St. Louis Blues Best Player In Each Number: 59-48
The St. Louis Blues have had some great players come through their doors. Now we continue our look at the best to wear each jersey number.
The St. Louis Blues have a proud history. They’ve had some pretty special players suit up wearing the note as well.
To celebrate their 50th anniversary, we’re going to look at the best player to wear each number. We’ll start things off high and work our way down.
We already covered the high really high numbers and are now continuing our downward decent. As we go, there will be more choice and debate, so let’s get a look at the best players to wear 59-48.
59. Jeff Hoggan
We don’t start things off with quite as much of a bang as the previous article. It’s hard to top one of the best ever though.
Jeff Hoggan was far from one of the best ever, but since he was the only one to wear 59 he is the best.
Hoggan featured in 52 games for the St. Louis Blues. He scored eight points in 2005-06. The two goals he scored with the Blues were the only ones of his NHL career.
Interestingly, Hoggan performed better in less time with the Blues than he did later on. He averaged less than eight minutes, while he averaged over 12 minutes in Phoenix and only had one point.
Hoggan was a fine minor league player. He even scored five goals and 12 points in a key playoff run for Grand Rapids. He could never get it to translate enough to stick in the NHL though.
58. Dan Hinote
Dan Hinote was the quintessential third/fourth liner. He spent six years with the Colorado Avalanche before arriving in St. Louis.
Hinote never scored double digit goals. He never had more than 15 points in a season either.
Hinote’s value was in his leadership. He was one of those guys that coaches love. Show up to the rink early, leave late, help the young guys and fill your role to a T.
He kept that going with the Blues. He scored 10 points twice in two seasons and then only managed five in his final year.
Unfortunately for Hinote, his poor season came when the Blues finally made the playoffs in 2009. He only saw action in three games and didn’t score a point.
Even so, he was a valuable player in as much as any role player is. He represented the Blues very well during his time.
57. David Perron
David Perron is quite the enigma. He was quite the popular player during his first stint with the Blues, but he had also worn out his welcome.
The Blues have gone through several stages of needing to blood let their roster and Perron was the first of the major names to go. Now he’s returned and we have yet to see how it will pan out.
The talented forward has shown skill, but hasn’t been able to translate it into consistency. Oddly enough, his highest goal total with St. Louis was scored in only 57 games (21 goals).
He seemed to turn things around in his first season with Edmonton, scoring 28 goals. It was back to the teens and lower after that though.
Perron has been given a second chance with the Blues and fans are hoping he makes the most of it. He will need to if the Blues are to replicate their team success from 2015-16.
56. Lubos Bartecko
It doesn’t take much to bump Magnus Paajarvi off this list. Lubos Bartecko did just enough to do it.
Bartecko was another in a long list of St. Louis Blues that had a brilliant flash and then petered out. He played three seasons in St. Louis and meat of the sandwich was quite succulent. The bread was stale.
His first and third seasons had single digit goals and less than 20 points. The middle season Bartecko scored 16 goals and 39 points.
That was enough to give the Blues and their fans hope he was going to evolve into a solid player. Potentially even become a top six forward.
It never materialized. Bartecko was traded to Atlanta for a draft pick. He still has done more than his counterparts at 56, so he’s worthy of the list.
55. Jochen Hecht
Vladimir Chebaturkin deserves this spot for having an awesome name. Cam Janssen could get it simply because I like him. Christian Backman could get the nod for averaging in the teens every season for points as a defender.
It has to go to Jochen Hecht though. He only saw action in three years for the Blues, but was another flash.
Hecht only saw three games in his first year. Then he played almost a full season and rewarded the Blues for their faith.
34 and 44 point seasons were the Blues reward for giving the young German a crack at the lineup. Sadly for Hecht, those numbers weren’t enough to avoid being dealt.
The Blues were able to package Hecht and Marty Reasoner to the Edmonton Oilers for Doug Weight. It was a fantastic deal for the Blues even if it came at the expense of a player that was very consistent until his mid-30’s.
It would have been interesting to see what Hecht could have accomplished with the Blues. Still, being the player that helped acquire Weight is enough to put him here.
