Anaheim Ducks 25th Anniversary: Best player to wear jersey numbers 35-44
It’s hard to believe that the Anaheim Ducks have been in business for 25 years. Since their inception in 1993, the team had its struggles, but Anaheim has also been to the top of the summit. Pucks of a Feather celebrates the Silver Anniversary along with the team’s fans.
We continue our remembrance of days gone by bringing you the best Anaheim Ducks player to wear each jersey number. Today we cover jersey numbers 35-44. For past jersey numbers clink on their link.
Inconsequential – 43, 41, 38 (Chris Kunitz wore it for 88 games before being waived in December of 2005. He returned to the Ducks successfully wearing number 14.)
44 – Rob Niedermayer (2003-2009)
Rob Niedermayer came to Anaheim in 2003 and was one of the reasons Scott came in. He was more than Scott’s younger brother during his five and a half years with the organization. During the march to the franchise’s first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, Niedermayer was brought in from Calgary in exchange for Mike Commodore. He scored 10 points in 21 playoffs games that year.
Niedermayer was a dual threat with the ability to hurt the opposition with his gloves on or off. He played 382 games in a Mighty Ducks/ Anaheim Ducks uniform. All totaled, his output with Anaheim was 124 points (56g, 68a), and 311 penalty minutes.
Two of my favorite moments of 2007 championship run are due to him. The first moment was in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semi-finals. Anaheim and Vancouver were tied in double overtime when Niedermayer leveled Janik Hansen to cause a turnover that set up the winning goal. The other moment came a month later when team Captain Scott, handed the Stanley Cup to Alternate Captain Rob.
Honorable Mention Nate Thompson. Due to injury Thompson only played 159 games over three seasons for the Ducks. His faceoff prowess and determination on the ice put him in consideration.
42 – Josh Manson (2015-Present)
At first glance, it might be a bit premature to put the 26-year-old son of legendary enforcer Dave Manson on an all-time list. It seems like yesterday he was called up to fill in on the blueline. Josh Manson has been with the team longer than you think. In fact, Mason has played 261 games in an Anaheim Ducks sweater.
Heading into 2017-18, Manson had the reputation of a tough stay-at-home defenseman, that opponents were reluctant to drop gloves with. That changed last season. Opponents still don’t want to fight him, but his offensive game was kicked into a higher gear. He scored 37 points (7g, 30a) while dishing out 182 hits and blocking a career-high 99 shots.
It would surprise almost no Ducks fan if Manson had a letter on the top left of his jersey to go with the 42 on the back.
Honorable Mention: Danny Lambert. In 1995-96 on a team filled with tough guys such as Todd Ewen and Dave Karpa, Lambert began his trek to enforcer with 55 penalty minutes in 33 games. After the Ducks let him go in the summer of 1996, Lambert signed with Ottawa and became a 200+ PIM/per season player for the final six seasons of his career.
40 – Kent Huskins (2007-2009)
Kent Huskins was drafted in the sixth round (156th) overall, out of Clarkson University by Chicago. It took him almost 10 years to finally make his NHL debut with the Anaheim Ducks in 2006. He picked a good time to break in because a few months later, Huskins hoisted the cup.
It’s common that bigger defensemen take longer to develop. At 6’4”, 210 lbs., Huskins was an imposing figure on the ice. He played his first NHL game on December 23, 2006, replacing injured Sean O’Donnell. After his cup of coffee in Anaheim, he went back to the AHL. That stint didn’t last long as he came up for good a month later.
Huskins quickly became a fixture in the Ducks defense playing 33 regular season and 21 playoff games as a member of the 2007 Stanley Cup Champions. He stayed with Anaheim until the 2009 trade deadline when he was dealt, along with Travis Moen, to San Jose for Nick Bonino and a fourth-round draft pick.
Honorable Mention Jared Boll. Without him, there would be no “Rally Boll.”
39 – Petr Sykora (2003-2006)
Petr Sykora was part of the return Anaheim received in the 2002 trade that sent Oleg Tverdovsky to New Jersey. During his two and a half season, 197 game tenure in Anaheim he was a premier sniper recording 131 points (64g, 67a).
The Czech scoring machine was a key member of the 2003 Mighty Ducks team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals. He wreaked havoc on opposing goalies that season, scoring 34 goals, with 15 coming on the power play.
Sykora may be best remembered for scoring the winning goal in the fifth overtime of Game 1 in the 2003 Western Conference semifinals against Dallas. He ended “the game that would not end.”
The Ducks and Sykora never had the same relationship after the 2005 NHL lockout. It cost the team an additional fourth-round draft choice to send him packing to Broadway in exchange for Maxim Kondratiev. The latter played four NHL games in Anaheim before returning to Russia.
Honorable Mention 2, Travis Green. He wore #39 in Anaheim from February 1998 through the end of the 1999 season, a total of 91 games. Green scored 46 points (18g, 28a) in that time. Ironically, his biggest contribution to the organization was as part of the 1999 package, the Mighty Ducks sent to Pheonix for Tverdovsky.
Honorable Mention 1, Matt Beleskey. This one was close to a toss-up for the honor of being the Ducks best #39. Beleskey scored only 112 points with the organization, but scoring wasn’t his forte’. He was a complementary power forward that opened the ice up for his teammates.
37 – Nick Ritchie (2016-Present)
Pucks of a Feather has intensely scrutinized Nick Ritchie for the past several months. You can read about his pros and cons. Like it or not, Ritchie is the best #37 the Ducks have ever had.
The former 10th overall draft pick of 2014, Ritchie is a veteran of 186 NHL games. The 6’2” power forward has scored 59 points in that span (26g, 33a) while being a career +3 player.
36 – John Gibson (20014-Present)
Looking at the autographed John Gibson jersey hanging in my office, it’s no contest that he is the best player to wear #36 in the organization’s history. He is only 24 years old but has played the fourth most games in goal for Anaheim (178). Gibson has the best save percentage (SV%), .923, and goals against average (GAA) 2.29 of any netminder that’s played in more than 55 games for the Mighty Ducks/ Anaheim Ducks.
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Consider this, over the past three seasons Gibson has a 2.26 GAA, and .924 SV%. Those are tops in the NHL among starting goalies (over 35 games/season). His shutout total in that time is14, one behind the co-leaders. Gibson has accomplished so much in his short career despite the fact that on many nights the team in front of him hasn’t been supportive.
I believe that he is the key ingredient in the recipe that brings a championship back to Anaheim. No team wins the Stanley Cup without top-flight goaltending.
His biggest obstacle to elite goalie status is his own body.
35 – John Sebastian Giguere (2001-2010)
As much as I would like to sing the praises of JSG here, nothing I write will top Greg Johnson’s editorial on why #35 should be hung from the rafters at the Honda Center. I’d like to add two things before you run off to read the story.
Next: Counting down the Anaheim Ducks top prospects, 5 through 1
First, in terms of point shares, Giguere is the fourth best Ducks player of all-time. Second, he was straight up money in the postseason, winning 66% of his decisions. That came with a .925 SV% and 2.08 GAA. It’s hard to find many goalies in NHL history as dependable in the playoffs.