A Numbers Game: #12

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

We were shocked when we thought about it and realized how many players have worn #12 for the Avalanche. But it follows the trend with these lower numbers in a sense that no one really wears them for more than 2 seasons. 12 is also the number of seasons it’s going to take the Canucks to rebuild and still not win a Cup. Come on, we all know it’s true.

The Best: Brad Richardson. Richardson was an anchor on the 4^th line, and a great penalty killer. He wasn’t the most memorable Av in the few years he played, but compared to the other #12’s he tops the list. Richardson was one of those guys that would come to the rink, play a hard, solid game, go relatively unnoticed, but still be vital to the team. You know guys like Richardson are playing good when you never hear their names. The Avs traded him at the 2009 draft in order to move up and select goaltending prospect Peter Delmas. Yea, that really worked out guys. It’s not like there hasn’t been instability at the 4^th line center position these past few years before Mitchell. Oh well, Richardson has a Stanley Cup, and he deserves it!

The Worst: Ok, time to stop being so nice. Kevin Porter, you were horrible. Slow, bad with the puck, a waste of a roster spot, a bad penalty killer, no hands, and hey, whoever told you that you have to be at 30 feet away from a goalie before you shoot on him LIED. How many failed Hobey Baker winners is it going to take for them to realize that being good in College doesn’t mean you don’t need to step up your level of play, hockey sense, and work ethic when you make it to the show? Hey  Junior Lessard, Marty Sertich, Peter Sejna, Ryan Duncan, Matt Gilroy, Andy Miele, and yes Kevin Porter, we can smell you from here. There is a reason you never made it in the big leagues. Porter was one of those guys that, when Sacco dressed him in favour of a half-eaten bag of Cheetos and Pierre Lacroix’s unborn great great granddaughter, you just shook your head and thought “What were you thinking?” and cried after another inevitable Avs loss. Good riddance.

Mr. Irrelevant: Darren Haydar. He once played for the Thrashers before coming to the Avs for a game. Yea.

Other #12’s

Chris Simon – winner of the “Stop getting suspended, oh nevermind enjoy the KHL” award

Shean Donovan – winner of the “The doctor misheard his parents when they tried to spell out his first name for the 1^st time” award.

Radim Vrbata – Only wore 12 for a few games, but we wish he was still here.

Mike Keane – came over the 1^st time in the Roy trade. 2^nd time: no one really cares.

Chuck Kobasew – winner of the “millionth bad player decision by Greg Sherman” award. The trophy for that one is rated R.

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #11

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

How does an NHL player become number 1 not once, but twice? They work hard, play harder, and develop a superstardom status among their peers and NHL fans. But in the case of the following Avs players, they just wore #11. Many players have worn number 11 with this team, and many of them aren’t notable in Avs lore whatsoever. So let’s take a look shall we? Oh, and 11 is the number of goals Tyler Seguin will score this season while still being compared to as better than Phil Kessel. He isn’t by the way.

The Best: New comer Jamie McGinn gets the honour of being touted as the best number 11, but it wasn’t a walk off. We were very tempted to put tough guy Chris Dingman in this slot. Dingman, believe it or not, was a pretty important piece in the 2001 championship puzzle. Sure he wasn’t any Sakic or Tanguay, Blake or Bourque, but on a solid Stanley Cup roster are guys like Dingman who make the superstars jobs a little easier night in and night out. So, having said that, we are going to call it a tie. Maybe McGinn wouldn’t have to share this honour if he didn’t hit the post as much. This video features a Dingman fight: 

The Worst: Jeff Shantz. 74 games in the Mile High City and only 9 points to show for it. He was the 4^th line center but he wasn’t very good defensively, and oh yea, he was part of the Drury Yelle trade. Good god what was Lacroix thinking? I wonder why Shantz was never given a new contract. Good riddance.

Mr. Irrelevant: Darius Kasparitis. 11 games in Colorado, 0 points, +1. Yea you don’t get much more irrelevant than that.

Other #11’s:

Owen Nolan – Winner of the “Thanks for letting us trade you to become a better team defensively so we could win the Cup without you, oh and good luck in San Jose because they have SUCH a good team that will definitely go places in the playoffs in the next 20 years” award. That one was very expensive to carve on a trophy.

Keith Jones – winner of the “2^nd best Av to become a TV Personality” award

Pascal Trepanier – This was Trepanier’s 3^rd number with the Avs

Andrei Nikolishin – Winner of the “First guy to fall on Steve Moore’s back after Bertuzzi punched him from behind” award.

Cody McCormick – Buffalo should have given him more opportunities.

Phillipe Dupuis – Another pretty good 4^th line center we let go to Toronto

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #10

By: Guest Writer, Adam Stark

@StarkSAdam

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

#10. Not exactly a highlight number for the Avalanche. In the Nordiques days the number had a bit more power to it. Well actually that is not true. Number 10 seems to be the number you give to a guy to use for a year or two. But hey Guy “The Flower” Lafleur wore it for two seasons with Quebec at the end of his career.

