How many NHL rosters can we build using jersey numbers that add up to 100?
|
By Sean McIndoe
Aug 16, 2023
It’s mid-August and nothing is happening, so let’s play a roster game. This one was sent in by longtime reader Bill, who graciously took time off from thinking about inferior sports to suggest a deceptively simple challenge: Find the team that makes the best possible starting lineup where all six players’ jersey numbers add up to 100.
I like it. And yes, I can already sense the danger, because we’re going to run into some of the same problems we did in that column. Hockey numbers aren’t handed out randomly, and they tend to group into either very low or very high. Mix in the several position-based traditions that come into play, and this won’t be as easy as just finding a few stars and then filling in the team around them. Or maybe it will be. Let’s find out.
But first, a few ground rules™:
• We need a six-man lineup of a center, two wingers, two defensemen and a goalie. Yes, I do plan to immediately regret using wingers, thanks for noticing.
• Each roster only gets credit for what the players did with that team.
• In the case of guys who wore more than one number, we’re getting credit for whatever they did in the number we pick, meaning we can’t get cute with something a guy wore for a game or two because it was training camp or someone stole their jersey.
Let’s see how this goes. We’ll start with the team that traditionally pulls leadoff duty in these things …
Edmonton Oilers
As is usually the case, the Oilers set some parameters for us right away. We can’t use Wayne Gretzky or Connor McDavid, because that doesn’t leave us enough room to find five more guys. In fact, given how rare it is to see a forward with a low single-digit number, we’re probably looking at something in the 70s as an upper limit for forwards, and lower than that for the other positions.
The better strategy will be to aim for lower numbers across the board. For the Oilers, we could try building around Leon Draisaitl (29), Jari Kurri (17) and Mark Messier (11) up front, with Grant Fuhr (31) in goal. That adds up to 88, leaving us 12 to work with on our blue line. Paul Coffey wore 7 with the Oilers before switching to 77 for the rest of his career, so we just need a 5. With apologies to Cody Ceci and Ladislav Smid, that probably means Steve Smith gets our last spot, and our Oilers entry looks like this:
Forwards: Mark Messier (11), Leon Draisaitl (29), Jari Kurri (17)
Defense: Paul Coffey (7), Steve Smith (5)
Goalie: Grant Fuhr (31)
That’s … well, that’s actually pretty darn good. Better than I thought we’d be able to get, if I’m being honest. You could quibble a bit with the forwards since we did say we’d have two wingers, and Messier and Draisaitl are both primarily centers who also play left wing. File a protest if you’d like, but otherwise, we’re off to a great start.
Let’s stay in the Pacific for another team …
Los Angeles Kings
Any sort of all-time roster for the Kings has to include Luc Robitaille on one wing, and his number 20 should fit nicely. I’d also want to use either Anze Kopitar (11) or Marcel Dionne (16) as my center, which leaves a wing spot open for Dave Taylor (18) or Dustin Brown (23). And my goalie is ideally going to be either Jonathan Quick (32) or Rogie Vachon (30).
Running through those various combinations, I don’t think I’m going to be able to find a way to get Rob Blake and his 4 into my other blue-line slot. In the end, I went old school with Dionne and Taylor, but should still have enough representation of the two Cup teams to keep modern fans happy.
Forwards: Marcel Dionne (16), Luc Robitaille (20), Dave Taylor (18)
Defense: Drew Doughty (8), Jake Muzzin (6)
Goalie: Jonathan Quick (32)
That got a little bit more complicated than Edmonton, so let’s tweak the degree of difficulty by trying out some Original Six teams.
Boston Bruins
You guys know how much I love Ray Bourque, but I’m not going to be able to use him here — we could probably find room for a star-wearing 77 up front, but a defenseman means we’re just going to need too many low-numbered forwards.
Luckily, I’m told there are still a handful of other solid defensemen who’ve played in Boston, so we can start with Bobby Orr’s 4 as our cornerstone. Ideally we’d also have Zdeno Chara (33), but that raises a problem — most of the Bruins’ best goalies wore numbers in the 30 to 40 range, so if we use Chara then we’re not going to have room for a top goaltender and Patrice Bergeron’s 37. Even Brad Park’s 22 is too high. We could just use Phil Esposito (7) as our center instead, but with all the Bergeron love going around these days, it would feel wrong to exclude him.
