Some Flames Change Numbers, Some Do Not
By Ryan Pike
9 years ago
Big news, everybody! Several Calgary Flames players have changed their jersey numbers!
In other news, several other players have not changed their numbers.
The important thing here – if you can call it that – is which players upgraded numbers.
NEWCOMERS
Four newcomers chose numbers.
Jonas Hiller will wear #1. It was previously worn most recently by Curtis McElhinney, and most famously by the likes of Roman Turek, Reggie Lemelin and Phil Myre.
Mason Raymond will wear #21. it was previously worn recently by Roman Horak, and most famously worn by Perry Berezan, Andrew Ference and Andrew Cassels.
Brandon Bollig will wear #25. It was most famously worn by Joe Nieuwendyk (and honoured this past spring), and worn since Nieuwendyk left town by a handful of players, most recently David Moss.
Deryk Engelland will wear #29. It was most famously Joel Otto’s number, and most recently worn by Akim Aliu and Reto Berra (who I completely forgot about).
KIDS
A pair of former Portland Winterhawks returned to their junior numbers.
Tyler Wotherspoon has moved from #56 to #26. He had a training camp number and proved to be a capable hockey player (even with a bum shoulder), so this is probably a good sign that he’s in the running for a roster spot.
Sven Baertschi went from #47 to #27, like Wotherspoon it was his junior number, but when he arrived Derek Smith had it, so he wore a training camp number until Smith left the organization.
Don’t consider these downgrades in jersey numbers as a guarantee of anything. Last season, Corban Knight (#10), Lance Bouma (#17) and Roman Horak (#21) got “regular” jersey numbers – one spent a year in the AHL, one got shipped off to Edmonton and the third made the team by virtue of blocking a zillion shots.
Still, it’s probably not a bad sign.
UPDATE: SMID & JONES
Not wanting to feel left out, Ladislav Smid has switched from #3 to #15 and David Jones has moved from #54 to #19, the number (Go) Blair Jones once had. Presumably they saw the equipment manager’s e-mail announcing the previous moves and asked if they, too, could swap numbers.
These numbers are even more minor than minor.
WHO’S WEARING WHAT?
For the curious, a broad look at who currently has claim to what jersey number.
- 1: Jonas Hiller
- 4: Kris Russell
- 5: Mark Giordano
- 6: Dennis Wideman
- 7: T.J. Brodie
- 8: Joe Colborne
- 10: Corban Knight
- 11: Mikael Backlund
- 15: Ladislav Smid
- 16: Brian McGrattan
- 17: Lance Bouma
- 18: Matt Stajan
- 19: David Jones
- 20: Curtis Glencross
- 21: Mason Raymond
- 23: Sean Monahan
- 24: Jiri Hudler
- 25: Brandon Bollig
- 26: Tyler Wotherspoon
- 27: Sven Baertschi
- 29: Deryk Engelland
- 31: Karri Ramo
- 32: Paul Byron
- 37: Joni Ortio
- 42: Mark Cundari
- 45: David Wolf
- 46: Bill Arnold
- 48: Bryce van Brabant
- 49: John Ramage
- 50: Patrick Sieloff
- 51: Kenny Agostino
- 52: Morgan Klimchuk
- 53: Johnny Gaudreau
- 57: Emile Poirier
- 58: Ben Hanowski
- 59: Max Reinhart
- 60: Markus Granlund
- 61: Brett Kulak
- 62: Austin Carroll
- 63: Sam Bennett
- 65: Turner Elson
- 67: Ryan Culkin
- 68: Adam Ollas Mattsson
- 71: Hunter Smith
- 72: Mason McDonald
- 73: Keegan Kanzig
- 74: Brandon Hickey
- 77: Mark Jankowski
- 79: Michael Ferland
- 82: Jon Gillies
- 83: John Gilmour
- 84: Eric Roy
- 86: Josh Joorish
- 95: Matthew Deblouw
- 97: Tim Harrison
- None Yet: Sena Acolatse, Brad Thiessen, Rushan Rafikov
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