There Can't Be A More Satisfying Feeling Than When An NHL Prospect Finally Gets To Pick A Number That Doesn't Suck Ass
This is always one of my favorite times of the year. Not just because we still have the entire NHL season ahead of us. But because now is the time that you start to see a lot of guys finally have their dreams become reality. Every year you have a few new faces cracking an opening night roster in the NHL for the first time in their career. It doesn’t matter if they’re 18 or if they’re 28 or whatever. These guys have worked their ass off their entire life to get to this point and now that dream that they’ve had since they were a kid is finally coming true.
Now that’s not to say that this is the first time that all of these guys are playing in an NHL game. For a lot of players out there, they have been back and forth between the NHL and the AHL and junior and what have you. So for guys like Oskar Lindblom, they get the number “54” at training camp and there’s not really much that they can do about it. 54 sucks. It’s an atrocious number and there’s a reason why very few players have ever worn it for longer than one season. I swear to god. Just look at the history of players who have worn the number 54 in the NHL. Almost all of them only wore it for 1 season. But for prospects who don’t get called up for the opening night roster, you’re stuck with that training camp number. A team isn’t going to let you pick your own number if you’re only going to be around for a few games. So you don’t really “make it” in the NHL until you make your own jersey number choice. That time has come for Oskar Lindblom and since Brandon Manning is no longer in Philadelphia, sweater number 23 was his for the taking and now it’s official.
Now there are a few major benefits to being able to pick your own number. For starters, there is the whole “look good, feel good, play good” aspect of the game. Nobody looks good wearing #54 and if you’re stuck wearing that number, you know that nobody is going to be taking you seriously out there. Nobody in the history of hockey has ever been like “hey watch out for that #54 guy, he’s a real stud”. But 23? That’s a swaggy number. You can have a 5-6 point night in that number. And then secondly, it’s all about job security. If the Flyers have enough faith in Oskar Lindblom that they’re letting him switch from 54 to 23, that means that they anticipate him being in the lineup for a while. He doesn’t have to worry about getting sent back down to the A. The number is his and so is the roster spot. So if he doesn’t have to worry about one little mistake having his ass shipped back up to Lehigh Valley, then he can concentrate more on the skill portion of his game and when he’s doing that? Well Oskar Lindblom can be a 20-goal scorer in the National Hockey League.
So shoutout to all the NHL guys who got to switch out of their butt ugly numbers this year and finally got an actual hockey number on the back of their sweater. You beauties have all earned it.