NHL OFFSEASON - 2011

[The_Admiral]

I wish more teams would nut up and limit player numbers to 1-50 (well, #0 should be in play, but a player wearing #0 causes the NHL's database to crash). Look at the Blackhawks: Kane 88, Frolik 67, Hossa 81, Kopecky 82 (pbuhc), what is this crap. Wear low numbers.

[BBTV]

There was some team way back in the day (can't remember which sport, though I think baseball?) who's coach / manager felt that a player wearing a number that was way higher than anyone else's on the team was separating himself from everyone else and wasn't a team player, so they had a rule that any number selected had to be within a certain limit (5 I think?) of someone else on the team. So I guess you could still have super high numbers, but they wouldn't seem that odd because there would be a near even distribution of numbers. Can't remember where I read that, nor what team it was.

[Eye]

I wish more teams would nut up and limit player numbers to 1-50 (well, #0 should be in play, but a player wearing #0 causes the NHL's database to crash). Look at the Blackhawks: Kane 88, Frolik 67, Hossa 81, Kopecky 82 (pbuhc), what is this crap. Wear low numbers.

Why? Last two digits of birth year is stupid as hell, but other than that, I don't have a problem with high numbers.

There was some team way back in the day (can't remember which sport, though I think baseball?) who's coach / manager felt that a player wearing a number that was way higher than anyone else's on the team was separating himself from everyone else and wasn't a team player, so they had a rule that any number selected had to be within a certain limit (5 I think?) of someone else on the team. So I guess you could still have super high numbers, but they wouldn't seem that odd because there would be a near even distribution of numbers. Can't remember where I read that, nor what team it was.

That's lame.

[BBTV]

I wish more teams would nut up and limit player numbers to 1-50 (well, #0 should be in play, but a player wearing #0 causes the NHL's database to crash). Look at the Blackhawks: Kane 88, Frolik 67, Hossa 81, Kopecky 82 (pbuhc), what is this crap. Wear low numbers.

Why? Last two digits of birth year is stupid as hell, but other than that, I don't have a problem with high numbers.

There was some team way back in the day (can't remember which sport, though I think baseball?) who's coach / manager felt that a player wearing a number that was way higher than anyone else's on the team was separating himself from everyone else and wasn't a team player, so they had a rule that any number selected had to be within a certain limit (5 I think?) of someone else on the team. So I guess you could still have super high numbers, but they wouldn't seem that odd because there would be a near even distribution of numbers. Can't remember where I read that, nor what team it was.

That's lame.

Sort of, but sort of not too. I thought it was lame when Manny got traded to the Dodgers, and then went with number 99. He's already a superstar player going over to a new team for what at the time could have been only a few months, but then he took the highest possible number which just seemed to separate himself from everyone else even more. The #99 wasn't a "Dodger" uniform, it was "Manny's" uniform (if that makes any sense.) Of course I'm of the mindset that in professional sports all of that is just nonsense and they should just wear whatever they want, but I could certainly see why people get a little miffed about it.

[GMW79]

I wish more teams would nut up and limit player numbers to 1-50 (well, #0 should be in play, but a player wearing #0 causes the NHL's database to crash). Look at the Blackhawks: Kane 88, Frolik 67, Hossa 81, Kopecky 82 (pbuhc), what is this crap. Wear low numbers.

Yeah, seriously -- 99, 66, 68, 91, 77, 97 -- so annoying and worn by a bunch of losers.

[oddball]

I believe that rookies should have high numbers and then under special circumstances such as Ray Borque giving up #7 when it was retired and taking #77, or if a player is traded and his number #15 is taken and the #13 and #14 are taken and retired, then I have no problem with him taking #51. But I look at some of these players and it's complete, "look at me" syndrome. I loved it when the Ottawa Senators GM came in and forced these "look at me" such as Alexandre Daigle to switch from #91 to #19 and they couldn't have a number above I think it was #40 or #45. I do know the LA Kings only allow rookies and certain players such as Ryan Smyth to wear high numbers. Players such as Alex Martinez who wore #53 this year, will change next year.

[Billy B]

I'm sure Still Mighty can back this up, but I think the Ducks always give out high numbers to rookies until they "make it." Bobby Ryan wore 54 his rookie year and now is wearing 9. And I just checked and saw that Cam Fowler wore 54 this year as well.

[The_Admiral]

Yeah, that's what the Ducks do. That's a kinda neat system.

Yeah, seriously -- 99, 66, 68, 91, 77, 97 -- so annoying and worn by a bunch of losers.

Okay, so Gretzky, Lemieux, Jagr, Fedorov, and Bourque wore high numbers. Lots of great players wore low numbers. Lots of scrubs wore high numbers. If you're not going to be Wayne Gretzky, you should probably stay away from high numbers. Maybe the real reason 99 was retired leaguewide was so that we didn't have a thousand Cam Fourthlines come up wearing 99 in their 6:34 per night.

