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 45. Keep up to date with the series everyday until the start of the 2023-24 NHL season.
Behind the Sweater Number: 45
The First 45s
According to Hockey Reference, 153 players have worn sweater number 45. This is according to records that go back to the 1950-51 season. Hockey Reference lists Ken Leiter as the first player to wear 45 with the New York Islanders in the 1984-85 season. The Detroit native had worn 44 in the season before. It seemed to be a trend that the Islanders would give their younger players higher numbers.
Mark Freer 0f the Philadelphia Flyers would be the next to try on the number in the 1987-88 season. Freer only wore 45 for one game and resumed takin on 37 in various stints with the Flyers. Four players would don the digits in the 1988-89 season, including Dale Dunbar, Jocelyn Lemieux, Carl Mokosak and Gord Walker.
Cameos
There are always a number of players that wore sweater number 45 that would go onto have decent to good careers. Donald Audette would start his Buffalo Sabres career as 45 before moving onto 28. Anson Carter‘s second number would be 45 with the Washington Capitals, but he would change the numbers a lot. Braydon Coburn ended his career with the Islanders as 45 in the 2020-21 season.
Steve Heinze wanted to be 57 due to ketchup reasons started off with sweater number 45. Robert Lang‘s stop with the Boston Bruins was with the number 45. Brenden Morrow had 45 for a spell with the Dallas Stars as did Roman Polak.
Sami Vatanen
The choice of NHL.com for the best to wear sweater number 45 was the Finn Sami Vatanen. He was tied for 11th among NHL defensemen with 12 goals in 67 games in 2014-15. Vatanen would help those Anaheim Ducks teams in the mid-2010s be a force in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He also played for the New Jersey Devils and the Carolina Hurricanes. Vatanen wore No. 44 with JYP in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league. The Finn was number nine for Norfolk in the AHL. However, those weren’t available and was assigned 45. He would finish his NHL career with 200 points in 473 games.
Others and the Future
The recently-retired Jonathan Bernier got 165 wins in net with a number of teams. Arron Asham was a respected enforcer for a number of years and earned 1,004 penalty minutes. Gilbert Dionne had two 20-goal seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. Dmitri Kalinin was a solid defender for a few different clubs.
Jody Shelley was in the mold of Asham and was a fighter for a number of seasons in the league. Shelley registered 1,538 penalty minutes and became an analyst in the league.
Main photo by: Rocky W. Widner
