Hockey's best players by the numbers they wore

49 -- Brian Savage




An eighth-round pick by the Canadiens in the 1991 Entry Draft, Savage became a solid NHL regular, scoring 192 goals and reaching the 20-goal mark four times during a 12-year career. He also won a silver medal with Canada in the 1994 Olympics.

Runner-up: Michael Leighton

50 -- Chris Mason





Mason switched to No. 50 when he signed with St. Louis as a free agent in 2008. Don't be surprised if he keeps it with his new team, the Atlanta Thrashers. Mason is coming off the two best seasons of his career -- he rallied the Blues to a playoff berth in 2008-09 and nearly did it again last season while reaching the 30-win mark for the first time.

Runner-up: Antoine Vermette

51 -- Brian Campbell



Buffalo took Campbell almost as an afterthought -- he was a sixth-round pick in the 1997 Entry Draft -- but he's blossomed into one of the NHL's best defensemen. Campbell was a Second-Team All-Star in 2007-08 and played a vital role in Chicago's Stanley Cup victory this past spring.

Runner-up: Francis Bouillon
Also in the mix: Fedor Tyutin

52 -- Adam Foote




Few players have worn any number as long as Foote has carried No. 52 on his back -- he's done it for 18 seasons and 1,107 games, most of them with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise, for which he now wears the "C." Foote doesn't score much (66 goals), but he's always been a solid defender and was a contributor on the Avs' Stanley Cup-winning teams.

Runner-up: Mike Green
Also in the mix: Craig Rivet

53 -- Derek Morris




Morris, now 32, has worn No. 53 more than anyone else -- for all but 14 of the 869 games he's played in the NHL. The veteran defenseman, who re-signed with Phoenix this summer, has 80 goals and 369 points in his 12 NHL seasons; the 29 points he put up last season were the most he's had since 2003-04.

Runner-up: Brett MacLean

54 -- Paul Ranger



The 2002 sixth-round pick by Tampa Bay had three solid seasons for the Lightning, including a 10-goal, 31-point performance in 2007-08. He missed much of last season with personal issues and hasn't said whether he'll be back for the 2010-11 season.

Runner-up: David Jones

55 -- Larry Murphy



The Hall of Fame defenseman had the most successful seasons of his career wearing No. 55, first for the Pittsburgh Penguins and later for the Detroit Red Wings. Murphy's 1,615 games played are third among NHL defensemen, and his 1,216 points are fifth. He was a key to Pittsburgh's back-to-back Cups in 1991 and '92, as well as Detroit's consecutive championships in 1997 and '98.

Runner-up: Sergei Gonchar
Also in the mix: Ed Jovanovski, Keith Primeau, Jason Blake

56 -- Sergei Zubov



Zubov started his career with a bang, leading the 1993-94 New York Rangers in scoring and helping the Blueshirts end their 54-year Cup drought. But he's best known for his time in Dallas, where he was one of the NHL's best puck-moving defensemen for 12 seasons, helped the Stars win the only Stanley Cup in franchise history in 1999 and holds most of the club's scoring marks for defensemen.

57 -- David Perron




Perron, a first-round pick by St. Louis in the 2007 Entry Draft, is off to a solid start. He made it as an NHL regular before his 20th birthday and has 48 goals and 124 points in 225 games entering his age-22 season. He's coming off the first 20-goal season of his career.

Runner-up: Blake Comeau

58 -- Kris Letang



Sidney Crosby wasn't all the Pittsburgh Penguins got from the 2005 Entry Draft. Two rounds after taking Crosby, the Penguins nabbed Letang, a Montreal native who's on his way to a solid NHL career. He had a career-high 24 assists last season and added 5 playoff goals. At 23, he's already got a Stanley Cup ring after helping the Penguins win in 2009.

Runner-up: Robert Kron

59 -- Chad LaRose




Carolina signed LaRose as a free agent in 2003 after he scored 61 goals for Plymouth in his final junior season. Three years later, LaRose was a member of the franchise's first Stanley Cup-winning team. He's never been a big scorer, but LaRose has become a useful third-line forward who can contribute offensively.

Runner-up: David Karpa

60 -- Jose Theodore



Theodore never has matched the career season he had in 2001-02, when he won the Vezina and Hart trophies by going 30-24-10 with a 2.11 goals-against average and .931 save percentage for Montreal. He turns 34 this month and has 245 career wins, but is looking for a job despite going 30-7-7 for Washington last season.

