Rob The Hockey Guy

Cody Hodgson has decided to switch numbers. He’ll be moving away from his familiar number 39 in favour of the number 9 jersey, and I’m all for it! The number 39 has not been kind to Cody Hodgson. In fact, it hasn’t been kind to anyone in Canuck history.

The last guy to wear the number 39 on a regular basis was Dan Cloutier. Cloutier was plagued with injuries while with the Canucks and of course let in this goal during the 2002 playoffs:

Other players that wore the number 39 with the Canucks include Brad Moran, Chris O’Sullivan and Erico Ciccone. Moran and O’Sullivan were AHL call-ups. Ciccone was acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes, played 13 games wearing the number 39 and was traded away.

Maybe he’ll have the same luck as Pavel Bure did, switching away from the number 96 in 1997. Bure wore the number 10 during his first four seasons in the NHL. Before the 1995-96 season he decided to switch to the number 96 and suffered two straight injury riddled seasons. He switched back to the number 10 in 1997-98 and scored 51 goals.

This might all be superstitious nonsense, but I’m thinking Hodgson doesn’t think so. Ever since ridding himself of the number 19 he wore in junior (a number that is retired by the Canucks), he has had a long list of injury troubles and has failed to impress significantly in the NHL.

With the injury to Ryan Kesler, Hodgson looks assured to get a lot of time on the Canucks second line and time on the power play. Thank goodness the curse of the number 39 isn’t there to hold him back anymore.