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  

20   21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31    32    33    34    35    36    

37    38    39    40    41    42    43    44    45    46    47    48    49    50    51    52    53   

54    55    57   58    59    60    62    63    71    77    87    88    90    92    94    97