A good rule would be that you can't assign x+1 until you've assigned x. Start at #1 and fill out the list. Hard to do this unless you're starting a team from scratch, though.

[Don]

Caps give rookies a high number too, and then they can choose to keep it or not. John Carlson still wears #74 and he said he has no plans to change it. They gave Varlamov 40 when he first came up, then when he established himself he took #1.

[GMW79]

Yeah, that's what the Ducks do. That's a kinda neat system.

Yeah, seriously -- 99, 66, 68, 91, 77, 97 -- so annoying and worn by a bunch of losers.

Okay, so Gretzky, Lemieux, Jagr, Fedorov, and Bourque wore high numbers. Lots of great players wore low numbers. Lots of scrubs wore high numbers. If you're not going to be Wayne Gretzky, you should probably stay away from high numbers. Maybe the real reason 99 was retired leaguewide was so that we didn't have a thousand Cam Fourthlines come up wearing 99 in their 6:34 per night.

A good rule would be that you can't assign x+1 until you've assigned x. Start at #1 and fill out the list. Hard to do this unless you're starting a team from scratch, though.

Fair enough, and I can see some of the merits of your ideas, but what do you do when scrubs end up with iconic numbers? Do you really want some nobody wearing 9 or 11, etc. (I know he wasn't a superstar, but to me, 8 will always be Igor Larionov, and it looks strange seeing Abdelkader wearing it.)

[The_Admiral]

Hold the number out of circulation for a while till you've decided whether you'll retire it, I guess. Shouldn't take long to do that. If Igor Larionov is not such a great Red Wing that his number should never be worn by anyone else again, then someone else can have it.

[Crash]

Maybe I'm missing something, but will someone please explain why it matters what number people wear? Or why it irritates you that someone would wear a high number?

I can't see why it would matter in the slightest.

[Still MIGHTY]

I'm sure Still Mighty can back this up, but I think the Ducks always give out high numbers to rookies until they "make it." Bobby Ryan wore 54 his rookie year and now is wearing 9. And I just checked and saw that Cam Fowler wore 54 this year as well.

Yup. Fowler went down to 4 later in the year. Getzlaf was 51, now 15. Perry was 61, now 10. Penner was 76, then 17. Kunitz was 38, then 14. The rookies have to "earn" their number.

But the low numbers overall are not just a rookie thing, it is/was a Randy Carlyle/Brian Burke thing. Hell, when Jason Blake was traded to the Ducks his first game was with 55, but he was told to make it lower and went to 33. The highest non-rookie number the Ducks had on their Cup squad was Rob Niedermayer's 44, only because that was really the only number he's ever worn, that was his number. The next highest was Giguere's traditional goalie number of 35.

It's a cool thing. I like that the Ducks do this.

[Corvus]

I think its a common old school hockey thing. It happens with the prospects at the Canuck's training camp, they usually end up with a high number. I don't know if it is policy or anything, but the Canucks have had very few high numbers ever. There's no rhyme or reason to it though, it's hardly an elite players only thing, or you wouldn't have such luminaries as Robert Kron with 52 or Fedor Fedeorov with 81.

I like that Gino Odjick wore 66 at one point, I don't recall that at all, but who was going to argue with him?

[officeglenn]

Was at the Oilers development camp this week, and they all had high numbers (59 thru 90), except for the goalies. I'm sure many have kept those high numbers, which is why Hemsky wears 83 and Gilbert wears 77, for example.

[Sodboy13]

IIRC, the Ottawa Senators used to have a rule in place that established a number limit. It was either 1 through 39 or 1 through 49.

I'm honestly a bit stunned that the high-number craze has led to only one player wearing 69.

Also, 00 is retired league-wide for Kevin Weekes.

[Funky Bunky]

Sort of, but sort of not too. I thought it was lame when Manny got traded to the Dodgers, and then went with number 99. He's already a superstar player going over to a new team for what at the time could have been only a few months, but then he took the highest possible number which just seemed to separate himself from everyone else even more. The #99 wasn't a "Dodger" uniform, it was "Manny's" uniform (if that makes any sense.) Of course I'm of the mindset that in professional sports all of that is just nonsense and they should just wear whatever they want, but I could certainly see why people get a little miffed about it.

The Dodgers gave him that number, he didn't pick it.

[ElwoodCuse]

Maybe I'm missing something, but will someone please explain why it matters what number people wear? Or why it irritates you that someone would wear a high number?

I can't see why it would matter in the slightest.

So much this. How dare professional athletes do what they want.

Come on. Who else wore 99 besides Gretzky? A couple dudes in the 1930s and one other guy. Who has worn 66 for ANY team since Mario? That guy on the Flames that had it randomly assigned to him. Big deal.

[NEW.ERA]

Yeah TJ Brodie wore 66 because it was just a training camp number. I hope he continues to wear it.

[Patchey13]

The number on the back shouldn't determine if you're a team player. Your conduct and play does.