Sweater Switch '09, Part 2
First, check out Part 1: Pronger, Havlat, Tavares, Hedman, Ashton
Jay BouwmeesterTonight, we start with the Calgary Flames and their recent addition of blue-liner Jay Bouwmeester. Great picture to the left, by the way.
He was traded by the Florida Panthers in exchange for Jordan Leopold on June 27. Both players were set to become free agents on July 1 but both have since signed deals with the teams they were traded to.
Bouwmeester donned a Flames sweater when he was introduced at a team press conference. His name stretches from shoulder to shoulder across the back of his No. 4 jersey — the same number he wore during his six seasons with the Panthers.
Unfortunately, the article (linked above) doesn't address his reasoning for wearing the number. If anyone can find an explanation, email or comment. I know lots of folks are enjoying the stories behind the sweater numbers.
We continue with the Flames' opponent in their most recent attempt at a Stanley Cup run. The Tampa Bay Lightning added Mattias Ohlund and Matt Walker this summer, both of whom were on hand to meet fans tonight at the Young Guns Camp.
Matt Walker and Mattias Ohlund
They're not wearing their new Bolts sweaters here, as they speak to TV announcer Rick Peckham. However, fan giveaways included a No. 2 Ohlund sweater, seen below.
A fan holds up her Ohlund jersey
This means either Lukas Krajicek will be getting a new number this year, or this is a placeholder for Ohlund. But Ohlund has seniority.
Interestingly, Krajicek and Ohlund played together in Vancouver during the 2007-08 season. For the record, Krajicek wore No. 5 then, which is currently available in Tampa.
Regarding Walker, I believe he wore No. 8 last season in Chicago and No. 28 prior to that in St. Louis. Neither is being used by Lightning players at the moment.
Side note: Am I starting to take jersey numbers to seriously? Really, there's not much else to talk about at this point and I want to keep updating the blog.
Either way, the Montreal Canadiens have an entire article up on their web site dedicated to the jersey numbers of two of their newest members. Mike Cammalleri has worn No. 13 his entire career, with both the Kings and Flames (and even before that), and will continue to do so with the Habs.
Scott Gomez has a longer story. Since normal numbers are getting harder to come by for the NHL's most storied franchise, Gomez could use neither of his previous numbers. He began his career in New Jersey with No. 23 and switched to No. 19 when he joined the Rangers. As the article points out, his current GM and former coach have had those numbers retired. Instead, Gomez will do a reversal and wear No. 91 in Montreal.
The article also mentions that he is the first player in team history to do so, leaving a mere 11 numbers still yet to be used. Sadly, there are not yet pictures of either player in his bleu, blanc et rouge. (Though if you want to see Gomez in red, white and blue, he was just with the Rangers.)
Ryan SmythWe'll finish off Part 2 with new L.A. King Ryan Smyth. Smyth recently posed for pictures with his his new jersey. It doesn't appear to have a number on it, but there should be nothing stopping him from keeping the No. 94 he's worn throughout his career as he heads to Los Angeles.
Smyth actually wore No. 10 for the three games he played for the Edmonton Oilers in the abbreviated 1995 season. Ever since then, he's stuck with the No. 94, including his brief stint with the Islanders prior to joining the Avalanche.
And all that useless information should wrap things up for Part 2 of Sweater Switch '09. I hope to have a Part 3 soon but that will all depend on the speed at which pictures of new free agent signees pop up.
As always, if you see anything, please drop me a line. My email address can be found at the top of the page.
Chris
Ryan SmythSeveral people have sent in this photo of Ryan Smyth holding his new No. 94 Los Angeles Kings jersey. I finally got around to posting it tonight.
I'm also finally getting around to possibly having enough content for Part 3 of this series, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
A couple of things to note about this jersey. First, I can't quite tell if it's an authentic or premier, but it does appear to be the real deal. If that is in fact the case, the Kings have made a minor change.
The numbers on the back feature heavier borders than they did last year. It makes the purple look like a lighter shade and gives the appearance that the overall numbers are larger.
Of course this is pure conjecture because who knows who made this one Smyth's holding. Since he's standing in an L.A. Kings office area, I'm assuming it's official in some way, but we'll have to wait for October to know for sure. Just thought it might be worth a mention.
For reference with regard to the numbers, check out Michal Handzus in the following photo.
It's even possible the same thing has been done to the numbers on the sleeves. I'm anticipating Part 3 to debut on Wednesday or Thursdsay.
Reader Comments (16)
Pretty sure Bouwmeester is 12 years old.
