Squad number

In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player’s uniform, to identify and distinguish each player (and sometimes others, such as coaches and officials) from others wearing the same or similar uniforms. The number is typically displayed on the rear of the jersey, often accompanied by the surname. Sometimes it is also displayed on the front and/or sleeves, or on the player’s shorts or headgear. It is used to identify the player to officials, other players, official scorers, and spectators; in some sports, it is also indicative of the player’s position.

The first group to use numbers on ice hockey players’ uniforms is a matter of some debate. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association is sometimes credited with being the first to use numbered sweaters, but the National Hockey Association, the predecessor of the National Hockey League, is known to have required its players to wear numbered armbands beginning with the 1911–12 season, which may have come before that. The Patrick brothers who founded the PCHA put numbers on players’ backs so they could sell programs in which the players were listed by their numbers.

To start the 1977–78 season, the NHL placed into effect a rule that also required sweaters to display the names of the players wearing them, but Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard initially refused to abide by it, fearing that he would not be able to sell programs at his team’s games. The NHL responded by threatening to levy a fine on the team in February 1978, so Ballard started having names put on the jerseys but made them the same color as the background they were on, which for the team’s road jerseys was blue. The League threatened further sanctions, and despite playing more than one game with their “unreadable” sweaters, Ballard’s Maple Leafs finally complied in earnest by making the blue jerseys’ letters white.

The very first jersey number to be retired in professional sports was that of an NHL player, Ace Bailey, whose #6 was retired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1934 following a career-ending fight with Eddie Shore during a game against the Boston Bruins in 1933. Shore injured Bailey under the mistaken impression that Bailey had hip-checked him when it was actually fellow Maple Leaf Red Horner. To aid Bailey, the NHL hosted a benefit game between the Maple Leafs and an all-star team, at which Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe retired his number.

Historically, starting NHL goaltenders wore number 1. Popular belief holds that this was because the goaltender was the first player on the rink from the perspective of one standing in front of the net; this is also believed to be why replacement goaltenders would also wear the number. Further use of the number 1 among goaltenders can be attributed to adherence to tradition.

Over time, the number 1 became less common among goaltenders, with only seven using it as of December 2016. One reason was that goaltenders increasingly followed the example set by the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Terry Sawchuk and the Montreal Canadiens’ Patrick Roy after the NHL mandated that each team have two goaltenders in every game. In 1964, Sawchuk joined the Maple Leafs wearing 24 as the number 1 was already being used, but switched to 30, whereas Roy donned 33 as his team already had a player with the number 30, starting a trend of goaltenders using numbers in the 30s.

Furthermore, seven franchises have retired the number 1—six in honor of players, and the Minnesota Wild in honor of its fanbase—making it unavailable. As a result, fewer goalies have chosen the traditional number 1 and instead have opted for more distinctive numbers, or numbers of their favourite goalies. Notable examples include Corey Crawford wearing 50 for the Chicago Blackhawks, Braden Holtby wearing 70 for the Washington Capitals, Sergei Bobrovsky wearing 72 for the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Andrei Vasilevskiy wearing 88 for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The NHL no longer permits the use of 0 or 00 as the League’s database cannot list players with such numbers, and in 2000 the League retired the number 99 for all member teams in honor of Wayne Gretzky. The last number to go unused in the NHL was 84, and Canadiens forward Guillaume Latendresse became the first to wear it at the start of the 2006–07 season.