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 3. Keep up to date with the series everyday until the start of the 2023-24 NHL season.
Behind the Sweater Number: 3
Three: The Magic Number
According to Hockey Reference, 340 players have worn sweater number 3 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. Five of the Original Six teams would have a player in the number. Hall of Famer Butch Bouchard of the Montreal Canadiens was one of the players that had the number. The Boston Bruins didn’t have a number three due to the numeral being retired for defender Lionel Hitchman.
Three was a number that is synonymous with defence and great defenders. There were a few players on the offensive end that donned the number. However, it was a number that is most famous with the blue line.
Cameos
There are always a number of players that wore sweater number 3 that would go onto have decent to good careers. However, these were with other numbers. Hall of Famer Fern Flaman wore the number for a couple of seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Calle Johansson had the number for two seasons with the Buffalo Sabres.
Steve Smith wore sweater number 3 with the Chicago Blackhawks before getting his number five back. Hall of Famer Sergei Zubov wore the number with the Pittsburgh Penguins before getting his 56 back.
The Pilote
Some great players have donned sweater number 3 in NHL history. However, Pierre Pilote is the one that best wore the sweater number. Scott Stevens (who we clumsily left off the top number four list) also deserves special mention after his great stint with the Washington Capitals. Pilote was one of the top defenders of the 1950s and won three Norris Trophies. He also got the coveted Stanley Cup in 1961 with Chicago.
Pilote was a pretty durable player in his day with an iron man streak of 376 games. It may not seem like much, but the game was pretty physical and there weren’t 82-game seasons like there are now. Pilote ended up being team captain and had his number retired by the club. Chicago retired the number three in honour of both Pilote and Keith Magnuson.
Other Great Threes
A number of great defencemen like Zdeno Chara, Garry Galley, Ken Daneyko, Tim Horton, Harry Howell and Doug Lidster that have worn the number. Other players that carved out a career with number three are James Patrick, Dion Phaneuf, Marcel Provonost, Pat Quinn, Keith Yandle and J.C. Tremblay.
There are some current players like John Klingberg, Brayden McNabb and Adam Pelech that are wearing the number. Stay tuned for the next stop on the countdown as we close in on the start of the NHL season.
Main photo by: B Bennett/Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Image