I agree with you Jason, and Boumeester's haircut looks like some monstrosity out of the 90's.
no you're not taking jersey numbers too seriously, like you said, there isn't much else to talk about, and something is better than nothing. and this stuff is definitely interesting. thanks for your hard work
Have to say im enjoying the jersey numbers as well. I find it quite interesting and its keeping me going through the dry days of the summer. Keep up the good work...and if anyone could answer this...i heard a rumour that Brian Burke is only going to allow the leafs to wear 1-31 this season...anyone know if theres any truth to that? Thanks.
I enjoy your posts about numbers. Keep it up. And WOW what a pic of JBO!
I just want to say that you are definitely not taking the numbers too seriously, and throughout the summer, I am constantly checking team's websites to see if new transactions have to change their numbers, so thanks for updating that. One thing I found that seemed interesting is that it appears that Cristobal Huet is taking Khabibulin's old number, as the Blackhawks' website now has him listed as No. 39, as opposed to 38 last season.
I believe Jay wears #4 for Bobby Orr, who I'm pretty sure is his agent.
God, it hurts to see Ohlund's name on that jersey.
LOL Bobby Orr isn't J-Bo's agent. Bryon Baltimore is.
It would look right seeing Gomez in an untraditional hockey number. What's with the number 91 anyways? it seems like every team has one nowadays. Was Fedorov that big of an influence?
Ryan Smyth is gonna wear No. 94.
Source: http://ow.ly/haaU (via Twitter @LAKingsHockey)
Anyway, seems like a lot of players are going to No. 91 now. Last season, there were six players who wore that number: Fedorov, Naslund, Richards, Savard, Stamkos, and Turris. This season, Tavares and now Gomez will be wearing No. 91, but Fedorov went to the KHL and Naslund retired.
Therefore, we're still stuck at six, but No. 91 is still the highest jersey number that has more than five wearers. The second highest of any number that isn't doubled (like 77), because it's very common for players to double up their number like that, is 71 (seven wearers).
The most common number is No. 22, with twenty-six people wearing it last season, but it still seems that more people are wearing No. 91 than any other number nowadays just because it's unusual and we notice it.
That Ryan Smyth jersey is DEFIANTLY an authentic. Way to know for sure is the RBK logo on the back top. The fact it's a separate patch makes it an Authentic. The Premier ones just have the white lines done as embroidery and you can see the jersey in the middle of the logo. The fact that the purple in the middle of the logo is shinier and of what appears to be a different texture tells me that it is an authentic jersey. There is also no sign of the RBK logo on the left sleeve (might be the angle of the jersey but I think you should be able to see at least part of the logo from this angle) and that RBK logo is only on the Premier jerseys.
How do I know this? I own about a dozen edge jerseys already and two of which are authentic, the rest (including a kings one just like the one Smitty has there) are premiers. Well that and I work in a jersey store.
Now the cresting as you pointed out could have just been someone making a mistake or a new design. That we wont know until they start wearing them next month.
As one of those who submitted the picture of Smyth holding his jersey, I honestly didn't notice the difference. Two seasons ago, the Kings had silver numbers with a dark-purple outline. Last year, they lessened the thickness of the purple outline and added an additional silver outline.
This year, it appears the purple "outline" has indeed been re-thickened, and also is lighter. It's not the lighting of the pictures, as in this new photo the purple is the same as the shoulder trim. It was much darker than the trim in last year's jerseys.
If you need more evidence, compare Smyth's '9' to Handzus' '6'. The two numbers are the same template ironed onto the jersey, just rotated. If you look at both, you can tell the "hole" in the '6' is clearly much larger than that of the '9'.
If all of this is true, this would be the third consecutive season they have altered their home uniform (including the switch to Rbk-Edge, because of the additional number outline change). First of all, I don't understand why they don't just stick with one style, although I have liked the improvements they've made each year.
And second, if they're gonna keep changing the home uniform, CAN'T THEY JUST MAKE IT PURPLE!? All fans want to see them come to a solid purple/"forum blue" primary jersey, but supposedly they never will because Luc Robitaille (who holds a bit of power in the organization, and is still a fan favorite who can be seen walking around the concourse prior to games) reportedly dislikes the color.
Actually upon looking at that I wouldn't be surprised if the cresting is nothing more than the crappy kind the NHL puts on replica jerseys (but that's defiantly an authentic so who really knows?)
Ohlund went to tampa??? hmm nice to see he went only for the money have fun starting vacation in mid april