Luckily, we still have Eddie Shore, and by slotting him next to Orr and using Tuukka Rask’s 40 instead of Gerry Cheevers or Tim Thomas at 30, we end up with a forward line that works out nicely.
Forwards: Patrice Bergeron (37), Johnny Bucyk (9), Cam Neely (8)
Defense: Bobby Orr (4), Eddie Shore (2)
Goalie: Tuukka Rask (40)
With the Bruins done, let’s try their oldest rivals.
Montreal Canadiens
If you’ve followed our various roster games over the years, you know two things: The Habs have more great players than anyone else, and they’re really big on traditional jersey numbers. That has the potential to make this interesting, so let’s see where it goes.
My strategy here is to assume that we’ll have a bunch of low numbers to choose from, so I’m going to pass on the various 1 goalies and go with either Ken Dryden’s 29 or Patrick Roy’s 33. If I mix those with obvious picks like Rocket Richard (9) and Doug Harvey (2), I’m going to need a boost to get us to 100, and that’s before I even get to Jean Beliveau’s unusually-low-for-a-forward 4. In fact, it occurs to me that it’s going to be tough to do this without dipping into some of the franchise’s few unretired numbers, because just about everything we’re working with is low.
In the end, I realized that I didn’t have much choice but to use Larry Robinson’s 19 and Serge Savard’s 18 as my blue line, passing on Harvey. If I mixed in Roy’s 33, that left me with a total of 30 to work with on my forwards, which leads to a bunch of combinations that are off by one or two. I was leaning toward doing the unthinkable and cutting the Rocket to go with something like Guy Lafleur (10), Beliveau (4) and Henri Richard (16), but that’s two centers. So in the end I dug in on the iconic wingers and went with a center whose number isn’t retired, but should be.
Forwards: Rocket Richard (9), Guy Lafleur (10), Saku Koivu (11)
Defense: Larry Robinson (19), Serge Savard (18)
Goalie: Patrick Roy (33)
I’m reasonably happy with that, but it feels like there may have been a better mix that I just didn’t find. Habs fans, feel free to weigh in.
Toronto Maple Leafs
My first few attempts always seemed to end with me being just north of the limit at 102, but I eventually abandoned the “Wendel at every position” strategy in favor of something a little more balanced. I also knew I wouldn’t be able to use the 66th-best player of the modern era because his jersey number is too high, but soldiered on.
I’ll want either Johnny Bower or Turk Broda as my goalie, and both guys wore 1, so I’ll need a bigger number somewhere along the way. That’s not a problem, but my rule about having one center and two wingers will be, since I can only use one of Darryl Sittler, Mats Sundin, Dave Keon or Auston Matthews.
In the end, I decided I’d need the forwards to do most of the heavy lifting, with Frank Mahovlich’s 27 on one wing pretty much a must-have. I could add another 27 at center in Sittler, which bought me enough room to use Bower’s 1 in goal along with a blue line of Borje Salming (21) and Tim Horton (7). That brings us to 83 with one spot left, which means I need a winger who wore 17, and miraculously I managed to find one.
Forwards: Darryl Sittler (27), Frank Mahovlich (27), Wendel Clark (17)
Defense: Borje Salming (21), Tim Horton (7)
Goalie: Johnny Bower (1)
That covers some old teams, so let’s click that sorting arrow and flip the list with our next entry …
Seattle Kraken
Wait, is this our first time using the Kraken for one of these games? I think it might be. Welcome to the club, new guys. Don’t worry, we’re all friendly here.
We do run into a problem right away with Jared McCann, who apparently switched numbers in between his two seasons in Seattle, which messes up our “only get credit for what he did with that number” rule. I’m not sure who greenlit that change, but please tell them to knock it off.
Also, I want to use a good goalie and this team has never had one. Didn’t they win a playoff round last year? With Martin Jones and Philipp Grubauer? I’m confused.
Worse, if I give one winger spot to McCann’s 40-goal season where he wore 19 and the other to Jordan Eberle’s 7, build a blue line out of Vince Dunn (29) and Adam Larsson (6), put Jones (30) in goal, and finish it all off with future face-of-the-franchise Matty Beniers (10) as the center, that all adds up to … 101.
Yeah, they definitely did that on purpose. Forget what I said about being friendly. The Krakens are jerks, you guys.
