NHL Skaters Who Wore #1

Has a NHL skater ever worn jersey #1? The answer is yes - five NHL skaters - non goaltenders - have worn the number seemingly reserved for puck stoppers.

There is no actual rule that states the #1 is strictly reserved for goaltenders. It's just very historically synonymous with the position.

The NHA - forerunner to the NHL - introduced identifying sweater numbers in 1911. They pretty simply assigned each number to the corresponding player position. The goalie wore 1 (there were no back up goalies back then, of course). The point and coverpoint, essentially the same as defensemen in the modern game, wore 2 and 3. The rover wore 4. And the forwards wore 5, 6 and 7. (Yes, there were 6 skaters and a goaltender on the ice for each team back in the early days.)

Alright, so what about the 5 skaters? Who were they and why did they wear #1?

Two skater played the 1926-27 season wearing #1. One was Sprague Cleghorn - a wily Hall of Fame defenseman best known for playing with the Montreal Canadiens, but he had joined Boston late in his career. Perhaps he switched to #1 because he was the captain of the team - the very first captain of the Boston Bruins?

Meanwhile back in Montreal another defenseman Herb Gardiner also wore #1. I know - you are thinking you have never heard of him, and that's okay. He wore #1 from 1926 to 1928, following death of the Canadiens legendary goaltender Georges Vezina. New goaltender George Hainsworth wore 12, perhaps out of respect for Vezina. Gardiner, who wore #2 most commonly in his Hockey Hall of Fame career, proved to be #1. In his very first year in the NHL he won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player. Wayne Gretzky is the only other first year player to do that in hockey history.

Gardiner left for Chicago in 1928-29, so in came ambidextrous defenseman Marty Burke to take not only his spot in the back end, but his sweater #1.  Burke would switch to sweater number 2 the following season. 

Goaltenders reclaimed #1 in Montreal in the first half of the 1930s - first Hainsworth, then Lorne Chabot and Wilf Cude. But Hall of Fame defenseman took a liking to #1 when he joined the Canadiens late in his career. He died tragically in a drowning accident in 1939, and no Montreal skater has ever returned to #1.

In fact, only one other skater in NHL history has ever worn #1 since. Little known Glen Smith got a two game audition - the only two games of his NHL career - with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1950-51. The right winger from Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan is the last NHL skater two wear #1.

I do not know why we have not seen another skater wear #1 in the last 75 years. Goaltenders wear all sorts of numbers nowadays, freeing up #1 for another player potentially. Maybe we will see it soon.