Hockey Number 24s

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 24s in NHL/WHL history by looking at the players that wore the number that are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

• Terry Sawchuk
• Ace Bailey
• Tim Horton
• Leo Boivin
• Serge Savard
• Bernie Federko
• Chris Chelios
• Sergei Makarov
• Jarome Iginla
• Doug Wilson

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 24 there is but one:

• Bernie Federko    St. Louis Blues    March 16, 1991.

Jarome Iginla

Born July 1, 1977, in Edmonton, Alberta, was Hockey Hall of Fame Right Wing Jarome Iginla. This legend was a four-time NHL All-Star, winner of the Messier Award, Ted Lindsay Pearson Award, King Clancy Memorial Trophy, Art Ross, and two-time winner of the Maurice Richard Award. Iginla scored 1300 points during his 22-year career that saw him on the rosters of the Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, and Los Angeles Kings.

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Chris Chelios

Born January 25, 1962, in Chicago, Illinois was Hockey hall of Fame Defenseman, Chris Chelios. This legend was a three-time Stanley Cup winner and a seven-time All-Star. Chelios was awarded the Norris trophy three-times, the Messier in 2006-07 and made the NHL 100th Anniversary team. Chris dished out 763 assists scoring 185 goals during his brilliant 27-year career in the League. He skated on the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and Atlanta Thrashers.

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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 24.

1. Chris Chelios
2. Jarome Iginla
3. Bernie Federko
4. Doug Wilson
5. Patrik Elias
6. Serge Savard
7. Pete Mahovlich
8. Tim Horton
9. Peter McNab
10. Terry O'Reilly
11. Bobby Holík
12. Steve Sullivan
13. Bobby Rousseau
14. Mathieu Schneider
15. Chris Kunitz

Here is a look at our stats, years played with the uniform number and calculations on the top 25 number 24 pro hockey players:

Special thanks to the banner photo above from  the public domain of Wikimedia Commons. The Pic is of Ty Cobb sliding2-edit1.jpg
Ty Cobb safe at third after making a triple, 8/16/[19]24. Detroit Tigers at Washington Senators. The defensive player is likely Ossie Bluege, who was the third baseman for the Senators that day. From the National Photo Company

The original uploader was Resolute at English Wikipedia.

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

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