Red Wings Reveal New Jersey Numbers

I was beginning to wonder if the Red Wings were going to bother formally announcing jersey numbers for their summer free agent signings, as it’s much later into the offseason than when they did that last year, but today they did just that via social media.

New numbers just dropped! ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/fL9xyYKJuz

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 16, 2024

There aren’t really any surprises here, in my opinion, and most of them match my predictions from early July.

The big question seemed to be what number Vladimir Tarasenko would take and he goes with the #11 I predicted.

Erik Gustafsson taking #56, Tyler Motte getting #14, Sheldon Dries going with #15, and Joe Snively picking #21 were all pretty obvious (and among my predictions) as well, as they were numbers the players had usually worn and were all available.  Similarly, Cam Talbot getting #39 was an obvious choice as he probably wasn’t going to get #33 from Sebastian Cossa.

William Lagesson taking #84 seemed likely to me but it’s an “out there” enough number that you never know what direction it’ll go.  That’s why I couldn’t predict Tory Dello taking #87; his usual numbers were out of the mix so I had no way of knowing which way he’d go with it.

I’d expected Jack Campbell to take either #31 or #32 and he took #32.  I’d mentioned in my Development Camp jersey number wrap up that I thought Carter Mazur might be switching from #32 to #43 this season and Campbell taking #32 solidifies that for me.

Speaking of Development Camp, Jakub Rychlovsky already wore #81 there so it’s not a surprise to see him listed with it here.

The biggest surprise, to me, goes back to Mazur.

Last year, when the Wings announced new numbers, they included existing players who switched, even if they weren’t expected to make the roster in Detroit, such as Mazur going from #43 to #32, Jared McIsaac going from #41 to #15 (accommodating Shayne Gostisbehere taking #41), and Jonatan Berggren switching to #48 from #52 (with #48 having become available after the departure of Givani Smith).

This year, Mazur clearly will need a new number (as will Tim Gettinger, with his #39 having gone to Talbot), but no switch was announced.  As I said above (and elsewhere), I expect Mazur to switch back to #43 but that it wasn’t confirmed is interesting to me.  Similarly, I expect Gettinger to take #26, but it looks like we won’t know for certain until training camp.

As far as other knock-on effects go, only prospects are impacted.  Gustafsson taking #56 means that Brennan Ali might need a new number in his next camp.  Kienan Draper will need to move on to his fifth number with the organization with Tarasenko taking #11.  Jack Phelan will have to switch with Dello taking #87.  Finally, Griffins signee Hunter Johannes will need a different number with Snively taking #21.

As an aside, it drives me freaking nuts when the Red Wings use radially-arched lettering (similar to the Detroit Tigers) in their promotional graphics rather than the vertically arched lettering actually used on the Wings’ jerseys. /nitpick