Hockey's best players by the numbers they wore

74 -- Jay McKee



McKee has worn No. 74 for almost all of his career -- most of which has been spent blocking shots and doing everything else possible to keep the puck out of his own net. He has just 21 goals in 802 NHL games, but usually has been among the NHL's best shot-blockers.

Runner-up: T.J. Oshie

75 -- Walt Poddubny



Poddubny wore No. 75 in his one season with the Quebec Nordiques (1988-89), during which he put up 38 goals and 75 points. That earned him a trade to New Jersey, where he spent his final three NHL seasons as a part-time player.

Runner-up: Hal Gill

76 -- Andrew Peters



Peters is the only player to see any extensive NHL playing time while wearing No. 76, which he did for four seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. Montreal rookie P.K. Subban (14) has more playoff appearances than any other No. 76.

77 -- Ray Bourque




Bourque started his career in Boston wearing No. 7, but changed to No. 77 on one of the most memorable nights in the history of the old Boston Garden -- he peeled off No. 7 and handed it to Phil Esposito, revealing the new jersey underneath. Bourque was a great player from the moment he stepped onto the ice in 1979 to the day he retired as (finally) a Stanley Cup champion in 2001.

Runner-up: Paul Coffey
Also in the mix: Pierre Turgeon, Adam Oates, Chris Gratton

78 -- Marc Pouliot




Pavol Demitra wore No. 78 during his time in Ottawa before blossoming in St. Louis. Pouliot, Edmonton's first-round pick in 2003, has 21 goals in 176 NHL games and is the best of the five players who've worn this number.

80 -- Nik Antropov




Antropov, who has worn No. 80 with Toronto, the Rangers and now with Atlanta, appears to be getting better as he gets older. The 30-year-old is coming off a career-best 67-point season, and has been a 20-goal scorer in each of the last three seasons.

Runner-up: Kevin Weekes
Also in the mix: Geoff Sanderson

81 -- Miroslav Satan




Satan, who showed during last spring's playoffs that he still has some scoring touch, is by far the highest-scoring player ever to wear No. 81. He has 363 goals in 1,050 games, most recently with Boston, and has 10 seasons with 20 or more goals.

Runner-up: Marian Hossa
Also in the mix: Phil Kessel

82 -- Martin Straka





He's the only player ever to wear only No. 82 in a career of any length. Straka had a pair of 30-goal seasons with Pittsburgh and a pair of 70-point seasons playing on Jaromir Jagr's line with the Rangers, leaving the NHL with 257 goals and 717 points in 954 games.

Runner-up: Donald Audette

83 -- Ales Hemsky




Hemsky, Edmonton's first-round pick in 2001, has been solid but never has matched the 77 points he put up in 2005-06. He also had 17 points in 24 games during the 2006 playoffs, when he helped lead the Oilers' stunning run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

84 -- Guillaume Latendresse




When Latendresse was given No. 84 by Montreal in 2007, he became the first player in NHL history to wear the last unused double-digit number in League history. After three seasons of 16, 16 and 14 goals, he was dealt to Minnesota last season, flipped the digits of his uniform to No. 48 -- and scored 25 goals in 55 games.

Runner-up: Mikhail Grabovski

85 -- Petr Klima



The first No. 85 in NHL history remains the best. Klima started his career with three 30-goal seasons for Detroit, scored the triple-overtime winner for Edmonton in Game 1 of the 1990 Stanley Cup Final, reached the 40-goal mark in 1990-91, and finished his career with 313 goals in 786 games.

Runner-up: Rostislav Olesz

86 -- Wojtek Wolski




Wolski became the best No. 86 ever almost by default when he put it on after being dealt to Phoenix at the trade deadline in March: The only previous wearer was Jonathan Ferland, who played seven games for Montreal in 2005-06. Wolski, who wore No. 8 in Colorado, was a point-a-game player in his new number with the Coyotes.

87 -- Sidney Crosby




Perhaps the most amazing thing about Crosby is that he's been as good as, if not better, than he was touted to be. He already has a Stanley Cup ring (as the youngest captain in NHL history), a scoring title, an MVP award -- and he just turned 23. He may or may not break Wayne Gretzky's scoring records, as Gretzky once said he might, but Crosby is everything the Pittsburgh Penguins could have asked for when they won the lottery to draft him No. 1 in 2005.

88 -- Eric Lindros




Controversy and injuries dogged Lindros from the day he was drafted No. 1 in 1991 -- he wouldn't go to Quebec, two teams thought they'd traded for him a year later, and he wound up retiring young because of a series of concussions. But he did put up 372 goals and 865 points in 760 games, won an MVP award and helped the Flyers dig out of their early 1990s malaise to make the 1997 Stanley Cup Final.

