Hockey Number 21s

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 21s in NHL/WHL history by looking at the players that wore the number that are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

• Pierre Pilote
• Andy Bathgate
• Marcel Pronovost
• Stan Mikita
• Glen Sather
• Murray Costello
• Cam Neely
• Ron Francis
• Adam Oates
• Peter Forsberg
• Bill McCreary
• Guy Carbonneau
• Sergei Zubov

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 21 there is but one:

• Michel Briere    Pittsburgh Penguins    January 5, 2001
• Peter Forsberg    Colorado Avalanche    October 8, 2011
• Stan Mikita    Chicago Blackhawks    October 19, 1980
• Borje Salming    Toronto Maple Leafs    October 15, 2016

Cam Neely

Born June 6, 1965, in Comox, British Columbia, was Hockey Hall of Fame Right Wing Cam Neely. Neely played right wing for the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League from 1983 to 1996. Those that knew him called him " Bam-Bam Cam", as he was one of the most dominant power forwards of his generation. Cam reached the fifty goal mark three times, played in five All-Star games, and was named the league's Second Team All-Star at right wing. At the time of this writing Neely is the Boston Bruins' all-time leading playoff goal scorer with 55. He ranks tenth in playoff points for Boston with 87. Neely was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005. Neely moved on to become an executive for the Bruins after playing.

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 21.

1. Stan Mikita
2. Ron Francis
3. Adam Oates
4. Peter Forsberg
5. Vincent Damphousse
6. Sergei Zubov
7. Guy Carbonneau
8. Andy Bathgate
9. John Tonelli
10. Brent Sutter
11. Cam Neely
12. Börje Salming
13. Pete Mahovlich
14. Eric Staal
15. Pierre Pilote

Here is a look at our stats, years played with the uniform number and calculations on the top 25 jersey number 21 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 version of ice hockey equipment from gnokii at openclipart.

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