A Numbers Game: #13

By Kevin Goff
@BrgBrigadeKevin

Well, when I first suggested about writing the piece for #13 with the Colorado Avalanche, I was certain I'd find a few more names than there actually are. Going back to when the Colorado Avalanche were the Quebec Nordiques, a grand total of three people have ever donned jersey number 13. Since moving to Colorado, there have only been two, so this makes it a little interesting, especially since you can't really say that either of them were the worst.

The Best:Valeri Kamensky. When the Avalanche first came to Denver, Kamensky might have been one of the most overlooked stars on that heavily loaded team. Everybody knew about Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg. But then the Avalanche added Claude Lemieux and acquired Sandis Ozolinsh early on in the season. Add in the big trade for Patrick Roy and you're barely even thinking about Kamensky. 

Don't forget though, during that 1995 -1996 year, Kamensky had career highs in goals assists and points. He had 38 goals and 47 assists for 85 points. He also had 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points in that year's run to the playoffs where everybody was overshadowed by Joe Sakic's domination. Kamensky had a deceptively huge shot, great hands and immense skill. 

I had the good fortune of being able to interview Kamensky when I was writing with Bleacher Report a few years back where I got the chance to reminisce about winning the Stanley Cup. Truly an awesome experience. 

The Worst: By process of elimination, the only other 13 for the Colorado Avalanche was Dan Hinote. I wouldn't want to refer to him as the worst anything, though, as he was a very useful player on Colorado's 2001 Stanley Cup Championship team. He was a fast, physical, wrecking ball of a player that could show some offensive flash from time to time. A great character guy that knew his role and performed it very well, but didn't have nearly the kind of talent that Valeri Kamensky had. So, rather than call him "The Worst", perhaps he is just "The Second" number 13. 

There really isn't an irrelevant 13, but if you want to go that way, we can call Mats Sundin, who was the only other player in the franchise to wear 13, this one since he wore it while he was a member of the Quebec Nordiques.

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