Hockey Number 20s

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 20s in NHL/WHL history by looking at the players that wore the number that are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

• Sid Abel
• Bryan Hextall
• Red Kelly
• Jean Beliveau
• George Armstrong
• John Bucyk
• Leo Boivin
• Bob Pulford
• Frank Mathers
• Murray Costello
• Dick Duff
• Luc Robitaille
• Dino Ciccarelli
• Ed Belfour
• Bill McCreary
• Chris Pronger
• Guy Carbonneau
• Vaclav Nedomansky
• Vladislav Tretiak

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 20 there is but one:

• Luc Robitaille    Los Angeles Kings    January 20, 2007.

Johnny Bucyk

Born May 12, 1935, in Edmonton, Alberta, was Hockey Hall of Fame Left Wing Johnny Bucyk. This legend played in the NHL for 23 seasons with both the Detroit Red Wings for a couple of seasons and the majority of his pro hockey tenure as a Boston Bruin. Bucyk was a two-time Lady Byng Award winner, was on two Bruins Stanley Cup Champion teams, was a two-time NHL All-Star, and was one of the top 100 players in the NHL 100 celebration.

More Information

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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 20.

1. Luc Robitaille
2. John Bucyk
3. Jean Beliveau
4. Dino Ciccarelli
5. Chris Pronger
6. Red Kelly
7. Guy Carbonneau
8. George Armstrong
9. Pete Mahovlich
10. Gary Suter
11. Bob Pulford
12. Ryan Suter
13. Ray Ferraro
14. Dean Prentice
15. Thomas Vanek

Here is a look at our stats, years played with the uniform number and calculations on the top 25 number 20 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 Photograph attributed to James Ballantyne/Library and Archives Canada circa 1902.

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