A history of Flames numbers: #31, Chad Johnson
By Ari Yanover
7 years agoThe real crime here is that Chad Johnson isn’t wearing #85.
#31 on the Flames
Johnson will be the 12th player in Flames franchise history to wear #31:
- G Yves Belanger
- G Pat Riggin
- G Reggie Lemelin
- G Rick Wamsley
- G Jason Muzzatti
- G Rick Tabaracci
- G Ken Wregget
- G Grant Fuhr
- G Curtis McElhinney
- G Curtis Joseph
- G Karri Ramo
- G Chad Johnson
All goalies! Spanning the course of about 40 years, the Flames have had a number of goalies take up the #31 for them.
The best #31
Because of just how long ago some of these players played – most notably Belanger – there’s incomplete data here. That said, there’s a pretty clear uptick in save percentage as time has gone on, with Johnson very notably being the best of the bunch.
I’m hardly in a position to judge across eras, so I’m going to keep is strictly recent. The Flames’ goaltending was one of the main factors in completely sinking the team last season. Ramo may have been the best of the 2015-16 group, but even then, Johnson is a clear upgrade.
Ramo has a .906 career save percentage across 158 games played. That includes his time in Tampa Bay, when he was much younger and probably not ready, so we can be nice and just look at his time in Calgary: a .911 save percentage through 110 games.
Johnson has a .917 save percentage through his entire career of 101 games. He’s better, plain and simple; the Flames’ goaltending got a serious upgrade this off-season.
Previous numbers
| #1 – Brian Elliott | #3 – Jyrki Jokipakka |
| #5 – Mark Giordano | #6 – Dennis Wideman |
| #7 – T.J. Brodie | #10 – Linden Vey |
| #11 – Mikael Backlund | #13 – Johnny Gaudreau |
| #15 – Ladislav Smid | #17 – Lance Bouma |
| #18 – Matt Stajan | #19 – Matthew Tkachuk |
| #23 – Sean Monahan | #25 – Freddie Hamilton |
| #26 – Tyler Wotherspoon | #27 – Dougie Hamilton |
| #28 – Emile Poirier | #29 – Deryk Engelland |
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