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The things people want to believe.

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Let’s just get this out of the way: No, the Vancouver Canucks will not be wearing jerseys during the 2026-27 season styled after the original navy orca look from two decades ago, jerseys best associated with the team’s West Coast Express era.

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A team spokesman confirmed this to Postmedia on Thursday, a day after accounts on social media concluded that a photo of a Canucks goalie in white pads with a red and blue design was evidence the Canucks had a secret jersey plan in the works.

I hate to break the news to you, but just because someone thinks something doesn’t make it true. But here we are, living in a world where people just shout stuff on social media, do no actual reporting or ask any questions, and suddenly hundreds, maybe thousands of people, see such nonsense but take it as truth.

Some posts even misidentified the goalie, claiming it was Nikita Tolopilo wearing the pads.

Driedger Chris Driedger practising in Joey Daccord’s old pads at a pre-training camp skate at Rogers Arena, Sept. 3. Photo by Tyson Cole /Submitted

Except it wasn’t: the goalie wearing white pads with red-and-blue trim was Chris Driedger, in camp with the Canucks on a professional tryout. There is actually a fun wrinkle here: the pads aren’t even his, they are Joey Daccord’s.

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Daccord is Driedger’s former teammate with the Seattle Kraken. The pads were worn by Daccord for Team USA at last spring’s world championships. Driedger is looking to switch goalie gear makers to True Hockey, so his pal Daccord lent him his most recent set for Driedger to try out.

That’s it. That’s the story.

If Dreidger signs with the Canucks, its fair to assume he’ll get goalie gear that matches their primary green and blue uniforms, as well as a set that matches the black-gold-red “skate” alternates.

Now, the NHL did confirm last month that they’re releasing a “hometown remix” jersey for each of the league’s 32 teams. The concepted had been rumoured for months before the official confirmation; in May Daily Hive reported that it was expected the Canucks’ hometown remix look would be navy-based, but whether that would be in line with the 2021 Reverse Retro look or perhaps inspired by the maroon-highlighted WCE era jerseys wasn’t known.

Either way, whatever the Canucks’ hometown remix jersey ends up looking like, it’s pretty clearly not quite what anyone will be expecting.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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