The Best would have to be Troy Murray simply because while wearing it he was part of a Stanley Cup winning team in 96. He played 63 games that year with 7 goals and 14 assists for 21 points. That is second most points in a year for anyone wearing big bad number 10. Only Ville Nieminen had more points as 10 with 24. While Nieminen was also part of a cup team he was wearing number 39 while doing it so doesn’t count.

The worst choice is honestly probably everyone else on the list. Well maybe not the worst everyone else is just irrelevant. I will give the worst to Brad May because he caused trouble for the Avs as a Canuck and I am not sure why he was ever brought to the Avs twice!

The irrelevant is seriously everyone else not mentioned. Josef Marha, Warren Rychel, Serge Aubin, Wyatt Smith and Kyle Cumiskey. All these players did close to nothing much in the games they wore good old number 10.

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #9

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

One day, as the official Avaholics Unanimous fortune teller has told us, #9 will be retired by the Colorado Avalanche. And by fortune teller, we mean a magic 8 ball I found in a box of kid stuff stashed in my basement. We asked if Tyler Arnason’s #39 would ever be retired and this is the response we got:

I don’t remember the Magic 8 Ball being that intense.

The Best: M-m-m-m-Matt Duchene! Not only is he the best ever to don #9 for the Avs, and will be the best ever to don #9, he has managed to overpass several other candidates that were in no way deserving of the title. Even if Duchene wasn’t very good, we’d still name him the best because he can score sick goals like this:

The Worst: Paul Kariya. See “The Worst” section on our #8 analysis. You weren’t very good Kariya.

Mr. Irrelivant: Brad Larsen. Larsen wore three numbers for the Avs over 5 seasons. That is a lot of numbers. And when he did play for the Avs as a number 9, he didn’t really do much. Not compared to everyone else. So congratulations Brad Larsen, on earning the prestigious honor of being mentioned by our writing staff.

Other #9’s:

Mike Ricci – If Duchene had worn another number, Ricci would have won. Winner of the “sickest flow” award.

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #8

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

Do you find it strange that more forwards have worn #8 for the Avs then defenseman? We do. Only 5 players have worn this number for the Avalanche, but even if 15 players had worn it, the three impressively well written choices we always present you with would be the exact same. Oh, and 8 is the number of years from now it will take Teemu Selanne to retire and not score 30 goals a year. What a god…for other teams.

The Best: We could’ve two ways here. But that would have been silly so we decided Sandis Ozolinsh (Our spell checker just exploded) is the BEST #8 in Avs history. When the Avs traded away former 1^st overall pick Owen Nolan, who was a rising star and still improving every year, for a Latvian defenseman with inconsistent numbers, they were skeptical. But then that all went away. 19 points and a Stanley Cup in the playoffs to go along with 13 goals in the regular season will do that. Ozo would be an offensive dynamo for the Avs until he was traded in 2000 for Nolan Pratt and a ton of draft picks that never amounted to anything.

The Worst: Teemu Selanne. This is the only well deserved “worst” list you will ever find Selanne on. Selanne managed to save his worst season of his career for when he played for the Avs with a whopping 32 points in 78 games. He should be putting up those numbers now considering he’s 70-something, but no. He had to blow it on one of the best teams on paper in NHL history. Don’t worry Teemu, we didn’t need you against the Wild in the playoffs.

Selanne not scoring for the Avs

Mr. Irrelevant: Kevin Shattenkirk. We’ve beaten the trade to death so we won’t talk about it. But bottom line is this: he didn’t get enough time in Colorado.  Have fun sitting in your empty office twiddling your thumbs all day Sherman. If it was our decision we would have fired you so hard that you wouldn’t get a job managing a 7 year old rec hockey league in Louisiana. We hope you’re warm under that pathetic little blanket that Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic have created for you.

Other #8’s

Wojtek Wolski – runner up for the best. Obviously not taking into account his time spent with Florida and the Rangers.

Jan Hejda – winner of the “Guy who goes unnoticed most games only because every other defenseman on the team is messing up so badly” award. The trophy for that one looks weird.

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #7

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

Lucky number seven. A few players have worn #7 and brought it great honour. Others have worn number 7 and this will be the first time you’ve thought of them since they did. There is a definite winner, loser, and “we hardly knew ye” for this number so let’s get started. Oh, and 7 is the number of teams in the UHL that Tyler Arnason will contact for a tryout before realizing he isn’t the most skilled athlete.

The Best: Greg De Vries. By far. De Vries was one of those guys who didn`t score much, and it seemed he was around much more than 5 seasons. Although in his last three seasons he put up goal totals of 5, 8, and 6, which in the past few years would rival the team lead among defenders on the Avs. Pathetic. De Vries was one of the many low profile guys on a team full of superstars, but he was just as vital in every Avs win as guys like Sakic, Tanguay, Forsberg, and Foote.

