Players wearing numbers because of other players

[Yozhik v tumane]

There was this clip of Kris Letang sharing the ice with Jagr during the latter’s jersey retirement and telling him he always wore #68 growing up. Finally I understood #58.

Martin St Louis wore #26 as did his childhood hero, Mats Näslund of the Montreal Canadiens: another small player who proved you nevertheless could make it in the NHL.

Peter Forsberg wore #21 because of Borj…, no reason actually. He said the number didn’t matter much to him and he was assigned many different ones growing up, eventually #21 stuck with him and he liked it.

Let’s stick with the numbers players wore to honor another player for this thread.

Click to read more...

 

[Sanf]

Sami Kapanen took 24 out of admiration of Sergei Makarov.

And because of his father Kasperi Kapanen has wore 24 and 42. 42 first time because he played in Kalpa (Finland) at same time with his father.

Cliff Ronning adapted number 7 due to Gary Lupul. Admired his work ethic. Both were from BC.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Howe -> Gretzky -> Lemieux connection, right?

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Howe -> Gretzky -> Lemieux connection, right?

Always thought Lemieux wore #66 because he made a mistake trying to figure out his birth year counting backwards, then someone said: “Oh I get it, like Gretzky but upside down? Nice”.

 

[reckoning]

Steve Yzerman wore #19 because his favourite player was Bryan Trottier

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Ed Belfour switched to #20 while in San Jose because of his coach/mentor from Chicago, Vladislav Tretiak.

 

[VanIslander]

Jagr's number was for a higher cause, generations of hockey talent that weren't free to skate in the NHL; ipso facto, his number was for many players.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

Jagr's number was for a higher cause, generations of hockey talent that weren't free to skate in the NHL; ipso facto, his number was for many players.

You can be more specific...it was the Prague Spring in 1968

 

[VanIslander]

Of course.

His '68 mark was for his fellow players and everyone else under that umbrella, er, curtain.

Suchy, Holik, Martinec, Novy, Pospisil, Nedomansky, etc.

 

[kaiser matias]

Steve Yzerman wore #19 because his favourite player was Bryan Trottier

I believe Sakic did as well.

 

[Albatros]

Eric Lindros #8 and later #88 after referee John McCauley.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Jagr wore #68 specifically to honor his grandfather:

"In school we were always taught the Soviet doctrine," Jagr says. "The U.S.A. was bad and wanted war. Russia was our friend and was preventing the United States from bombing us. Even my father didn't tell me the truth, because he was afraid I'd say something in school that would get us into trouble. But my grandmother, she told me the truth."

Jagr's grandmother Jarmila told the boy about the first Jaromir Jagr, his grandfather and her husband. He was a farmer. When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia in 1948, the grandmother said, they appropriated all the privately owned farms. They collectivized his grandfather's fields and three quarters of his livestock. They left him with the house, barn and yard that the family still lives in today—Jagr, his grandmother, his parents and his uncle. (Jagr's sister, Jitka, is now married and lives 10 minutes away.) Then the authorities told Jagr's grandfather that he had to labor in the cooperative farm for free. His grandfather refused to work for those people who had stolen his farm. So he was thrown into jail, and he remained there for more than two years.



Jaromir Jagr, the hockey player, never knew Jaromir Jagr, the farmer. The grandson was born in 1972. The grandfather died in 1968, by coincidence during the glorious days of the Czechoslovakian freedom movement known as the Prague Spring. "He never knew that the Russians came back," Jagr says. But, of course, they did come back, and Jagr's grandmother made sure that he knew how, on Aug. 20-21, 1968, the troops rolled through Czechoslovakia to squash that fledgling movement in less than 48 hours.

Jagr never forgot. That is why he admired Reagan. Why he has an American flag in his bedroom and two decals of Old Glory on the windshield of his car in Kladno. And why the young Penguin star, the flamboyant and seemingly carefree spirit, handsome, athletic and rich, wears number 68, after the Prague Spring of 1968, the spring that his grandfather died.

