Hockey Number 17s

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 17s in NHL/WHL history by looking at the players that wore the number that are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

• Jean Beliveau
• Gordie Howe
• Alex Delvecchio
• Guy Lapointe
• Bobby Bauer
• Jari Kurri
• Rod Langway
• Dick Duff
• Brett Hull

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 17 there is but one:

• Rod Brind'Amour    Carolina Hurricanes    February 18, 2011
• Wendel Clark    Toronto Maple Leafs    October 15, 2016
• Jari Kurri    Edmonton Oilers    October 6, 2001

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 17.

1. Gordie Howe
2. Jari Kurri
3. Brett Hull
4. Jean Beliveau
5. Alex Delvecchio
6. Rod Brind'Amour
7. Guy Lapointe
8. John LeClair
9. Pat Verbeek
10. Mike Foligno
11. Tomas Sandström
12. Rod Langway
13. Brad Richards
14. Walt Tkaczuk
15. Bob Nevin

Here is a look at our stats, years played with the uniform number and calculations on the top 25 number 17 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  a cropped section of Glebe Hockey circa 1940s?.

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