Every day leading up to training camp Defending Big D will count down the greatest players in franchise history (both Dallas and Minnesota), based on the sweater number they wore. Starting with the highest numbers, where most were only worn by one player, we'll finish up with what should be some great debates. Keep coming back every day for a look at who's the best in Stars history.
I'm not gonna lie to ya, the next few days of this are gonna be kinda lame. I know all of you dear readers would like to speed right through this and get to the good players and numbers further down the list and in a way I'd like to as well, but it's a long summer and trust me, the debates down the road will be worth the wait! But to come up for interesting stuff to say about these guys is tough... It's like asking Chris Chelios to say something nice about Gary Bettman. Sure it could be done, but it's gonna take a lot of effort on my part!
Oh well, only two names to cover as we go into the weekend! Hell, I won't even need a jump for this one!
#49 - Jon Sim
Jon Sim has actually carved himself a nice little 10 year career as an NHLer as a 4th line fringe player and a little over four of those seasons were with the Dallas Stars where he wore the high number of 49 - the only player to do so - before switching to 14 in 2001. It's with that 49 though he won a Stanley Cup with the Stars and has his name on the Cup as he did play in a finals game.
So for those of you scoring at home, Jon Sim has his name on the Stanley Cup. Jeremy Roenick does not.
Sometimes the hockey gods are fair and just!
Sim finished his Stars career with 9 goals, 6 assists in 77 games with the Stars before being traded to Nashville for Bubba Berenzwig.
Yeah, I've never heard of that guy either. Moving on...
#48 - Scott Young
As I mentioned when we talked about Pierre Turgeon, in the summer of 2002 the Stars signed Scott Young as a free agent in the hopes that Scott could reunite with Pierre and help him post the kind of high numbers the Stars expected from Turgeon the season before.
While that didn't happen for Pierre and he got even worse, a funny thing happened to Scott... His numbers got better! Improved his goal total to 23 (up 4 from his last season in St. Louis), improved his plus / minus rating to +24 (and improvment of 13) and increased his game winning goal total to 4 (he only had the one the last year) and was a very solid contributor to the Stars post season run in 2003.
Unfortunately though Scott ended up being another Stars player that father time and the injury bug had caught up with and he only played 53 games managing just 8 goals and 16 points. He finished his career after the lockout signing as a free agent with the Blues and playing one more season there before retiring with 757 points and 2 Stanley Cup rings.
As for the number he wore, Scott started wearing 48 after he was traded by the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Quebec Nordiques in 1992 and the number stayed with him ever since in stints with the Nords/Avalanche franchise, Mighty Ducks, Blues and Stars.