Source: Sports Illustrated

 

[VanIslander]

Jagr has spoken about 68 being about the 1968 uprising. His grandfather's related oppression and coincidental death just SOLIDIFIES the meaning of the number.

 

[Ceremony]

Going in another direction - Nathan MacKinnon wears #29 because his #22 from juniors was occupied at the time he joined the Avalanche. It was occupied by Matt Hunwick.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Going in another direction - Nathan MacKinnon wears #29 because his #22 from juniors was occupied at the time he joined the Avalanche. It was occupied by Matt Hunwick.

Patrick Roy took #33 in Montreal because Chris Nilan had #30.

 

[tabness]

Fedorov took on 91 because of Yzerman when he came to the Wings, he wore various numbers for his Soviet teams (I know of 29 and 18) but he wanted to be like Yzerman in every way when he came over to Detroit. Before his Nike endorsement deal Fedorov used the same style of Louisville TPS gear that Yzerman was using, sticks and gloves and all that.

I absolutely adore the red and white Wings color Louisville TPS sticks and collect them. Some of the other Wings were just using standard Louisville TPS black and white sticks or whatever but Yzerman and Fedorov rocked these beauties:

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Patrick Roy took #33 in Montreal because Chris Nilan had #30.

Of course on the other side of it, when Robin Lehner was traded to Vegas, Garret Sparks (jokingly or not) suggested that Lehner could have #40 in exchange for a Rolex.



Lehner turned him down and switched to 90.

 

[adsfan]

The HC of the local team when I moved to Milwaukee, Phil Wittliff, wore #9, like Gordie Howe. He said that a lot hockey players did when he was a kid.

 

[VanIslander]

Gotdie Howe was offered #9 because the highest scorer of the team the season before was future HHOFer Roy Conacher, recently departed for Chicago, having led the NHL in goals as a rookie years earlier. Roy was the younger brother of Charlie, taller but less nasty, yet he joined the war effort as a member of the RCAF, then returned to thrice get 2nd in goal seasons (plus more accomplishments after his time in Detroit).

Howe eagerly accepted the number from Conacher (despite Gordie wanting another number) because sleeping beds on trains to away games were handed out by numbers, and 9 was a sweet position.

 

[Leafshater67]

Crosby wore 87 because he was a huge Donald Brashear fan and modelled his game after Donald’s.

 

[JackSlater]

Steve Yzerman wore #19 because his favourite player was Bryan Trottier

Trottier set off a whole tree of 19s and 91s. Sakic already mentioned, and Fedorov belongs to that tree, and then for a while there were so many high end centres wearing 19 or 91 because of Yzerman and Sakic. Thornton, Seguin, Spezza, Toews, Tavares, Stamkos, Backstrom. I'm sure there are others I can't call to mind. If you were an elite Canadian centre from the mid 2000s through the mid 2010s odds are you were wearing 19 or 91.

 

[Sanf]

Saku Koivu played his junior career with number 9, but changed it to 11 because veteran star Esa Keskinen already had 9.

Mikko Koivu asked permission to use 9 from just retired Keskinen when he was "promoted" to seniors.

Now Sakus son Aatos is playing with number 9. Though I do not know the significance of number 9 in Koivu family.

 

[reckoning]

Gretzky wearing 99 was partially inspired by Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge. Gretzky wanted to wear #9 when he joined the Soo Greyhounds in honor of his hero Gordie Howe, but another player had it and wouldn't give it up, so Gretzky took #14. Around this time, Esposito and Hodge were unable to wear their usual #7 and #8 from their Bruin days with the Rangers because they were already taken, so they decided to go with 77 and 88. Someone suggested to Gretzky that since he couldn't have #9, he should do the same thing and wear 99.

 

[blundluntman]

Nabokov also wore #20 in tribute to Tretiak. Seems he was pretty popular with 90s and 00s goalies

 

[alko]

Jozef "The Razor" Golonka, Slovak legend, wore 9 because Gordie Howe and also Bobrov from Russia wore 9.