Best Bruin to wear ##?

[The Napkin]

number list for reference (only goes back to 1951. Let me know if you have a better one)
 
Let's do a Bruin one based on the NHL one...
When we start to get a consensus I'll fill it in. Some will be easy some will be hard. But what the heck. It's something to fill the void until camp opens...
 

Spoiler

00 --
0 --
1 -- Pete Peters or Frank Brimsek
2 -- Eddie Shore
3 -- Lionel Hitchman
4 -- Bobby Orr
5 -- Dit Clapper
6 -- Gord Kluzak or Ted Green
7 -- Phil Esposito
8 -- Cam Neely
9 -- John Bucyk
10 -- Jean Ratelle
11 -- P.J. Axelsson or Greg Campbell
12 -- Adam Oates or Brian Rolston or Wayne Cashman
13 -- Ken Linseman
14 -- Woody Dumart or Sergei Samsonov
15 -- Milt Schmidt
16 -- Derek Sanderson or Rick Middleton
17 -- Ed Westfall or Fred Stanfield or Bob Bauer or Lucic
18 -- Nathan Horton
19 -- Joe Thornton
20 -- Dan Paille or Dallas Smith
21 -- Don Marcotte
22 -- Brad Park
23 -- Craig Janney
24 -- Terry O'Reilly
25 --
26 -- Glen Wesley
27 -- Dave Christian or Glen Murray
28 -- Mark Recchi
29 --
30 -- Tim Thomas or Gerry Cheevers
31 -- could cheat and put Cheevers here
32 -- Donny Sweetheart
33 -- Captain Zee-DAY-no
34 --
35 -- Andy God Damn Moog
36 --
37 -- Patrice Bergeron
38 -- Vladimir Ruzicka
39 --
40 -- Tuukka Rask
41 -- Jason Allison or Al Pederson
42 -- Blake Wheeler or PJ Stock
43 -- Al Iafrate
44 -- Seidenberg or Ward or Boynton or Murray (27?)
45 -- Steve Heinze
46 -- David Krejci
47 -- Torey Krug
48 --
49 -- Joe Juneau
50 -- Clark Donatelli
51 --
52 --
53 --
54 --
55 -- Johnny Boychuk
56 --
57 --
58 --
59 --
60 --
61 --
62 -- Milan Lucic
63 -- Brad Marchand
64 --
65 --
66 --
67 -- Benoit Pouliot
68 -- Jaromir Jagr
69 --
70 --
71 -- Marc Savard
72 --
73 -- Michael Ryder
74 --
75 -- Hal Gill
76 --
77 -- Ray Bourque
78 --
79 --
80 --
81 -- Phil Kessel
82 --
83 --
84 --
85 --
86 --
87 --
88 -- David Pastrnak
89 --
90 --
91 -- Marc Savard
92 --
93 --
94 --
95 --
96 --
97 --
98 --
99 --
 

 

[Leather]

Marchand - 63
 
Reggie Lemelin Pete Peters - #1.
 
Adam Oates - #12

 

[PedroSpecialK]

33 - Zdeno Chara but Anson Carter's close
37 - Patrice Bergeron
41 - Jason Allison
73 - Michael Ryder
88 - David Pastrnak
91 - Marc Savard

 

[mauidano]

16 - Derek Sanderson

 

[TSC]

49 - Joe Juneau

32 - Donny Sweetheart

30 - Timmy T

38 - Vladimir Ruzicka

 

[mwonow]

Showing my age here, but
 
Jean Ratelle, 10
Ed Westfall. 18
Don Marcotte, 21
Brad Park, 22
 
I think 30 is at least subject to debate. Timmy T over Cheesy? Really?
And I wouldn't argue the Turk, but Rick Middleton earned the "Nifty" nickname

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Bleacher Report did this a few years back:
 
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1311593-boston-bruins-best-players-in-team-history-to-wear-each-unretired-number

 

[Rudi Fingers]

16 - Derek Sanderson

 
Personally I'm on Nifty's side - I would take Rick Middleton for #16.  I'm too young to have seen Derek Sanderson play in person, though.

 

[Dropkick Izzy]

1 - Pete Peters "Mr. Zero" Frank Brimsek

 

[E5 Yaz]

Adam Oates - #12

 
You can make a case for Oates. You can make a case for Rolston.
 
The answer Is Wayne Cashman.

 

[CoolPapaBellhorn]

19 - Joe Thornton
81 - Phil Kessel

 

[Moosey]

35 - Andy Moog

 

[snowmanny]

 
Personally I'm on Nifty's side - I would take Rick Middleton for #16.  I'm too young to have seen Derek Sanderson play in person, though.

