And for that we thank them.
Eventually, Guillaume Latendresse of the Montreal Canadiens became the first player in NHL history to wear #84 when he made his Montreal Canadiens regular season debut on this date in 2006.
With Latendresse donning the #84, it meant that every number from 0 to 99 had finally been worn in the NHL, and on that occasion Sports Illustrated commemorated the event with a list of the best players ever to have worn each number.
Obviously some numbers had an incredible amount of contenders and debate (#9), while others had simply no competition (#69) and were won by default. As you consider the list, also remember it was complied four seasons ago, and there may have been other worthy contenders emerge since then.
The Top 10100 John Davidson0 Neil Sheehy1 Terry Sawchuk2 Doug Harvey3 Lionel Hitchman4 Bobby Orr5 Denis Potvin6 Toe Blake7 Howie Morenz8 Cam Neely9 Gordie Howe10 Guy Lafleur11 Mark Messier12 Dickie Moore13 Mats Sundin14 Brendan Shanahan15 Milt Schmidt16 Marcel Dionne17 Jari Kurri18 Serge Savard19 Steve Yzerman20 Luc Robitaille21 Stan Mikita22 Mike Bossy23 Bob Gainey24 Chris Chelios25 Joe Nieuwendyk26 Peter Stastny27 Frank Mahovlich28 Steve Larmer29 Ken Dryden30 Martin Brodeur31 Grant Fuhr32 Dale Hunter33 Patrick Roy34 John Vanbiesbrouck35 Tony Esposito36 Daniel Bouchard37 Olaf Kolzig38 Vladimir Malakhov39 Dominik Hasek40 Alex Tanguay41 Stu Barnes42 Sergei Makarov43 Patrice Brisebois44 Chris Pronger45 Rhett Warriner46 Kyle McLaren47 Marc-Andre Bergeron48 Scott Young49 Brian Savage50 Igor Ulanov51 Andrei Kovalenko52 Adam Foote53 Derek Morris54 Sean Pronger55 Larry Murphy56 Sergei Zubov57 Steve Heinze58 Bill Berg59 Tom Fitzgerald60 Jose Theodore61 Maxim Afinogenov62 Olli Jokinen63 Josef Vasicek64 Sylvain Cote65 Tim Hunter66 Mario Lemieux67 Robert Svehla68 Jaromir Jagr69 Mel Angelstad70 Oleg Tverdovsky71 Mike Foligno72 Mathieu Schneider73 Michael Ryder74 Jay McKee75 Walt Poddubny76 Radek Bonk77 Ray Bourque78 Pavol Demitra79 Alexei Yashin80 Geoff Sanderson81 Miroslav Satan82 Marian Gaborik83 Ales Hemsky84 Guillaume Latendresse85 Petr Klima86 Jonathan Ferland87 Sidney Crosby88 Eric Lindros89 Alexander Mogilny90 Joe Juneau91 Sergei Fedorov92 Rick Tocchet93 Doug Gilmour94 Ryan Smyth95 Aleksey Morozov96 Tomas Holmstrom97 Jeremy Roenick98 Brian Lawton99 Wayne Gretzky
Don't agree with any? Post your choices in the comments below and let the debate begin...
Hard to fault them for going with Dionne at #16, but here's hoping Brett Hull (who also wore #22 and #17) got some serious consideration.
ReplyDeleteI would have gone with Mark Napier for #65, because it has a great back story.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, Napier finished his career wearing jersey #65 back when such NASCAR numbers were not so common place. Since his favored #9 was already in use courtesy of Danny Gare, Napier chose 65 because of his involvement with the charitable Cystic Fibrosis Foundation where he was an honorary chairman. The terrible disease is often mispronounced by its youngest victims as Sixty Five Roses, leading to the annual fundraising and awareness campaign by the same tagline. Napier brought further attention to the cause by donning the jersey number.
How did Holmstrom get the nod at #96 over Pavel Bure?
ReplyDelete