The Worst: T.J. Hensick. One of the many players drafted by the Avs from 2003 to 2007 that just never panned out. Hensick reminded us a lot of Tyler Arnason in a sense that he could’ve been better, but lack of motivation and competitive nature made him look lazy and slow. The Avs gave him three years to prove himself and when he couldn’t, he was shipped to the Blues. He even started to look like Arnason during his last season:

                         

                               

Mr. Irrelevant: This guy hurts us. Big time. And there is no better Mr. Irrelevant for #7 than Johnny Boychuk. You may have heard of Boychuk, the big, tough, smart, physical anchor on defense for the Bruins. Veteran of 4 pointless games for the Avs in which two were played on the 4^th line wing, Boychuk was shipped out for Matt Hendricks. If you are a regular reader of ours, you will notice that this is about the 1003^rd time we’ve brought this up. Ouch.

Other #7’s

Curtis Leschyshyn – If we included Nordiques he would’ve been the best

Pascal Trepanier – wore 3 numbers for the Avs during 2 stints. More on him later

Darby Hendrickson – spy for the Wild

David Vander Gulik – Love DVG, needs more opportunities

John Mitchell – give Mitchell a few more years and a few more scars with the Avs and he’ll be the best #7

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #6

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

#6 is an interesting number when it comes to the Avs. It wreaks of instability and features many players that were rentals, short term guys, or call ups. 6 is also the number of times Chris Pronger can blatantly break the rules before getting a little warning from the ref.

The Best: Erik Johnson. And he hasn’t even been that good. Yes he has been good compared to the other defensemen he’s been surrounded by over the past few years but on a league wide scale, step it up buddy. The only reason he is named the best is because of his competition’s inability to last with this team.

The Worst: Wade Belak. Belak was not very effective during his stay in Colorado and many nights he found himself playing forward on the 1^st line. Call it mis-coaching or lack of fit on a skilled hockey team, but either way, he earns this distinction because he was a minus player, and the rest of the 6’s never really played enough to be the worst, or played better. Imagine that. But on the bright side, Belak would blossom into a hard-nosed, rough and tough defenseman. He hardly ever scored, but it was tough to play against him.

Mr. Irrelevant: It could have been a number of guys. But the straight up winner is Derek Peltier who played a total of 3 games while wearing #6 (and 11 games wearing #50 but this isn’t 50’s turn is it?) and was a shadow. But he was mentioned on this website so, you know, I bet his career has been fulfilled. Hockey players dream of 2 things when they’re little. #1: winning the Stanley Cup. #2: being mentioned on Avaholics Unanimous. You’re welcome Peltier.

Other #6’s

Craig Wolanin – Played great in Quebec, won his only cup in ’96 with the Avs and retired.

Chris Dingman – useless at #6, pure dynamite at #11.

Rick Berry – That guy on TV now.

D.J. Smith –Fighter, non-offensive. Unless you make him angry.

Bob Boughner – tough guy, mean, but at the twilight of his career in Colorado.

Jeff Finger – signed that ridiculous deal with Toronto. Would’ve been a great player if he stayed 

here and didn’t get waived to the minors with TO.

Jonas Holos – Winner of the “Sacco misplayed you because he knows nothing about hockey” award.

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #5

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

#5. Also known as the number of cups the Avs should have won between 1996 and 2003. But two? Yea we’ll settle with two. That’s the humble thing to do isn’t it Vancouver? This number was a tough one. Not because everyone who wore this number was a superstar, but because everyone who wore this number wasn’t very good or vital to the success of the Avs. There is only one player that should go down in history as one of the greatest Avs defenders, and he is….

The Best: Alexei Gusarov. Gusarov was Russian. Big shock isn’t it? And he was good. Tough along the boards, kept his feet moving, got pucks to the net, used the body, never gave up, and we have just given you the transcript for every NHL player interview since 1990. But that’s what Gusarov was. Everything you wanted in a stay at home defenseman. I bet if you asked Patrick Roy about Gusarov he would tell you that the Russian was one of his favorite players to play with. Now, let’s get derogatory!

The Worst: This was a tough one. Everyone else who wore #5 wasn’t a bad player. They were more irrelevant than anything else. But we have to go with someone and that someone is Todd Gill. Why? Because out of all the players that played more than 10 games, he was the one who did the least. 36 games, 4 assists, +3. Thanks for coming out Mr. Gill.

Mr. Irrelevant: Shawn Belle. Who? The guy who played 4 games at the very tail end of the 2010-11 season when all hope was lost and when Ryan Wilson was probably injured because he is Ryan Wilson.

Other #5’s:

David Liffiton (Runner up for Mr. Irrelevant but he actually scored and fought)

Brett Clark (Runner Up for the best)

Shane O’Brien (Winner of the “You Don’t Fit On This Team Or This Post” award). Also co-

winner of the “Oh jeez, good luck in Calgary we all really feel sorry for you but make sure to tell everyone how good Ryan O’Reilly is going to be” award. Very prestigious.

Side note: The word “jeez” didn’t get spell-checked. What is this world coming too?

Also in the Series:

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