Continuing our Summertime retreat from anything serious, we’re looking at the Vancouver Canucks best by their number. We hit 80-99 last time, but as numbers get lower they become more popular. A span of fifteen this time around, from 65 through 79.
The Canucks Best Jersey Number 65-79
I know, we said we’d go ten at a time after the first article. Then we went and counted, and frankly, pickings are slim this high up. Not every number has been used, despite the Canucks having been around more than 50 years.
And even the numbers that have been used, well… Let’s show you what we mean.
79 – Micheal Ferland
All power to Mike Duco – he’s played 18 more NHL games than you or I ever will – but we’re going with Micheal Ferland. As annoying to play against as it is to spell his first name, he was a world-class shift disturber in his day. The Canucks decided they needed some grit, and they knew him very well.
A big swing at big free agents was pretty much then-general manager Jim Benning‘s modus operandi in 2019. Offering four years at $3.5 million to a physical winger with a history of concussion issues, though? They finished paying for him after 2022-23, the contract outlasting the manager.
Ferland played just 14 games for the Canucks, scoring one goal and five points.
78 – Kole Lind
A well-regarded prospect drafted in 2017, Kold Lind hasn’t made his mark in the NHL yet. He gets solid numbers at the AHL level. The Canucks left him available in the 2021 expansion draft and the Seattle Kraken took advantage.
He’s now signed on with the Dallas Stars. Lind had zero points in seven games with Vancouver, but he’s also the only player to wear 78. So here he is!
77 – Anson Carter
This was a surprising number to look up. While Nikolay Goldobin played the most games, and no one in the world doesn’t love Brad Hunt, it goes to Anson Carter. He only played one year in Vancouver, but he has the perfect set of boxcar stats.
Carter finished the 2005-06 season with 33 goals and 22 assists for 55 points. Care to guess who his linemates were? He completed the Three Brothers line with Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin, but Vancouver seemed uninterested in signing him. What could have been!
76 – Artūrs Šilovs
Another one-player number, but it would take a lot to select another anyway. Artūrs Šilovs is very well known to fans and teammates alike by now. The emergency-emergency starter in the playoffs. Newly signed and probably(?) in Vancouver to start the season.
Of the six Latvian goaltenders to ever play in the NHL, he’s the third with the Vancouver Canucks. That’s weird, right?
75 – Michael DiPietro
Michael DiPietro can still make the NHL as a regular – but his first experience in Vancouver was ROUGH. He played three games with the Canucks, the first of which came when he was still in the OHL. The San Jose Sharks obliterated him with seven goals because of course they did!
Dipietro had an excellent OHL run, including 13-0 in the playoffs in 2018-19. He’s in the Boston Bruins system now and doing well – no thanks to the the Canucks savage mishandling of him.
74 – Ethan Bear
When Ethan Bear decided to play elsewhere, it was tough to blame him. The expectation was he would sign in Vancouver after the team traded for him the previous year. But he was also expected to be a saviour, filling out the defence for little pay.
The Canucks didn’t qualify Bear as he was coming off a lengthy rehabilitation of an injury. As a free agent, he went where the money – and a two-year deal – was. His 61 games with three goals and 16 points far surpasses Vitali Kravstov and his 16 games and just two points.
73 – Tyler Toffoli
Ah, the One Who Got Away. Then Came Back And Embarrassed Them Repeatedly.
Okay, Tyler Toffoli only played in Vancouver for 10 games. On a line with Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, he scored six goals and ten points. Again, in ten games. Then the COVID-19 stoppage happened and Jim Benning went the money-saving route and… Well, you know.
The next year he scored eight against Vancouver in eight games. Added five assists, too, as Montreal went 5-0-3 against them.
Nothing against the servicable Justin Dowling and his 22 fourth-line games, but he just didn’t leave the same impression.
72 – Anthony Beauvillier
You may cry recency bias with us selecting Anthony Beauvillier here, and that’s fair. Travis Boyd played just 19 games here before blooming in Arizona, and while Peter Schaefer wore 72 it was in a return engagement and not for long. So Beauvillier it is.
He came to Vancouver as a budget-balancing part of the Bo Horvat trade but made the best of it. He played 55 games, scored 11 goals and was traded for a fifth-round pick. Anyone asking for more isn’t going to get it. He may not be among the Canucks best, but he was the Canucks best number 72.
71 – Jiří Šlégr
So, all that stuff about not using the number of a player on his “return engagement” we mentioned? Forget it. Jiří Šlégr wore 71 for 16 games after signing with the Cancuks in 2003-04, so here he is. He was returning to the team that drafted him a decade earlier is a feel-good story!
Then they used him on their third pair before shipping him off to Boston for nothing where he played 20 minutes a night. We don’t really know why. But his first run with Vancouver was great! In 138 games the defenceman scored 10 goals and 70 points. That beats out Zach MacEwan’s 55-game run.
70 – Tanner Pearson
A surprisingly excellent trade by general manager Jim Benning brought Tanner Pearson to the Canucks. Pearson gave Vancouver a steady, experienced winger who could produce and was a solid support man in their top six. He played in every situation and scored 55 goals and 114 points in his 221 games.
Then things got awkward. And ugly, with talk of lawsuits and failed medical staff. He could have made this list even if other players wore 70.
66 – Gino Odjick
Yes, he wore it. In his rookie season, the 20-year-old fifth-round pick Gino Odjick wore the same number as Mario Lemieux. The sheer chutzpah of it puts him here instead of his more familiar 29. He scored a bit – 46 goals and 98 points in 444 games – but his 2,000+ penalty minutes are what he’s known for.
Still, we can’t let his name pass without pointing out his best-ever season. The much-beloved enforcer passed away in January of last year.
65 – Ilya Mikheyev
Picking the Canucks best players at each number this high up is often a matter of default. In this case, Ilya Mikheyev has plenty of skill to earn the spot. But also enough to frustrate coaches and fans alike with why he didn’t do a LOT more.
Just 24 goals in 124 games is a comically low number for the chances he found. Injuries hampered him, certainly, and he could make a huge comeback in his new, low-pressure home. But even if he does, most Canucks fans will simply nod and be happy for him.
Getting Down (a Bit)
Better players are ahead, so we’ll be hitting this series ten numbers at a time for the next few. As the players get better, the choices get harder – and don’t forget to let us know what you think!
Main Photo: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports
