The Numbers Post (and a word about retirement…)
Each season I go over the numbers assigned for the Carolina Hurricanes and their history. This year I decided to dedicate a post to it and maybe dive a little deeper than past years. Let’s take a look.
First, let’s take a dive into the most recent announcement for jersey numbers. Stefan Noesen and Derek Stepan make switches to numbers they previously wore in other locations — Noesen wore #23 for 145 NHL games with the New Jersey Devils, as well as last season at the AHL level for the Chicago Wolves, while Stepan wore #21 for ten seasons between the New York Rangers and Arizona Coyotes before switching to #15 when he went to the Ottawa Senators — a number switch that didn’t last.
Stepan took #18 on the Hurricanes as #21 was already worn by Nino Niederreiter, but that’s no longer an issue, while #23 was worn by Eric Gelinas (who technically signed before Noesen did) during his short tenure with the Canes. Could Noesen have asked for 23 after Gelinas left? Possibly, but the Canes generally don’t do midseason number switches, especially for a guy who was on the roster mostly for AHL play & depth.
Chatfield and Drury get their “big boy” numbers, as both were using the numbers they were assigned in camp in previous seasons. The Canes generally “save” their lower numbers for players they expect to be at the NHL level (or among the first called up), so prospects and depth players generally will get numbers above 50, while goalies get numbers ending in zero. Generally the offseason will see players who have a “change in status” in the eyes of the team switch to lower numbers like Chatfield and Drury have, though some players just stick with the camp numbers they were given (for example, Jaccob Slavin’s #74.)
Chatfield’s switch to #5 matches the number he previously wore in the AHL both for Chicago last season and Utica the year before that, while Drury’s #18 matches the number he wore at Harvard. Drury wore #15 last season in Chicago, with #18 already being worn by Spencer Smallman. #5 hasn’t been worn in Raleigh since Noah Hanifin was dealt to Calgary in the Dougie Hamilton trade, while #18 has been passed around from names like Cedric Paquette, Ryan Dzingel, Jay McClement, and Radek Dvorak before being used most recently by Derek Stepan.
Speaking of Dzingel, his switch to #19 comes after two years with the team wearing #18. With Drury having more of a “future” with the organization than Dzingel (who is signed to a two-way contract and will likely spend most of the season at the AHL level), Drury got the first choice of number, causing Dzingel to go with #19, which he wore for part of the season after a trade to Columbus, where his traditional #18 wasn’t available. #19 hasn’t been worn since Dougie Hamilton left the organization during the 2021 offseason. Calvin de Haan’s number switch is interesting though — de Haan has only worn #44 at the NHL level and from what I’ve been able to search has not worn #4 at any level — he wore #24 in junior hockey for Oshawa and wore #12 in Bridgeport while playing at the AHL level. #44 had been worn by Julien Gauthier and Joey Keene since de Haan was traded to Chicago, but neither are with the organization so the number is available. I reached out to de Haan himself on Twitter but got no answer. An effort was made.
Other new arrivals include Brent Burns, who will wear #8 this season. Some felt that with trade rumors swirling around a then-unsigned Martin Necas that Burns would wait for the #88 he previously wore in San Jose, but it’s easy to forget that before that, Burns wore #8 in Minnesota for seven seasons before being traded to the Sharks. #8 hasn’t been worn for the Canes since Saku Maenalanen wore it during the 2018–19 season. Dylan Coghlan, acquired from Vegas this offseason in the Max Pacioretty deal, takes #15 with the Canes, having previously worn #52 for Vegas. Coincidentally, Coghlan wore #15 during his time in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, which would be his AHL team this season if he were to be sent down (the Wolves were Vegas’ AHL affiliate from 2017–2020.) #15, probably most associated with either Andrej Nestrasil or Tuomo Ruutu, depending on when you picked up your Canes fandom, was actually last worn at the NHL level by Aleksi Saarela for one playoff game in 2019.
Veteran center Paul Stastny claims #26 for the Canes, which was expected since Stastny wore #26 for the majority of his career, with the exception of his time in Winnipeg, where the number was already claimed by team captain Blake Wheeler. #26 was also the number worn by Hall of Famer Peter Stastny, Paul’s father. Interestingly, #26 had been assigned to prospect Cruz Lucius during Canes prospect camp before the team signed Stastny. Lucius getting a low number was curious, since Lucius isn’t expected to contend for a spot on the NHL roster for several seasons, and Lucius won’t even be in preseason camp due to his commitments to the University of Wisconsin. Max Pacioretty will wear #67, the number he has worn his entire NHL career. #67 has actually been twice in Canes history: Morgan Geekie (36 games in 2020–21) and Jerome Samson (7 games in 2009–10.) Ondřej Kaše selected #73, which he has never worn in the NHL previously — #73 had previously been worn by Valentin Zykov in 2018–19.
Some players still need numbers — Lane Pederson, Mackenzie MacEachern, Malte Stromwall, William Lagesson, and Zach Sawchenko will all likely be in training camp but their numbers haven’t been announced, and we likely won’t see those numbers until training camp rosters are released. Pederson last wore #18 for San Jose, but that number was selected by Jack Drury. Stromwall doesn’t seem to have a number preference, having worn #20, #88, and #21 in recent seasons, though none of those are available. William Lagesson has worn #84 for his last two NHL teams (Montreal and Edmonton), though that number is currently being worn by current Canes prospect Anttoni Honka. Sawchenko wore #36 with San Jose the last few seasons, both at the NHL and AHL level, so he may elect to go with that, although 33–36 are all available and unassigned currently.
