WTF Hockey Card: Alexander Godynyuk (1991-92 Pro-Set #563)

Alexander Godynyuk
(1991-92 Pro-Set #563)

Alexander Godynyuk was a defenceman, which makes it all the more strange that he would be wearing number 93 with Toronto... With this exception, I cannot think of another defenceman who's worn a number higher than 77.

Always thought it was kinda ironic because Doug Gilmour (who wore 39 with Calgary), chose number 93 after being dealt to Toronto. Gilmour would famously wear 93 for the rest of his career.

I figured number 39 simply wasn't available in Toronto at the time, and assumed it was the common act of reversing the digits...

But it seems as if no one else playing for Toronto wore number 39 in this era. (Godynyuk would however wear 39 for a season with the Florida Panthers)

Doug Gilmour
(1991-92 Pro-Set #34)

Gilmour and Godynyuk were among eight other players involved with the infamous ten-man trade, the largest body swap in NHL history.

The more players involved in a deal, the more likely that some will wear each others' numbers...

Yet, only 17 players have ever worn 93.
(This statistic gets skewed by the current "I want to wear my birth year as a jersey number" phenomenon)

Five active players (Bennet, Nugent-Hopkins, Vesalainen, Voracek, and Mika Zibanejad) all wear 93.

Doug Gilmour
(1992-93 Pro-Set #184)

The most famous players to wear 93:
Franzen, Gilmour, Nedved, and goaltender Darren Puppa.

Other players who briefly wore 93 when their usual number wasn't available:
Doug Weight with the New York Islanders (2009-2011)
Nikolai Zherdev with Philadelphia (2011)
Mike Cammalleri with Calgary (2012)
Scott Gomez with St. Louis (2016)