Runner-up: Vladimir Sobotka

61 -- Rick Nash



The Columbus Blue Jackets made Nash the first pick in the 2002 Entry Draft, and he's by far the greatest player in the franchise's short history. By age 25, he already had scored 227 goals and 422 points, had a pair of 40-goal seasons and owned virtually every Jackets offensive record. He also owns a gold medal after playing for Canada at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February.

Runner-up: Cory Stillman
Also in the mix: Maxim Afinogenov

62 -- Paul Stastny




The son of Hall of Famer Peter Stastny wore his dad's number reversed as a rookie in 2006-07 -- and made his father proud with 28 goals and 78 points in 82 games for Colorado, which had retired Peter's number in honor of his days when the franchise was based in Quebec. He switched to No. 26 in his second season and has worn it ever since.

Runner-up: Olli Jokinen
In the mix: Andrei Nazarov

63 -- Mike Ribeiro




Ribeiro blossomed when he was sent to Dallas by Montreal in 2006 and switched from No. 71 to No. 63. He's averaged more than 21 goals and 68 points in his four seasons with the Stars, and had 17 points in 18 playoff games in 2008.

Runner-up: Josef Vasicek

64 -- Jamie McGinn



This number hasn't gotten a lot of use in NHL history. McGinn, who's played for San Jose in each of the last two seasons, has 14 goals -- the most by any player who's ever worn No. 64.

65 -- Mark Napier



Napier, a two-time 40-goal scorer while wearing No. 31 with Montreal, took No. 65 in Edmonton in 1987 and kept it when he was sent to Buffalo, his fourth NHL stop. He finished his career with 235 goals in 767 NHL games.

Runner-up: Erik Karlsson

66 -- Mario Lemieux



Four players have worn No. 66, but the number is identified solely with Lemieux, perhaps the most physically talented player ever to take the ice in the NHL. He scored on his first shot as a rookie in 1984, went on to win six scoring titles and three MVP awards, led Pittsburgh to the first two Stanley Cups in franchise history despite numerous injuries, survived a bout with Hodgkin's disease -- then came back to become the third player ever to skate in an NHL game after being named to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He's now an owner of Penguins and watched the team he's spent his entire career with win a third Cup in 2009.

67 -- Michael Frolik



Of the 11 players who have worn No. 67, the best has been Frolik, Florida's first-round pick (No. 10) in the 2006 Entry Draft. The Czech native made the Panthers as a 20-year-old and has put up back-to-back 21-goal seasons despite averaging just 16:10 in ice time in 161 games.

Runner-up: Gilbert Brule

68 -- Jaromir Jagr



The Penguins' consolation prize for missing the 1990 Stanley Cup Playoffs on the final day of the season turned out to be Jagr, who stepped right in that fall and played a key supporting role on the Penguins' first Stanley Cup team. He went on to win five scoring titles, the Hart Trophy as MVP in 1998-99, make the First All-Star Team seven times and leave the NHL with 646 goals and 1,599 points in 1,273 games. He's the highest-scoring European-born player in League history.

Runner-up: Zigmund Palffy

69 -- Melvin Angelstad



Angelstad, a career minor-leaguer, was 32 when the Washington Capitals called him up for two games in 2003-04. He's the only NHL player to wear this number.

70 -- Oleg Tverdovsky



Tverdovsky wore No. 70 for only one season, with Carolina in 2005-06. But it turned out to be a lucky number -- in that one season, the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. Tverdovsky also earned a ring as No. 10 on the 2003 New Jersey Devils.

71 -- Evgeni Malkin



He's the second-best player on his own team and (arguably) the second-best Russian player in the NHL. Malkin, who turned 24 this summer, already owns a scoring title, a Stanley Cup ring and a Conn Smythe Trophy, as well as 381 points in 309 NHL games -- and he's still just scratching the surface of what he can do.

Runner-up: J.P. Dumont
Also in the mix: Nick Foligno, Jiri Slegr

72 -- Mathieu Schneider




A productive offensive defenseman for a very long time, Schneider wore No. 72 in the 1990s for Montreal, the Islanders and Toronto -- one of 11 different uniform numbers he's worn during a career that's lasted 21 seasons.

73 -- Michael Ryder




Of the seven players who have worn No. 73, Ryder is by far the most accomplished. He was a two-time 30-goal scorer with Montreal and has had 27 and 18 goals in two seasons with Boston, giving him 144 in 470 NHL games during his six-year career.

Runner-up: Pavel Kubina