5500

Today's entry on Hockey Blog In Canada is #5500. It's not normally a number that's celebrated, but, sixteen years after the first post in January 2007, I feel like any major milestone is something to accomplish now. I don't know if I can see anything I haven't seen and I know there's a pile of stuff I don't know, but I've been writing for sixteen years to this point and the same stories keep repeating themselves: affiliations changing, uniforms changing, and people criticizing the 3-2-1-0 points system to decide games.

Ok, maybe that last one doesn't happen as often as I'm making it out to seem, but it seems the same problems exist in 2023 as they did in 2007 when I started writing this blog. There are still issues within the game that hasn't been solved over that time, and the people who are watching over the game haven't really changed all that much. As a blogger, I have little power to change that, but I feel like I should still be holding people accountable for their actions.

I'll continue doing that, but today's not the day for calling people out. I'm working my tail off in trying to finish up some renovations, so entry #5500 will be all about 55, 50, and 00. There aren't many players who wore #00, but there have been many who wore #55. 50 seems to be an odd number altogether, so let's figure out who the best players were in the NHL that wore those numbers.

There are the only two men to wear #00 - New York Rangers netminder John Davidson and Buffalo Sabres goaltender Martin Biron. Davidson played 301 NHL games, posting a 123-124-39 record on the strength of a 3.52 GAA and an .883 save percentage. Biron played 508 NHL games, posting a 230-191-52 record on a 2.61 GAA and a .910 save percentage. It should be noted that Biron won both the Aldege Bastien Memorial Award and the Harry Holmes Memorial Award in 1999 as a member of the Rochester Americans, and was part of the 1997 Canadian World Junior Championship team that won gold.

Best #00: It seems fairly obvious that it's Biron.

Shockingly to me, there have been 73 players that have worn #50 in an NHL game. I didn't actually think the number was that high, but that's a big number. Some of the other notable players to wear the number are St. Louis Blues netminder Jordan Binnington, journeyman goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, and one season of Trevor Letowski in Phoenix. Kristers Gudlevskis wore #50 with Tampa Bay for three total games, but that's hardly an NHL career in that number. Let's focus on the two men who were teammates at one point, but both who wore #50 in their careers for a number of years.

Corey Crawford gets the obvious nod in Chicago as #50, but Antoine Vermette wore #80 while playing 19 games and winning a Stanley Cup in 2015 with the Blackhawks. Both men were drafted in the second round - Crawford at 53rd-overall in '03 by Chicago and Vermette at 55th-overall in '00 by Ottawa - so it's clear both men were valued assets coming out of junior hockey.

Vermette played for five different teams over his career with appearances in 1046 NHL games with the Senators, Blue Jackets, Coyotes, Blackhawks, and Ducks where he scored 228 goals and 287 assists while being one of the elite faceoff men in the game. He helped the Blackhawks win the 2015 Stanley Cup, and won the QMJHL championship in 2002 with Victoriaville.

Crawford played 488 NHL games, posting a 260-162-53 record in those games on the strength of a 2.45 GAA and a .918 save percentage. He was only a member of the Blackhawks, playing 13 seasons in the Windy City. He won two Stanley Cups and two William M. Jennings trophies as a member of the Blackhawks, and also helped Canada win the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Best #50: I like Vermette, but it's hard to ignore Crawford's successes.

We've seen 127 men in the NHL wear #55. That total includes players like Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele, Chicago Blackhawks winger Eric Daze, Montreal Canadiens defender Danny Markov, Detroit Red Wings defender Niklas Kronwall, and the above-pictured Ed Jovanovski who wore three team's jerseys in his career. All had great careers wearing #55, but there are a few who are have done more. And as much as Keith Primeau may want to be in the discussion, he did his best work wearing #25 in Philadelphia.

One of the players who wore #55 who needs to be included in the discussion is Sergei Gonchar. Gonchar played for six teams in his career after being selected 14th-overall by the Washington Capitals in 1992. He was one of the highest-scoring defencemen in his time, amassing 220 goals and 591 assists in 1301 NHL games as he was the first Russian defender in NHL history to score 200 career goals. He helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win the 2009 Stanley Cup, and has earned a bronze medal and a silver medal at the Olympics.

There's no denying that Larry Murphy has to be in the discussion. Murphy was selected fourth-overall in 1980 by the Los Angeles Kings, and set the record in 1981 for assists and points by a rookie defenceman in the NHL with 60 and 76, respectively. He played twenty NHL seasons for six NHL teams, amassing 288 goals and 929 assists in a then-record-for-defencemen 1615 games. Murphy found success wherever he played as he won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Penguins in '91 and '92 followed by back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Red Wings in '97 and '98. He won a Memorial Cup with the Peterborough Petes, helped Canada win the 1987 Canada Cup, is fifth all-time in defencemen scoring, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004.

Best #55: Gonchar was fantastic, but Murphy's career was incredible.

I thought it would be best to have some fun on this 5500th entry on HBIC. Perhaps I'm wrong about Biron, Crawford, and Murphy, but I'm willing to listen to other choices people may have as to who was the best to wear #55, #50, and #00 in their NHL careers. Feel free to leave a comment if you have other players I should consider, and we can discuss who wore the number best. We'll keep the articles coming with #5501 tomorrow, but here's to 5500 articles written.

Let's see for how long this keeps going.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!