
Luke Schenn will wear the same No. 2 he wore for his first four seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs after Jake McCabe was happy to give him the number.
EDMONTON — Luke Schenn spent his first four seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs wearing No. 2 and the veteran defenseman has worn the number for most of his career. But when he was acquired by the Maple Leafs on Tuesday from the Vancouver Canucks for a 2023 third-round draft pic, the number had been occupied by defenseman Jake McCabe, who was acquired by the Maple Leafs from the Chicago Blackhawks just one day prior.
That's when McCabe received a text from Schenn the following day.
"(He) just asked if I was locked into No. 2 and I said, ‘No, it doesn’t matter to me. That’s just the one they gave me,’" McCabe said. "So happy to give it back to him. It’s pretty cool that it’s what he started with in his career so it’s cool that he gets it back."
McCabe wore No. 2 for one practice and wore No. 22 in his Maple Leafs debut on Wednesday. The original plan for Schenn was to wear No. 22 if the No. 2 was going to stay with McCabe.
Schenn was thrilled to have his No. 2 back, in a statement he provided to former teammate Carlo Colaiacovo.
"That number, on that jersey means so much to me. Really grateful that Jake was willing to make that change," Schenn said. "It started 15 years ago for me and extremely excited to be back wearing the Maple Leaf. Any other team I wouldn't care about my jersey number, but on this team, it's special to me."
Schenn wore No. 22 with the Philadelphia Flyers, the team he joined when he was originally traded by the Maple Leafs in exchange for James van Riemsdyk back in 2012. He also wore No. 52 as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.
The 33-year-old has three goals and 18 assists in 51 games with the Canucks this season.