Number 1 in the NHL was traditionally worn by the starting goaltender, a role filled by legends like Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, and Bernie Parent, with many teams retiring it for these Hall of Famers, though modern goalies increasingly choose other numbers, making it rarer now. While skaters rarely wore it, Gump Worsley wore #1 for part of his career, and Neil Sheehy was the last skater to wear it in the late 80s.
1 – Johnny Bower. Many goalies wore the number one but the late Johnny Bower takes the top spot. As a four-time Stanley Cup Champion, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, an all-star and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Bower will forever remain a symbol of excellence for the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.
"Biron rule" restricted jersey numbers to whole numbers between 1 and 99 (later limited to numbers between 1 and 98 after the league-wide retirement of number 99 for Wayne Gretzky). Biron was the only NHL player affected, as only he wore "00" at the time.
No. 0. What's even rarer than the double-zero is the single zero in the NHL. Only one man has worn this number, and most likely you've never heard of him.
There were two other players that wore 0. One was Montreal Canadiens backup goalie Paul Bibeault. The other was the only non-goalie to wear the number is Hartford Whalers defenceman Neil Sheehy. He would also wear 5, 15 and 25 in his 379-game NHL career.
No, #69 isn't officially banned in the NHL, but it's unofficially discouraged due to its sexual connotation, leading to very few players wearing it, with Melvin Angelstad and Andrew Desjardins being the only notable NHLers to sport it, often as a joke, and most players avoid it to prevent being constantly teased or seen as immature.
Plante was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978, and into the Quebec Sports Pantheon in 1994. His jersey, #1, was retired in 1995 by the Montreal Canadiens. The Jacques Plante Memorial Trophy was established in his honor as an award to the top goaltender in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Wayne Gretzky's number 99 was retired league-wide in 2000; Gretzky's former teams the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings also separately retired his number. As of December 2025, only the Utah Mammoth and the Winnipeg Jets have no retired numbers.
Alexander Karmanov, a seven-foot, 265-pound defenceman, is slated to make his OHL debut Thursday for the North Bay Battalion against the Sarnia Sting, Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen told reporters Wednesday. Marmanov, a 17-year-old from Moldova, will become the tallest player in CHL history.
The Flyers–Senators brawl was a National Hockey League (NHL) regular season game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Ottawa Senators that resulted in a league record for penalty minutes. The game was played on March 5, 2004, at the Wachovia Center, the home arena of the Flyers.
The National Hockey League no longer permits 0 nor 00 for jersey numbers, as they cannot be entered into the NHL's database, and the available numbers only go up to 98 since the League retired the number 99 in honour of Wayne Gretzky.
Hockey CoachCoach
There are many answers and possibilities, from my experiences here are some ideas. - Weaker defense or midfielders on the right side (forehand techniques). - Weaker attack player on the left side, more attacks go over the right side and as attacker it is easier to score from the left side.
35 for the second most "popular" number with eight different goalies wearing it in a game this season. No. 30 is the most popular with 10. I'm waiting for a forward or defenseman to wear it, there's no rule preventing a skater from wearing #1 and it hasn't happened in like 70 years.
Known as "The Great One", Gretzky is widely considered to be the greatest player in professional hockey history. He holds 61 National Hockey League records, was named the fifth greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999.
He originally wore number 69 with the Sharks, becoming the second player in NHL history behind Mel Angelstad to wear the number in a regular season game, though he later switched to number 10 following the departure of Christian Ehrhoff.
99 is only been worn by five NHL players ever. The number was officially retired after the 2000 season. in honor of the Great One, Wayne Gretzky.
Alexander Karmanov stands at 7'0” and, according to the online hockey database Elite Prospects, he is considered to be the tallest active hockey player in the world. The defenceman turned 17-years-old in March, but he is already making a name for himself on the ice and with his teammates.
In 1980, the age was dropped further to 18, so that any player who is between the ages of 18 and 20 is eligible to be drafted.
The NHL once banned a jersey number. Yes, the league decided some numbers shouldn't appear on the ice and one of them was sixty-nine. Only two players in NHL history ever wore it but the league quietly pushed teams to stop using it. Too much questionable humor attached.
What is the Gretzky rule in hockey? The Gretzky Rule refers to a rule implemented in the NHL during the 1985–86 season, limiting how many points a player could be on the ice for in any single power play. This was due to Wayne Gretzky's dominance, as he scored multiple points during power plays.
The NHL banned jersey numbers 0 and 00 starting in the 1996-97 season because they caused conflicts and confusion with the league's digital database and player tracking systems, essentially being read as a "null" value; this technical issue prevented proper data entry and management for those numbers, making them unusable despite history with players like Neil Sheehy (No. 0) and Martin Biron (No. 00) before the rule change.
It could also be referred to as the "clinching number". Teams other than the front-running team have what is called an elimination number (or "tragic number") (often abbreviated E#). This number represents the number of wins by the leading team or losses by the trailing team which will eliminate the trailing team.
The team was initially called Club athletique canadien, and their logo was the famous "C" with an "A" in the middle. However they later changed the name to Club de hockey, which explains the current logo with the "H" in the middle. The anglophones nicknamed the team habitants, which was eventually shortened to habs.
Successful comebacks
In Stanley Cup Playoffs history, 211 teams faced a 3–0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. Of these teams, only four overcame the deficit (~2%). Only one overcame the deficit in the Stanley Cup Finals.