Runner-up: Patrick Kane

89 -- Alexander Mogilny




Mogilny's defection from the Soviet Union in 1989 was one of the events that helped pave the way for a deal that allowed Soviet players to play in the NHL. He finished with 473 goals in just 990 games and had some seasons for the ages -- most notably a 76-goal, 127-point performance for Buffalo in 1992-93, 55 goals and 107 points with Vancouver three seasons later and a 43-goal effort with New Jersey in 2000-01 after helping the Devils win the Cup the previous spring.

Runner-up: Mike Comrie
Also in the mix: Sam Gagner

90 -- Joe Juneau




Juneau, a college star at RPI, started his career with a bang -- he had 32 goals and 102 points for Boston in 1992-93, his second NHL season. He never came close to those numbers again, but finished with 156 goals and 572 points in 828 games. Juneau is one of only three players to wear No. 90 (Mike Modano will be the fourth with Detroit this season), and the only one to do so for more than one season.

91 -- Sergei Fedorov



Like Mogilny, his linemate in Russia, he defected to North America and became a star. Fedorov could score (he went 56-64-120 in 1993-94, when he won the Hart Trophy), but he was more than just a one-way player -- he won the Selke Trophy twice, including in his 120-point season. Fedorov was part of three Cup-winners in Detroit and mentored Alex Ovechkin for a couple of seasons in Washington before leaving the NHL with 483 goals and 1,179 points in 1,248 games.

Runner-up: Butch Goring
Also in the mix: Brad Richards, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares

92 -- Michael Nylander



Nylander wore No. 92 for most of an NHL career that saw him total 209 goals and 679 points in 920 games. His best seasons came in his early 30s, when he put up 79 and 83 points with the Rangers while centering a line that included Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka.

Runner-up: Jeff O'Neill

93 -- Doug Gilmour




Gilmour switched from No. 39 to No. 93 when he was dealt to Toronto from Calgary in January 1992 -- and promptly put up back-to-back seasons of 127 and 111 points in his first two full seasons with the Leafs. He never matched those numbers again, but was among the NHL's most intense players for another decade before retiring with 450 goals and 1,414 points in 1,474 games.

Runner-up: Petr Nedved
Also in the mix: Johan Franzen

94 -- Ryan Smyth



Smyth has worn his draft year since breaking into the NHL with Edmonton -- and he's spent 15 seasons making life as miserable as possible for opposing goaltenders. He's never matched the 39 goals he scored in 1996-97, his first full NHL season, but he's connected for 332 goals -- most of them scored from right in front of the net.

Runner-up: Yanic Perreault

95 -- Aleksey Morozov




Pittsburgh took Morozov in the first round of the 1995 Entry Draft and had him in the NHL in 1997 at age 20. His talent was apparent from the start, but despite scoring 20 goals in 2001-02 and 50 points in 2003-04 at age 26, he went back to Russia during the work stoppage and has opted to stay there. Morozov is one of only five players to wear No. 95, and the only one to do so in more than one season.

96 -- Tomas Holmstrom





Two players with far better career numbers than Holmstrom -- Pavel Bure (three seasons) and Phil Housley (one) -- both had encounters with No. 96. But no one who's worn it full-time has ever been better than Holmstrom, who has earned each and every one of the 214 goals he's scored by getting in the face of opposing goaltenders. He's got the bruises to prove it, though his four Stanley Cup rings are plenty of consolation.

Runner-up: Pierre-Marc Bouchard

97 -- Jeremy Roenick




Roenick never was the offensive force wearing No. 97 that he'd been wearing No. 27 -- the number he sported for his first eight NHL seasons with Chicago. He made the switch after being dealt to Phoenix in 1996 and kept it through stints with Philadelphia and Los Angeles before going back to No. 27 in his last two seasons with San Jose. He never was a 50-goal man in his new number, but Roenick did have seven consecutive 20-goal seasons wearing it.

Runner-up: Rostislav Klesla

98 -- Brian Lawton




Lawton, the first U.S. high school player ever taken with the No. 1 pick in the draft, wore No. 98 for his first two seasons with the Minnesota North Stars before downsizing to No. 8. The change helped his game -- he went from 5 goals to scoring 18, 21 and 17 in the next three seasons. But that was as good as it got for Lawton, whose NHL playing career ended at age 27 -- though he's gone on to be an agent and general manager. He's the only player to wear No. 98.

99 -- Wayne Gretzky




There actually have been three other players (Wilf Paiement and Rick Dudley in the early 1980s, and Joe Lamb with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1930s) who also wore No. 99. But Gretzky, who idolized Gordie Howe but couldn't get No. 9 when he started playing junior hockey because a teammate had it, has turned No. 99 into the most recognizable number in hockey. No player in hockey, and maybe in any sport, is as identified with a number as Gretzky is with No. 99 -- and with his number retired throughout the League, The Great One and the NHL's last two-digit number figure to stay that way for a long time.