Forwards: Jared McCann (19), Jordan Eberle (7), Matty Beniers (10)
Defense: Vince Dunn (29), Justin Schultz (4)
Goalie: Philipp Grubauer (31)
Letting the new guys in was a mistake. Let’s try an older team.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh always ends up being good in these games because (gestures at the last four decades of Penguins history). But this time, their megastars aren’t going to help them, because as we’ve already learned, you just can’t make a decent roster out of guys with high numbers.
Or can you?
Hey, I’m always talking about how star power is more important than depth, so let’s live by that credo here. We’ll use the most talented player in the history of the sport, and then see what, if anything, we can squeeze in around him.
Forwards: Mario Lemieux (66), Mark Recchi (8), Rick Kehoe (17)
Defense: Ron Stackhouse (3), Ulf Samuelsson (5)
Goalie: Denis Herron (1)
You know what? I’ll take it! We’ve got Mario Lemieux, plus another Hall of Famer on his wing, plus a guy who once scored 55 goals. The blue line is just OK and the goaltending isn’t much, but we won’t need it to be because we have Mario, and he’s done alright with much worse.
A few more and then we’ll turn it over to you in the comments …
St. Louis Blues
Hey Blues fans, were you thrown off by finding out Tony Twist never had 200 PIMs on last week’s special Norris Division edition of Puckdoku? Me too. I didn’t do that on purpose, I promise. As for all you kids out there whining about it being too hard to name guys with 200 PIM seasons, you’re too young to be on the internet, get off my lawn.
Where were we? Oh right, the Blues, and also me being stuck in the 1990s. Luckily, those two topics overlap nicely as we start with the legendary Hull and Oates combo, mix in two Hall of Fame defensemen, sneak in a guy from the current team, and have just enough left over for the franchise leader in goalie wins.
Forwards: Brett Hull (16), Adam Oates (12), Jordan Kyrou (25)
Defense: Al MacInnis (2), Chris Pronger (44)
Goalie: Mike Liut (1)
Sticking in the Central …
Dallas Stars
After running into the high-number problem with most teams I tried, I was a bit surprised to find that the Stars go the other way. Once you take Jason Roberton (21), Miro Heiskanen (4) and Jamie Benn (14) off the current team and mix in franchise icon Mike Modano (9), you’re less than halfway to 100 with only two players left. With one of those being a goalie, that means we need a defenseman in the 20s, which rules out guys like Derian Hatcher and Darryl Sydor. I toyed with swapping in some North Star names like Brian Bellows or Dino Ciccarelli, but ended up deciding on a more Dallas-centric approach.
Forwards: Mike Modano (9), Jason Robertson (21), Jamie Benn (14)
Defense: Miro Heiskanen (4), Esa Lindell (23)
Goalie: Jake Oettinger (29)
Huh. Yeah, that’s basically just the current opening night lineup with Mike Modano starting at center. I’m not complaining.
OK, one last team to bring us to an even 10.
New Jersey Devils
The Devils are a fun one to end on because they force us into some tough decisions immediately. It feels like we should have to use Martin Brodeur (30), Scott Stevens (4), Scott Niedermayer (27) and Patrik Elias (26), but if we try then we run out of room for the other two forwards.
Somebody has to go, and with three sure-thing Hall of Famers, I’ll cut the guy who is, uh, not quite that. Elias is out, which means we need three forwards totaling 39. That feels pretty doable, although we run into the weird roadblock of the Devils being one of the very few teams whose all-time roster is tilted heavily in favor of wingers instead of centers.
I worked through a few combinations, including ones featuring Claude Lemieux, Scott Gomez and John MacLean. In the end, I’m not sure my trio is the best I could do, but it does feel sufficiently Devils-ish.
Forwards: Zach Parise (9), Bobby Holik (16), Brian Gionta (14)
Defense: Scott Stevens (4), Scott Niedermayer (27)
Goalie: Martin Brodeur (30)
Now it’s your turn. If anyone wants to take a crack at the long history of the Hawks, Wings or Rangers, be my guest. If you want a bigger challenge, feel free to take on the Golden Knights, although be warned that I tried and couldn’t land it. Or just try your favorite team. It’s August, nobody’s working and it’s a perfect day to waste on math puzzles in a hockey site comment section.
|
Responses:
|
Replies are disabled on threads older than 7 days.
|
|