Hockey Number 13s

Our mission to preserve the history of pro hockey through the sweater uniform numbers players wear is to objectively come up with a list of the greatest players at each number based on their career performance. This look is based on facts and statistics gathered as of 1/1/2022.

Let us start our journey on identifying the greatest number 13s in NHL/WHL history by looking at the players that wore the number that are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

• Mats Sundin

Our next bit of recognition is of the players who have had the number retired by clubs that they played for along with the date of the number being officially retired. For the number 13 there is but one player so far:

• Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs who retired his number 13 on October 15, 2016

I am not going to lie, hockey is a tough sport to identify who the top players in history are. The modern statistics using Fenway and Corsi percentages are great but they only apply to players since 2008. The challenge is how do you group players from all positions on the ice throughout NHL and WHL history all together to find the best at a certain number? I am not sure there is any one way to do so correctly but here is our stab at it for this number using stats like; goals, assists, points, plus/minus, saves and bonus points for years wearing the sweater number and Hall of Fame. We also had to give Defensive line players a little boost based on their plus/minus stats. It is not perfect but here is our statistical call on the top 15 greatest NHL/WHL players wearing the number 13.

1. Mats Sundin
2. Teemu Selänne
3. Pavel Datsyuk
4. Ken Linseman
5. Alex Tanguay
6. Vyacheslav Kozlov
7. Ray Whitney
8. Bill Guerin
9. Charlie Simmer
10. Ray Ferraro
11. Robert Lang
12. Alex Zhamnov
13. Dave Christian
14. Vinny Prospal
15. Olli Jokinen

Here is a look at our stats, years played with the uniform number and calculations on the top 25 number 13 pro hockey players:

Special thanks to the banner photo above from an unknown photographer and contributor to the public domain of Wikimedia Commons. The Pic is of a Hockey circa 1911.

Of course we also could not have done the above stat research without the assistance of Hockey-Reference.com and Stathead.com resources.

We would love to get your feedback! Please send what you are thinking to PigskinDispatch@gmail.com