A Series: Looking into Avalanche and Nordiques Player Numbers: Number 51

This number is not a popular one. In fact, it's a rather lonely number. Andrei Kovalenko started wearing the number for the Quebec Nordiques during the 1993 season and wore it until he was traded in 1996. Our hero of this article was drafted in the 8th round of the 1990 Draft by the Quebec Nordiques.

In his time with the Quebec Nordiques and Colorado Avalanche he played a total 210 regular season games. He had 68 goals and 79 assists in this time. This averaged to 0.7 points per game. He had 150 penalty minutes. He played 10 playoff games, had 1 goal and 1 assist and a whole 4 penalty minutes!

He left the team in 1996 as part of the trade that brought Patrick Roy and Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche. Once in Montreal he made his mark on history. He is the last man to score a goal at the Montreal Forum. He then went on to score the first goal in the history of the RBC Center as a player for the Carolina Hurricanes. His last NHL season was the 2001, but he went back to Russia and continued playing hockey there, only retiring after the 2008 season.