Sweater numbers are synonymous with players. Most hockey fans can instantly tell you a great player by the number they wear on their back. There are many different stories about how players became associated with the famous numbers. Many odd and interesting facts surround these numbers as well. As we count down the start of the 2023-24 NHL season, we take a look at the story behind the numbers. Today we continue with sweater number 1. Keep up to date with the series everyday until the start of the 2023-24 NHL season.
Behind the Sweater Number: 1
The 1 Dogs
According to Hockey Reference, 251 players have worn sweater number 1 since since jersey records were kept in the 1950-51 season. However, it does not list very many players before then that may have taken the number. All of the Original Six had a player in between the pipes to wear the number one. There were a total of five Hall of Famers to don the digit in that 1950-51 campaign. None of the 11 players that wore the number recorded a single point that season.
Sweater number 1 is the shirt for goalies, but there have been players to wear the number that didn’t tend goal. Scott Morrison’s book “By the Numbers” listed three skaters that wore number one. Babe Siebert, Marty Burke and Herb Gardiner each had the number one with the Montreal Canadiens. Number one has been passed over mostly as goalies wear numerals in the 30s for the most part.
Cameos
There are always a number of players that wore sweater number 2 that would go onto have decent to good careers. However, these were with other numbers. Hall of Famer Ed Belfour had number one, but that was for a handful of games. Jack Campbell started his playing career with one before switching to 36. Another Hall of Famer in Tony Esposito started off in Montreal with one before getting 35 with the Chicago Black Hawks. Grant Fuhr was another Hall of Famer that was number one, but eventually found his number with 31. Juuse Saros wore the number briefly with the Nashville Predators.
Most goalies stuck with one when they got the number back in the day. As mentioned in previous installments, hockey numbers in the past were a lot like squad numbers in soccer. A player was usually assigned the number based on the position they were playing that particular day. Fun fact: The Minnesota Wild will never have a player wear one because they put their fans number one.
“Uke”
There were plenty of great goalies that could have been the choice for the best to wear sweater number one. Netminders like Glenn Hall, Johnny Bower, Georges Vezina and Jacques Plante immediately spring to mind. However, Terry Sawchuk broke out with the Red Wings and usurped another Hall of Famer in Harry Lumley. Sawchuk immediately took hold of the Red Wings net and racked up honours. His stretch in the 1951-52 Stanley Cup Playoffs displayed sheer dominance. Sawchuk won all eight starts and recorded a goals-against-average an unheard of 0.63.
He owned the shutout record of 103 for many years before Martin Brodeur broke it with 125. Sawchuk was called “Uke” because of his Ukrainian heritage. The Winnipeg native won 445 career games and won four Stanley Cups along with four Vezinas. He was truly one of the greats to wear number one.
Other 1s and the Future
Plenty of great goalies have donned the number one sweater. Greats like Turk Broda, Bernie Parent, Gump Worsley, George Hainsworth. Ed Giacomin, Gerry Cheevers, Emile Francis, Chuck Rayner and Rogie Vachon were Hall of Famers from back in the day. Roberto Luongo had a Hall of Fame career in the modern day with the number. Players like Sean Burke and Kirk McLean also wore the number.
There are some modern players that wear one like Jeremy Swayman, Brian Elliott, Lukas Dostal and others. We’re almost at the end of our countdown, but there will be an installment on the number zero.
Main photo by: Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images
