Gino Odjick

Wayne “Gino” Odjick, hockey player (born 7 September 1970 in Maniwaki, QC; died 15 January 2023 in Vancouver, BC). One of the most popular players in Vancouver Canucks franchise history, Gino Odjick inspired Indigenous youth across the country. He was a proponent of culturally relevant education for Indigenous children and youth. Odjick was a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, an Algonquin community. He was an enforcer whose willingness to engage in fights on the ice served to protect smaller, more skilled teammates. Odjick skated for four National Hockey League teams over 12 seasons. For most of those teams, he chose to wear hockey sweater no. 29, the same number as was assigned to his father at residential school.

Early life and family background

Born to Giselle and Joseph Odjick, Gino Odjick was the only boy of the couple’s six children. They lived on the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg reserve, near Maniwaki, Quebec. The reserve is about 150 kilometres north of Ottawa, Ontario. The couple also raised more than 30 foster children. Odjick was first named Wayne, but with another Wayne Odjick on the reserve, his family ended up calling him Gino.

Odjick’s paternal grandfather, Basil Alias Odjick, was a lumberjack before he enlisted in the Royal Regiment of Canada during the Second World War (see Royal Canadian Regiment). In 1944, he was killed in action while liberating the French village of St. Ouen-de-Tilleul in Normandy. A paternal uncle was also killed in action during the war.

As a child, Odjick learned to skate on outdoor rinks, where he could engage in long games of shinny with other boys. He was coached as a defenceman by his father, who had learned the sport after being forced to attend residential school. At the school, his father’s registration number was 29. In the National Hockey League, Odjick wore hockey sweater no. 29 to honour him.

Odjick played for the hockey team in Maniwaki. This team took part in the well-known peewee tournament held annually in Quebec City. Odjick was a solid defenceman who used his size to protect his net, while taking pleasure in setting up the team’s goal scorers. Some years later, he was recruited to a tier two Hawkesbury Hawks team, whose small players were being pushed around on the ice. With the Hawks, he was needed less for playmaking and more for defending his teammates. By getting into fights, he intimidated the toughest players on rival teams, opening space on the ice for teammates.

Junior career

Gino Odjick was moved to left wing and spent two seasons with the Laval Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (see Canadian Junior Hockey). In 101 games, he scored 21 goals with 41 assists, while being assessed 558 penalty minutes. His presence helped the Titans reach the Memorial Cup playoffs both seasons. “He’s a leader in the room, on the ice, and the guys look up to him,” said coach Paulin Bordeleau, a former National Hockey League player from Quebec who played with the Vancouver Canucks. “He gives his heart to the team.”

NHL career

The Vancouver Canucks selected Gino Odjick in the fifth round, no. 86 overall, of the 1990 National Hockey League entry draft. He was favoured by scout Ron Delorme, a former Canucks player of Métis ancestry. At 6-foot-3, 215-pounds (190.5 centimetres, 97.5 kilograms), Odjick was the second enforcer chosen by the Canucks in the draft. The team also took Shawn Antoski as another enforcer in their second pick in the first round. At the time, Vancouver was considered one of the smaller teams in the NHL.

Odjick began the 1990–91 season with the Milwaukee Admirals farm team. However, he was called up to the parent club after a game during which the Canucks were pummelled by Calgary (see Calgary Flames).

In Odjick’s NHL debut on 21 November 1990, he fought Chicago’s heavyweight enforcers Dave “Charlie” Manson and Stu “The Grim Reaper” Grimson in a pair of third-period scraps. “I didn’t like the way they were kind of running our small players,” Odjick said after a game. The hometown crowd chanted his name. “Gino! Gino! Gino!” would become a common refrain at Vancouver home games, as Odjick earned the nicknames of “Algonquin Assassin” and “Maniwaki Mauler.”

In 1993–94, Odjick scored 16 goals while playing on a line with Pavel Bure. The burly winger’s presence allowed the “Russian Rocket,” as Bure was known, to skate more freely. Any opposing player taking physical liberties with Bure faced the wrath of Odjick.

The Canucks lost the Stanley Cup championship that season in the seventh game of the finals against the New York Rangers. In the 1996–97 season, Odjick led the league by being assessed 371 penalty minutes, the 11th highest total by any player in one season.

On 23 March 1998, Odjick was traded to the New York Islanders for defenceman Jason Strudwick. In the following five seasons, Odjick skated for the Islanders (82 games), Philadelphia Flyers (30 games) and Montreal Canadiens (49 games). Odjick suffered a concussion in a friendly summer hockey game that led to his retirement from the NHL.

In 605 regular-season NHL games, Odjick scored 64 goals with 73 assists. He was assessed 2,567 penalty minutes, placing him 17th on the list of NHL all-time career leaders in penalty minutes as of 2023. That amounts to more than 42 complete games spent in the penalty box. With the Canucks, he was assessed 137 fighting majors and 2,127 penalty minutes, both of which stand as club records.

After hockey

After retiring as a professional player in 2002, Odjick settled in Vancouver where he managed the Musqueam Golf and Learning Academy for Musqueam First Nation (see also First Nations in British Columbia). Odjick was trilingual and spoke English, French and Algonquin. He was often called on to motivate Indigenous youth as an inspirational speaker. He conducted workshops around British Columbia, addressing such matters as bullying, goal setting, relationship building and effective communications.

“Education is freedom,” he told the youth in an open letter. “I was just a little old Indian boy from the Rez. If I could do it, so could they.” In 2014, the arena in Maniwaki was renamed Le Centre Gino-Odjick in his honour.

Diagnosis and death

In 2014, Odjick announced a diagnosis of AL (primary) amyloidosis, a rare, terminal disease. It limits the heart’s ability to expand and contract by depositing gelatin-like protein within the organ’s muscle. “Your ‘Gino. Gino’ cheers were my favourite,” he wrote in a public letter. “I wish I could hear them again.” In response to the letter, hundreds of fans gathered outside Vancouver General Hospital to chant his name as they once did in the hockey arena. The disease went into remission after he underwent an experimental treatment.

Odjick died of a heart attack in Vancouver on 15 January 2023 at age 52.