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Uniform numbers


Claude Monet

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So I was wondering where the history of offensive players wearing high numbers came from. The Flyers don't traditional have guys with high numbers. JR and Lindros come to mind( ill never count Nedved as a Flyer) but that is about it.

Gretzky rocked the highest number possible but I'm assuming it goes back farther than that.

Any thoughts about the beginnings of this tradition?

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The first one I can remember was Phil Esposito after he was traded to the Rangers. He wore #7 with the Bruins but that was unavailable with NY (Rod Gilbert iirc) so he took 77. Gretzky took 99 because Howe was his idol but he didn't want 9 so he went with two 9s. I think after that it sort of became a "thing" to have high numbers.

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So I was wondering where the history of offensive players wearing high numbers came from. The Flyers don't traditional have guys with high numbers. JR and Lindros come to mind( ill never count Nedved as a Flyer) but that is about it.

Gretzky rocked the highest number possible but I'm assuming it goes back farther than that.

Any thoughts about the beginnings of this tradition?

 

I am not so sure there is a legitimate 'tradition' for offensive players wearing high numbers.

And if there is one, I honestly am not aware of it...or even heard of such a ritual.

 

At one point earlier this season, I was curious about why the Lightning's Steven Stamkos wore 91.

His story was something as simple as that he grew up admiring Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic and always wore 19 like they did...but when he got to the OHL, #19 was taken, so he flipped the numbers to 91 and it just stuck.

 

And from that curiosity of Stammers choice of 91, I looked around the league and noticed a few prominent goal scoring types wearing 91's as well and decided to look into those.

 

From my recollection, Brad Richards, another former Bolt, wore 19 to start his NHL career with the Lightning, but when he was traded to Dallas, 19 was retired, so he too flipped to 91 and just took that number with him to NY and then to Chicago.

 

Same with Tyler Seguin when he was traded from Boston. He wore 19, couldn't in Dallas due to it not being available, then flipped to 91.

 

The last guy I looked into, John Tavares, his deal with 91 comes from some kind of family history of his in sports where the number 9 is prominant.

If I remember right what I read, he too wanted to wear 9 or 19, but once he got to Juniors, those were taken so he decided to go with a flipped 19...thus 91 as well and THAT stuck right through to the NHL.

 

I am sure there are many such similar stories....or maybe there IS some sort thing where offensive players take high numbers, but honestly, I don't think there is any big mystique to it.

Had the numbers of the players I just mentioned NOT been taken, they may have very well been "ordinary" number 19's in the NHL today....well, "ordinary" in the sense of the number being common....NOT their skill, which is EXTRA-ordinary... ;)

 

It'd be cool to know why guys like Lindros, Mario Lemieux, Chris Gratton, and Sergei Fedorov during the 90's wore high numbers....and some of today's players like the Bolts Russian trio of Nikita Kucherov (86), Nikita Nesterov (89), and Vladislav Namestnikov (90) wear the numbers they do.

 

But I really don't think there is a "offensive players wear XX number, goalies wear XX number, defenseman wear XX number" thing going on in the NHL...at least, not that I am aware.

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The first one I can remember was Phil Esposito after he was traded to the Rangers. He wore #7 with the Bruins but that was unavailable with NY (Rod Gilbert iirc) so he took 77. Gretzky took 99 because Howe was his idol but he didn't want 9 so he went with two 9s. I think after that it sort of became a "thing" to have high numbers.

Didnt know about the Gretz link to Howe. Thanks for the thoughts. Kind of like Borque doubling up his # as well.

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So I was wondering where the history of offensive players wearing high numbers came from. The Flyers don't traditional have guys with high numbers. JR and Lindros come to mind( ill never count Nedved as a Flyer) but that is about it.

Gretzky rocked the highest number possible but I'm assuming it goes back farther than that.

Any thoughts about the beginnings of this tradition?

 

Just a theory - but some of the early European stars had high numbers....

 

Mogilny - #89 (1989)

Jagr - #68 (1990)

 

Nedved and Bure both switched to numbers in the 90's after a few seasons. 

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The first one I can remember was Phil Esposito after he was traded to the Rangers. He wore #7 with the Bruins but that was unavailable with NY (Rod Gilbert iirc) so he took 77. Gretzky took 99 because Howe was his idol but he didn't want 9 so he went with two 9s. I think after that it sort of became a "thing" to have high numbers.

 

Ray Bourque originally wore #7 with Boston as well, but "surrendered it to Esposito on the night of his jersey retirement and wore #77 from there on. I always thought that story was pretty cool.

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Ray Bourque originally wore #7 with Boston as well, but "surrendered it to Esposito on the night of his jersey retirement and wore #77 from there on. I always thought that story was pretty cool.


Yup. I believe Mario chose 66 because it's an inverted 99, and I think Lindros chose 88 because 8 is one less than 9. Jagr chose 68 to commemorate the Prague Spring of 1968, and Voracek chose 93 to commemorate the breakup of Czechoslavakia in 1993.
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But I really don't think there is a "offensive players wear XX number, goalies wear XX number, defenseman wear XX number" thing going on in the NHL...at least, not that I am aware

 

I don't think there's ever been a hard and fast rule but traditionally (at least in the old days) defensemen wore low numbers (starting at 2) and forwards tended to wear higher single digit numbers and double digits going up to the high twenties. Goalies almost always wore either 1 or 30.

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A lot of the eastern european players , wear high numbers to represent uprising that were squashed by communism and for politically conscious reasons.

68, 93,  etc

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  Depending on the team, a lot of players are prevented from wearing their first choice due to it being taken or retired. For instance, the odds of a young d-men getting a single digit number on the Habs is damn near impossible. Just look at this staggering list of retired Montreal Canadians numbers.....WOW..

 

 

Montreal Canadiens retired numbers No. Player Position Tenure Date of honour 1 Jacques Plante G 1952–63 October 7, 1995 2 Doug Harvey D 1947–61 October 26, 1985 3 Émile Bouchard D 1941–56 December 4, 2009 4 Jean Béliveau C 1950–71 October 9, 1971 5 Bernie Geoffrion RW 1950–64 March 11, 2006 Guy Lapointe D 1968–82 November 8, 2014 7 Howie Morenz C 1923–37 November 2, 1937 9 Maurice Richard RW 1942–60 October 6, 1960 10 Guy Lafleur RW 1971-85 February 16, 1985 12 Dickie Moore LW 1951–63 November 12, 2005 Yvan Cournoyer RW 1963–79 November 12, 2005 16 Henri Richard C 1955–75 December 10, 1975 Elmer Lach C 1940–54 December 4, 2009 18 Serge Savard D 1966–81 November 18, 2006 19 Larry Robinson D 1972–89 November 19, 2007 23 Bob Gainey LW 1973–89 February 23, 2008 29 Ken Dryden G 1970–79 January 29, 2007 33 Patrick Roy G 1984–95 November 22, 2008
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@jammer2 At that rate, they'll have to get a waiver from the league allowing the use of three-digit numbers before too much longer.

 

 

 I guess that is what happens when you have a full quarter century of Stanley Cup victories, huh? 

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 I guess that is what happens when you have a full quarter century of Stanley Cup victories, huh? 

 

Yup. That's the cross they have to bear. That'll teach them to have so much success!

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