3 minor Canucks news pieces: Holtby picks a jersey number, Sautner signs, and Hughes turns 21

The headlines this week were dominated by the Vancouver Canucks’ acquisition of defenceman Nate Schmidt from the Vegas Golden Knights. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s no way you missed that, but as we did last week, here are three minor pieces of news you may have missed.

Per Irfaan Gaffar, goaltender Braden Holtby has picked number 49 as his jersey number.

Yes, you read that right. 49. Just three Canucks have worn number 49, and none of them were goaltenders: Zack Fitzgerald, Alexandre Bolduc, and most recently, Darren Archibald.

I can’t wait to ask Holtby what made him decide on 49, because it seems to be a strange number for a goaltender upon first glance.

The Canucks announced Tuesday afternoon that they have signed defenceman Ashton Sautner to a one year, two-way deal with a cap hit of $700,000.

The Flin Flon, Manitoba native appeared in 51 games for the Utica Comets, but didn’t see any action with the NHL club. He notched one goal and 11 assists last season, and adds to the Canucks’ defensive depth, should they run into injury trouble in what is expected to be a very condensed schedule.

Perhaps more shocking than Holtby picking number 49, Quinn Hughes turned 21 years old on October 14th. Given what Hughes accomplished in his rookie campaign, it’s hard to believe he just reached the legal drinking age in the United States.

A few of his Canucks teammates took to Instagram to wish him a happy birthday, including Elias Pettersson, who posted this gem from earlier in the season.

You’re officially caught up on all of the Canucks news pieces of the week!