I don't know a lot about hockey but I saw them both and I know enough to know it's Middleton.

 

[BoSoxFink]

46 - Krejci

 

[cshea]

62- Lucic
71- Savard
42- Wheeler

Some old ones. Can double up Looch and Savvy.

 

[TSC]

23 - Craig Janney?

47 - Krug

42 - PJ Stock?

 

[mwonow]

 
You can make a case for Oates. You can make a case for Rolston.
 
The answer Is Wayne Cashman.

Yes, yes it is.

 

[Dummy Hoy]

33 - Zdeno Chara but Anson Carter's close
 

 
Don't be silly.

 

[TFP]

26 - Glen Wesley

 

[TFP]

20 is a fascinating one. There's a case to be made that it's Dan Paille, shockingly enough unless I'm missing someone. Swoop Sweeney and Brian Smolinksi have a case as well.
 
Paul Ronty (1951)
Jim Morrison (1952)
Fleming MacKell (1952)
Ray Barry (1952)
Jerry Toppazzini (1953-1954)
Guyle Fielder (1954)
Leo Boivin (1955-1966)
Dallas Smith (1966-1977)
Al Sims (1977-1978)
Al Secord (1979-1981)
Mike O'Connell (1981-1986)
Dwight Foster (1986-1987)
Tommy Lehman (1988-1989)
Bob Sweeney (1990-1992)
Bryan Smolinski (1993-1995)
Todd Elik (1996-1997)
Darren Van Impe (1998-2001)
Martin Lapointe (2002-2004)
Wayne Primeau (2006-2007)
Daniel Paille (2010-2015)

 

[TFP]

67 is easy....BALLS!!

 

[PedroSpecialK]

 
Don't be silly.

Sorry gonna be silly

 

[TeddyBallgame'sDirtbagSon]

Pj stock > Bob Sweeney who later changed to 20

The high numbers are easy due to lack of competition

Hal Gill 75
Al Pedersen 41
Johnny Boychuk 55
Jagorim Jarg 68
Clark Donatelli 50 played like 5 games
Al Iafrate 43

 

[Leather]

Martin LaPointe. Christ.

 

[Marbleheader]

Surprised there are no votes for #7 yet.

 

[TSC]

Pj stock > Bob Sweeney who later changed to 20

The high numbers are easy due to lack of competition

Hal Gill 75
Al Pedersen 41
Johnny Boychuk 55
Jagorim Jarg 68
Clark Donatelli 50 played like 5 games
Al Iafrate 43

Is Jagorim Jarg Jaromir Jagr's elf cousin?

 

[TSC]

62- Lucic
71- Savard
42- Wheeler

Some old ones. Can double up Looch and Savvy.

Blake Wheeler was 26

/proud owner of a Blake Wheeler authentic jersey and player T.

 

[cshea]

Wheeler wore 42 for like 10 games his rookie year before switching to 26.

44 is a good one. Seidenberg, Ward, Boynton and Muzz before he was a corpse.

 

[Granite Sox]

6 Gord Kluzak

13 The Rat (Ken Linseman)

27 Dave Christian

45 Steve Heinze

 

[TFP]

For 27 I'd say the corpse of Glen Murray over Dave Christian.

We could have had an all timer at 27, but alas....

 

[ifmanis5]

I forgot that Byers was 33 before he was 34 and Courtnall was 34 before he was 32. So many BC washouts on that list.

 

[rlsb]

17-Fred Stanfield (not Lucic) and Bob Bauer

 

[Dropkick Izzy]

Martin LaPointe. Christ.

Didn't Bergy live with him/his fam when he was a rookie? Not all bad IMO.

 

[Dummy Hoy]

Jason Allison was a better 41 than Al Pederson.
 
The Stanfield over Looch argument has some serious merit, although Stanfield's #'s were probably inflated playing on those Bruins teams instead of Claude's. I'd say it comes down to whether you want Lady Byng or Erik the Red, and I know which way I lean.

 

[Leather]

Didn't Bergy live with him/his fam when he was a rookie? Not all bad IMO.

 
Maybe. I just remember the Bruins making waves about signing him to a huge contract and thinking "Wait, did I miss something?" and looking over his stats and age at the time and thinking "Nope; I didn't miss anything." 
 
It was like they paid a complementary guy premier bucks because they had a lot of young guys locked up and thought "Eh, whatever, I need to prove I'll spend money!"

