was for pro hockey, and they assigned him to their IHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.

Odjick played just 17 games with the Admirals, piling up 102 penalty minutes. But he also tallied 7 goals and 10 points, showing that he was more than just an enforcer. It was his fists that got him to the NHL, but it was his ability to play the game between the bouts that kept him there for 12 years.

Odjick fought twice in his first game against the Chicago Blackhawks, facing heavyweights Dave Manson and Stu Grimson while wearing the number 66. Before his next game, two days later, he had a new number: 29, in honour of his father, Joe, a residential school survivor. 29 was his residential school number.

While Odjick knocks the number 66 off the list, there are still nine numbers that have never been worn by the Canucks: 67, 68, 69, 84, 85, 87, 97, 98, and 99.

Since the number 99 has been retired by the NHL, that one’s out of circulation. But the other eight numbers are up for grabs.

The odds are against any players picking 69, even if they’re a big fan of the movie Goon. Just two players in NHL history have worn the number 69: “Mad Mel” Angelstad in 2003-04 with the Washington Capitals and Andrew Desjardins from 2010 to 2012 with the San Jose Sharks.

It’s hard to imagine a young hockey player trying to make their mark in the NHL and hoping to be taken seriously approaching their team and asking if they can wear the number 69. There’s a reason why it was one of just three numbers, along with 66 and 99, that didn’t get used during the 2025-26 season.

I honestly wonder if players will similarly avoid the number 67 in the future given how cringeworthy the 6-7 meme already is.

So, what number might be next to be checked off the list?

Number 68 is on the table, as prospect Riley Patterson wore that number for the Abbotsford Canucks in four games at the end of last season. If he excels in his rookie year and gets a call-up, maybe he’ll wear 68 for the Vancouver Canucks.

But that number was seemingly just randomly assigned to him, as he wore 21 with the Niagara IceDogs in the OHL.

The most likely might be the number 85.

First off, there’s Ty Young. The 21-year-old goaltender split his time between the Abbotsford Canucks and Kalamazoo Wings last season, but will look to battle for a spot in the AHL with Aku Koskenvuo and Nikita Tolopilo. Considering the Canucks’ track record with injuries at the goaltending position, it’s not hard to imagine Young getting into a game this season wearing the number 85 on his jersey.

If not Young, there’s another prospect who might wear 85: Adam Novotny.

The Canucks’ most recent first-round pick wears number 16 with the Peterborough Petes, but with that number retired for Trevor Linden, he’ll need a new one if and when he plays in Vancouver. Novotny has worn 24 for Czechia in international competition, but he wore 85 with his club team, Mountfield HK, in Czechia.

Of course, the real answer for which number will be next is whichever prospect gets handed a random number and, like Gino Odjick, impresses at training camp and surprisingly makes the team before he gets a regular number.