Sharks by Number

We wrap up our Sharks by Number series with the seldom used 50-99 range. There are a few big names mixed in with the short term call-ups who didn't stick around long enough to get a normal number.

#51 - Brian Campbell

The Sharks picked up Campbell as a rental for the playoffs in the spring of 2008. Campbell recorded 1 goal and 6 assists in 13 playoff games that year. It was not enough.

Sharks by Number

Ok, we're now to our second to last edition of Sharks by Number. This time, we take a look at the 40's, which, as you can imagine, are not exactly popular numbers in hockey. Fortunately, they're not all duds. Let's take a look:

#41 - Tom Pederson

The rest: Ryan Kraft, Douglas Murray, Jed Ortmeyer

Easily taking the #41 title is Tom Pederson, a defenseman who played for the Sharks in the early and mid-90's. He only played over 70 games in one season, so I'm going to go ahead and assume he was somewhat of a borderline NHL player

Sharks by Number

Here is the fourth installment of Sharks By Numbers. Now into the 30's, where we finish up with the goaltenders and get a few surprises.

#31 - Antti Niemi

The rest: Wade Flaherty, Steve Shields, Nolan Schaefer

Another all-goalie number, #31 has been taken over by the current Sharks netminder, Antti Niemi. Niemi won the Stanley Cup with Chicago, and was rewarded by Chicago letting him go. The Sharks picked him up, and he has been one of the top goalies in the league over the past couple years.

Sharks by Number

Here is the third segment of Sharks By Number. This time we cover #21-30. For Sharks fans, there are a few stars and a few "remember that guy?"s. For non-Sharks fans, it's going to be a couple people you might have heard of, and a bunch of nobodies. Sorry.

#21 - Tony Granato

The rest: Craig Coxe, Peter Ahola, Dave Brown, Jim Fahey, Alexei Semenov, Scott Nichol, TJ Galiardi

We start with the former Colorado Avalanche head coach, Tony Granato. Granato played for the Sharks during the late '90s. Mostly a third and fourth line guy while on the Sharks, Granato is the only player in San Jose history to win the Bill Masterton trophy.

Sharks By Number

Part 2 of the series. A lot of big names in this one, so let's get going:

#11 - Owen Nolan

The rest: Kelly Kisio, Yvon Corriveau, Gaetan Duchesne, Marcel Goc

No player better embodies the turn of the millennium Sharks teams than their captain, Owen Nolan. Nolan was the face of the franchise, and it was a clear changing of the guard when he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2003. Many Sharks fans consider Nolan the greatest captain in Sharks history. Another notable #11 for the Sharks was the first #11, Kelly Kisio. Kisio played for the Sharks in their first two seasons, was a point-per-game player on an otherwise terrible team, and represented the Sharks in the 1993 All-Star game.

Sharks by Number

Now that baseball season is officially over, my attention can now safely by turned to hockey (until April, when the Sharks disappoint once again in the playoffs. Oh what a cruel cycle being an A's/Sharks fan has been in the last decade-plus!)

In sports, a player often becomes synonymous with their jersey number, so one of the things I like about the beginning of the season is seeing what numbers new players on the team are going to wear. Will any Sharks player dare to wear 11? What about 18? That led me to think: if you had to assign one player in franchise history to each number, who would it be? Some numbers are obvious, but others don't exactly have a rich history. Thanks to the Sharks being a young franchise (younger than me!), it was fairly quick to find out all the players who had worn each number. Over the next few weeks, I'll go through number by number, 1-99. To remove any bias (or thinking) on my part, I'll simply list the player who has played the most games for the Sharks while wearing that number. I'll then point out other notable players to have worn that number in teal.

First up: numbers 1-10.


#1 - Thomas Greiss

The rest: Brian Hayward

Number 1 is the traditional number for goalies to wear, and, indeed, all of the players to wear this number were goalies. What is surprising, however, is the fact that there have only been 2 players (Brian Hayward was the other one) to wear #1 in Sharks history, and Greiss takes the top spot with only 45 games played.  All the other Sharks goalies have preferred numbers in the 30s, which for some reason has become the go-to number range for goalies in the NHL.