 

[cshea]

The LaPointe signing was out of spite. The rumor is at a BoG meeting, Ilitch essentially called Jacobs cheap. A furious Jacobs responded by overpaying for LaPointe to steal him from Ilitch.

Marty was a huge influence on Bergy. Bergy lived with Marty his rookie season and Marty mentored him. That alone was worth every penny of the $20 million paid to LaPointe.

 

[The Napkin]

added all the ones so far with multiples in bold. maybe I'll do a poll or something at some point
 
also added:
28 - Recchi
11 - Axe (could put him at 57?) or soup
18 - you did it again
40 - Rask
 
we could do Thomas for 30 and Cheevers for 31 if that's not being too cheeky
 
Then we need to decide:
do we want to fill things out or want to have standards (Miller at 86, Warsofsky at 79, etc)
do we want to include short termers like Coffey at 74

 

[MICHAELG63]

#24 has to be Terry O'reilly

 

[Bierman9]

Showing my age....   but I like Cheevers over Thomas (30). He was my man, down to my own stitch-marked street-hockey mask....  Originally thought of Turk at 16, but I think Middleton takes it there. Also first thought of Cashman, but Oates gets the nod by a whisker at 12. You have Westfall at 17 in the spoiler....  he was 18....  my choice. No love for Gregg Sheppard at 19?  Why the hell did they give Lapointe the retired #5? And call me nuts, but I give 6 to Terrible Ted Green. He was all-star caliber before Wayne Maki, and I give him props for all the sweat and hard work he went through to get back on the ice, and win a Cup as a player.... 
 
Cheers!

 

[Dummy Hoy]

How is Looch not in the #17 argument?
 
I'll second Ted Green over Kluzak.

 

[The Napkin]

How is Looch not in the #17 argument?

I cheated and dumped him at 62

 

[TFP]

I think a player can be listed twice, and the measurement is accomplishments made while wearing that number for the B's. So theoretically Lucic could be the best player to wear both those numbers, but Bourque doesn't get both 7 and 77 since Espo did more wearing that number than Bourque did (for example). 
 
That makes it clean and easy to take into account, no?

 

[Dick Drago]

#20 I'd say Dallas Smith, excellent stay at home defenseman teamed w Orr most years. Tough as nails in front of the net. O'Connell was pretty good as well.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Gotta fill things out, so you can confuse folks with Orr @ 75

 

[Dropkick Izzy]

14 is probably Woody Dumart, but Sergei Samsonov should certainly get some recognition.

 

[The Napkin]

I think a player can be listed twice, and the measurement is accomplishments made while wearing that number for the B's. So theoretically Lucic could be the best player to wear both those numbers, but Bourque doesn't get both 7 and 77 since Espo did more wearing that number than Bourque did (for example). 
 
That makes it clean and easy to take into account, no?

works for me. added an OR for 17 that we can fight out later

 

[TFP]

14 is probably Woody Dumart, but Sergei Samsonov should certainly get some recognition.

Jeff Lazaro baby!

 

[kenneycb]

I assume TFP did this all in his head given his Rainmen-esque knowledge of ex-Bruins and their numbers.
 
I was filling it out line for line until I had to shut my computer down but I had Lucic at 17 and Dallas Smith as well.  Pie McKenzie at 17 is another possibility, though I'd probably give it to Looch.  And my god, 30 was basically where goalies went to die between Cheevers and Thomas.
 
The most interesting part is going through some of the numbers and having no idea who the recent guys that wore them are.  Nick Johnson, I have no idea who you are/were and I will never remember you wearing 32 for those 9 games.

 

[Granite Sox]

20 is a fascinating one. There's a case to be made that it's Dan Paille, shockingly enough unless I'm missing someone. Swoop Sweeney and Brian Smolinksi have a case as well.

 

#20 I'd say Dallas Smith, excellent stay at home defenseman teamed w Orr most years. Tough as nails in front of the net. O'Connell was pretty good as well.

  
I say Dallas Smith as well. Pretty underrated. And bald.

14 is probably Woody Dumart, but Sergei Samsonov should certainly get some recognition.

Gotta be Dumart, for my money.

And WTF, Schmautzie?! 11, 16, and 17 over a 3-4 year period? People are still cringing at the thought of one of his eye-high slap shots that would sail 2 feet over the net...

 

[lexrageorge]

It would be interesting to see the best players not named on the list, for the very simple reason another player wore that same number.  Peter McNab comes to mind.  Or my favorite trivia answer, Bob Armstrong. 
 
Not sure why Rolston is in the same conversation as either Oates or Cashman.