54. Mike Glumac
No offense, but we are reaching into the depths for some of these. Mike Glumac gets the nod for jersey 54 simply because he stuck around longer.
Glumac played in 33 games in 2005-06. He never played double digit games in the NHL again.
Considering how poor the Blues were in those years, it’s a bit surprising Glumac wasn’t afforded more time. He did score seven goals and 12 points in those 33 games.
Glumac just couldn’t get the game to slow down for him in the NHL. He scored 50 points several times in the minors and played well in Europe. It just would not click in the NHL.
53. Colin Hemingway, Jonas Junland
For goodness sake. Was it against the rules for players in the past to wear high numbers?
We’re going to go with Jonas Junland for this number simply because he scored a point. Colin Hemingway played in three career NHL games and Junland played in four.
While those four were spread over two seasons, he did manage two assists in the show. In year two, his ice time rose to 17 minutes, which is pretty respectable for a fill-in player and third-line defenseman.
Like others on this list, Junland had good stats at other levels of the game. He just couldn’t prove enough to stick in the NHL.
Perhaps one day he could return. He is only 28 as of writing this. However, he has spent the last several seasons in Scandinavia and seems likely to stay there.
50. Chris Mason
Chris Mason was up and down in terms of how he was viewed by the public. He rode those waves and did his job admirably.
Like almost every goaltender in Blues history, Mason faced a great deal of scrutiny. For whatever reason, goaltender seems to be the most misunderstood and overly blamed position in sports.
Mason, who had never been a starter in the NHL before, managed to do extremely well for the Blues. Given a young, inexperienced team, Mason was a key reason for the postseason run in 2008-09.
The team went on a huge run at the end of the year just to qualify and Mason was huge in that. His stats didn’t bear out a grand performance as they were somewhat middle of the road.
However, his play was a calming influence for a team scrambling for every point. Originally brought in to share time with Manny Legacy, Mason grabbed the position by the scruff.
He only lasted one more season, despite having 30 wins in 2009-10. Despite his relatively short time with the Blues, he is more than worthy of being included here even if his competition at 50 was not stout.
49. Steve Wagner
Brian Savage was the much better player over the course of his career. This list is the best to play in the Blues’ uniform though.
So, the nod goes to Steve Wagner simply because he did more in the Blues uniform. I’m sure this line of thinking will bite me later, but it’s my list so nyah nyah for now.
Wagner went undrafted coming out of Minnesota State. He got picked up by the Peoria Rivermen out of college and then the Blues gave him a contract.
He would only play in 46 NHL games over a two year career. Wagner managed only 12 points in those 46 games, which wasn’t a bad haul for a defenseman.
Still, it wasn’t enough to secure a spot long term. Wagner was sent to Pittsburgh for another player that would never feature with the team.
He didn’t accomplish nearly as much or have as long a career as Savage. Savage spent so little time with the Blues though, that Wagner gets the decision.
48. Scott Young
Well at least we’ve kept our habit of ending strong in tact. Scott Young, for all his faults, held several Blues records until recently.
Although some fans were disappointed in his first two seasons with the Blues, Young was exactly what he had been. He was a decent scorer who put up decent consistency.
It was not until year three that Young blossomed as a Blue. 40 goals and 73 points were the reward for his efforts in 2000-01.
He was a big reason the Blues made the Western Conference Finals that season. 73 regular season points and 13 points in the playoffs.
Young was one of the last players to score 40 goals in a Blues uniform until Vladimir Tarasenko answered the call. He was also another player that had a brilliant season, only to revert to form.
He went back to averaging 40 or so points per year. Young put up those same numbers with the Dallas Stars and even returned to the Blues for a year before retirement and put up almost 50 points.
Young wasn’t a Hall of Famer or an all-time great. He was a very good player who knew how to score in the big moments though.
He brought honor to a number that few wear across the league and fewer wore with the Blues. He wasn’t the team’s best scorer ever, but he did his job and did it well.
Overview
So there’s the second part in our list. A few more choices and hopefully a bit more debate to be had.
Lots of fun still to come as we head into the lower numbers.
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