Now, for the most scientific and one of my personal favorite updates of the year, a complete and accurate ranking of the jersey numbers picked out by the new members of the Penguins.
#8: 72 – Declan Carlile
Carlile wore No. 67 with Tampa so he had to choose a new number in Pittsburgh with Rickard Rakell already occupying the 6-7 (do the youth still make that joke? Feels like the olds co-opted it and ran it into the ground). Carlile chose Patric Hornqvist’s
old number, which still doesn’t seem right.
#7: 10 – Andrei Kuzmenko
Kuzmenko has worn No. 96 for all of his four previous NHL teams, he’ll switch it up this season. Other than Tomas Vokoun, who inverted his typical No. 29 to 92 since Marc-Andre Fleury already had that number, no player has worn a higher jersey number in Pittsburgh than 87 since 2005. Whether that’s factored into this switch for Kuzmenko, who can say. Wearing 10 in Pittsburgh still feels a bit icky. Maybe someone like Gary Roberts can get away with it (then again, Gary Roberts can get away with anything) but 10 is still associated with Ron Francis, even if it has been almost 30 years. The number isn’t retired and clearly fair game for availability since several players have worn it, including lesser lights, but I don’t know. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Would have been cooler for a skilled scorer like Kuzmenko to keep the 96, which also would have been the highest jersey number in Penguin history, currently held by Aleksey Morozov at 95.
#6: 32 – Tomas Galvas
32 is a sneaky good defenseman number in Pens’ history for random ‘remember a guy’ like Peter Taglianetti, John Slaney, Alain Nasreddine, Mark Streit. Who could forget the last player who wasn’t Crosby or Malkin to lead the Pens in scoring for a season, Dick Tarnstrom, also rocked the 32? Galvas probably won’t be around this season in Pittsburgh anyways but he’s chosen his number for the future.
#5: 13 – David Gustafsson
Still think it is great that since Craig Patrick was so superstitious that no Penguin was issued #13 from 1988-2008, coinciding with Patrick’s tenure as GM from 1990-2005. Seven players have worn it since then (including Bill Guerin, Nick Bonino, Brandon Tanev and Kevin Hayes last year). So, really, Sidney Crosby hasn’t won a Stanley Cup without a teammate wearing No. 13 in his career, maybe he should go the other way on that superstition and make sure that someone always has it.
#4: 14 – Nick Robertson
Robertson wore 89 with Toronto, we have another case of a number change where it doesn’t exceed Crosby, whether intentional or not. Four other players (Tanner Pearson, Stefan Noesen, Mark Jankowski and Boko Imama) have worn 14 since Chris Kunitz, so time is making that feel normalized at this point for a standard and solid hockey number here. That feeling might not be shared but 14 is a stander enough hockey number that it belongs in circulation for the future.
#3: 6 – Kaeden Korczak
Korczak is keeping the same number he had in Vegas. There’s a certain old school appeal to a big defenseman wearing a single digit. This year only Korczak and Sergei Murshov (#1) could have single digit numbers for the Penguins, depending on what happens with Rutger McGroarty and Ilya Solovyov. Original Six teams with a ton of retired numbers usually don’t have many single digits, most of the Pens’ players select a high number out of choice. Nice to see someone bu
#2: 22 – Hendrix Lapierre
Love seeing a double number, especially for a small, fast forward. Lapierre will join the ranks of former Pittsburgh players lie Randy Robitaille, Chris Thorburn and Matt Murley with the double deuce. Great number. It’s improved further by Lapierre switching up from the 29 he had in Washington. Fleury’s number isn’t officially retired, but no Penguin has worn it since he departed in 2017. At this point (unlike 10, 14 and 72) it looks like 29 might be unofficially off limits for anyone moving forward, but it remains to be seen when or if the Penguins will formally honor Fleury with a banner in the rafters and official jersey number retirement ceremony.
#1: 57 – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Nothing can be as good as Shawn Heins wearing the 57 back in the day, but this one is close. With a long and unique last name like ‘van Riemsdyk’ you can’t wear a boring single digit number. van Riemsdyk has worn this number since the start of his career, seeing the consistency is a nice touch. Interestingly, Jake Livanavage wore 57 for his lone NHL game next season, if he’s back again this year it will be with a new number for himself that hasn’t yet been announced.