Despite what Hockey-Reference might show you, the Hurricanes only have three officially retired numbers — the #2 of Glen Wesley (retired February 17, 2009), the #10 of Ron Francis (retired January 28, 2006), and the #17 of Rod Brind’Amour (retired February 18, 2011), though two more are essentially retired — the #3 of Steve Chiasson, who was killed in a car accident while a member of the Hurricanes, and the #63 of Josef Vasicek, the former Hurricane who was killed in a plane crash as a member of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL. That said, other numbers have been taken out of circulation after iconic players have worn them. Those include:
- #1 (last worn by Arturs Irbe in 2004)
- #12 (last worn by Eric Staal in 2016)
- #14 (last worn by Justin Williams in 2020)
- #27 (last worn by Justin Faulk in 2019)
- #30 (last worn by Cam Ward in 2018)
Jeff Skinner’s #53 had previously been in this list, but it was recently assigned to prospect Jackson Blake in the season’s development camp. It’s assumed that #27 will eventually go back into circulation as well, as Faulk’s contributions to the club unfortunately took place during a low point in the franchise.
So what of the other four? Of the four, it is hinted that two — Staal’s 12 and Ward’s 30 — will eventually be retired someday. Ward and Staal are the two longest tenured *actual* Hurricanes, with Ward spending 13 years as a Hurricane and Staal spending 12. (Ron Francis, the only player who has more years (16) with the organization, only spent six as a Hurricane — the rest were as a member of the Hartford Whalers.) Both Ward and Staal are iconic members of the 2006 Stanley Cup winning team, with Ward winning the Conn Smythe Award for playoff MVP and Staal arguably more deserving (I’ll let other people have that argument), but they’re both impactful players and a major part of Hurricanes history. So, retiring the numbers should be a no-brainer, right?
Not so fast.
Of those two, Staal has the stronger case. Staal is second in goals, assists, and points in franchise history behind Ron Francis, and therefore the leader in those categories in Hurricanes franchise history. If you’re going to retire a number, you’re going to retire your top player in history, right? The problem with Staal was his career trajectory. Staal’s best season was the Stanley Cup winning season back in 2005–06, Staal’s second season in the league. Staal put up 100 points that season as a 21-year-old, but would never reach that mark again, or even really come close. He was good for around 70 or so points a season until Bill Peters got his hands on him and destroyed any of the will to play that the previous years of non-playoff hockey hadn’t eaten away at yet. So, for fans who weren’t around 15 years ago, Eric Staal is either that husk that was just going through the motions until he got traded, or that guy from Minnesota who used to play here.
But what about Ward? Ward, it can be argued, is *the* reason that the Canes won the Stanley Cup in 2006. Sportswriters felt that way back then, awarding him the Conn Smythe Award as playoff MVP. His save against Fernando Pisani in Game 7 will forever be immortalized in Raleigh rec rooms and Champions Club hallways. But the rest of Ward’s frame of work leaves a bit to be desired. Despite Ward’s heroics in the 2006 playoffs, Ward wasn’t really a good NHL-level goaltender until the 2008–09 season. From there, Ward had four seasons where he was one of the best goaltenders in the NHL, including a 2010–11 season where he had a legit shot at the Vezina. But after two seasons in 2012–13 and 2013–14 where he found himself battling serious injuries, Ward was never the same. However, without a better option (or in the later years, a xenophobic head coach with a preference for North American goaltenders) Ward continued to be the #1 goaltender for the Hurricanes, struggling to put together league average goaltending for another four years. So, despite thirteen years with the Hurricanes, it could be argued that only four years of those were actually “number retirement” worthy.
But two things still stand out there — thirteen years, and that Conn Smythe trophy. No other goaltender spent more than six years with the franchise, and that’s including Whalers and Hurricanes combined. Literally, if you took the next two highest tenured goaltenders in Whaler/Hurricane history (Sean Burke and Arturs Irbe) and glued them together, you still wouldn’t have the games played or years with the franchise that Ward has. For better or for worse, when you think of Carolina Hurricanes goaltending, you think of Cam Ward.
Retire one number? Both? Neither? I’m firmly in the camp of “minimal number retirements” and probably wouldn’t retire either, but I wouldn’t have retired Glen Wesley’s (and I’m on the fence with Brind’Amour — I know, sacrilege.) This is what “circles of honor” or team halls of fame or whatever your franchise wants to call them are best for — paying tribute to the players who may not have been the best in hockey necessarily, but players that current fans should know about to understand the history of the franchise. This has been further highlighted with the introduction of the 25th anniversary third jerseys — jerseys that for an entire generation of fans they haven’t seen on the ice since they were young, or not even at all. These are the fans that can learn not only about players like Staal and Ward, but guys like Erik Cole, Sami Kapanen, Nic Wallin, and Chad LaRose, or even Bates Battaglia, Tuomo Ruutu, or Ray Whitney.
Use the numbers — but make sure they’re not forgotten.
