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A Series: Looking into Avalanche and Nordiques Player Numbers: Number 42

By David Driscoll-Carignan
Stewie
Stewie
Doug Pensinger / Getty Images

I think some of you may know that my favorite number is 42. Why? Because that was the number worn by Jackie Robinson, one of my personal heroes. While it is a historic number in baseball, it doesn't have the same resonance in the NHL. Although Hall of Famer Bernie Federko wore #42 for one season, it's only because he'd been traded to Detroit and Bob Probert was already wearing Federko's #24. Perhaps the most notable NHL players to wear #42 for any significant length of time would be Richard Smehlik, Robert Esche and Kyle Wellwood. No NHL team has retired #42 (actually, no team has retired a number in the 40s or 50s). The situation is similar for the Avalanche - #42 has been worn in just 79 games for the franchise. In other words, this will be brief.

Bruce Major - Bruce had a minor, 4-game stint with the Nordiques during the 90-91 season. After one more season in the minors, Major retired.

Jon Klemm - According to our scientific poll, Jon Klemm wore #24 the best. When first starting out with the Nordiques, he wore #42, for 11 games. That total is 2nd highest among #42s.

Chris Stewart - Stewie wore #42 for 53 games as a rookie, scoring 19 points. In his second year, he switched to his more familiar #25

Ray Macias - The Long Beach native wore #42 for 2 games with the Avalanche during the 2010-11 season. Two years before, he had worn #47 for 6 games. He's currently playing in Germany.

Brad Malone - Forward Brad Malone had a 9-game callup with the Avalanche last year, scoring 2 assists. As of this writing, he has 10 points for the Monsters this year.

No poll for this one. Chris Stewart wore it for 53 games and Klemm is next on the list with 11. I'll just assume you all wanted to write in Joaqim Lindstrom anyway.

Programming note: Sandie and I will be taking a break from the series next week (and maybe the week after as well). We will be back to conclude this after the first of the year, unless the fuckwads finally get around to having a season or something.