Since the Atlanta Thrashers organization joined the NHL in 1999-2000 and then relocated to Winnipeg ahead of the 2011-12 season to become the Jets 2.0, nearly every number from #1 through #99 has been worn by at least one player.
In fact, the only numbers that haven’t been worn in Thrashers/Jets history are #59, #66, #68, #69, #74, #78, #79, #84, #86, #90, #92, #94, #95, #96, #97, #98, and #99. While plenty have worn the same number — with #12 leading the way by being worn by 14 different players — there are 18 numbers that have only been worn by one.
Let’s look at them below.
#43: Mike Weaver (2001-2004)
You have to go all the way to #43 to find a number only one player has worn.
Between two and 14 players have worn numbers #1 through #42, but only Mike Weaver wore #43.
Related: They Wore it Once Collection
Weaver, an undrafted right-shooting defenseman, wore it for the Thrashers for parts of three seasons between 2001 and 2004. He suited up for the first 57 games of his career for the franchise with that number, recording six assists.
Weaver went on to have a 633-game NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers, and Montreal Canadiens.
#53: Brett Festerling (2011-12)
The Jets were a transient team upon relocation from Atlanta. Because True North Sports & Entertainment inherited a team without any meaningful organizational depth — due to Thrasher management’s sheer incompetence at the draft table during their 12-year stint — they iced many fringe players who didn’t have much business being in the NHL.
The Jets used 38 players during their inaugural campaign, a team record to this day. One of the 38 was Brett Festerling.
Festerling, an undrafted journeyman defenseman, played five games for the Jets in November, 2011, wearing #53 and recording no points and two penalty minutes.
Those were the final five games of his 88-game NHL career (he’d played 83 for the Anaheim Ducks between 2008 and 2011.) After the season, he went to the German DEL and played there until 2020.
#54: Dylan Samberg (2022-Present)
Dylan Samberg made his NHL debut in January, 2022 wearing #54. The 10-number increase from the #44 the 2017 second-rounder wore with the Manitoba Moose over two seasons was necessary as Josh Morrissey already wears #44 with the Jets.
Jets fans should get used to seeing plenty of #54 — Samberg had an excellent first full season in 2022-23 and signed a two-year bridge deal in July, 2023. He seems on the cusp a bigger blue-line role going forward.
#55: Mark Scheifele (2011-Present)
The brand-new Jets’ first-ever draft selection selected a brand-new number for the organization: #55. The 7th-overall 2011 pick has worn the number exclusively, from the first seven games of his career in the inaugural season to the present day.
Scheifele wore #19 in juniors with the Barrie Colts, but Jim Slater already had claim to that number with the Jets. Hence, Scheifele decided to go back to the #55 he’d worn in minor hockey throughout his youth. He originally selected that number to be more like his older brother, Kyle Scheifele, who also wore it when they were growing up.
16 NHLers wore #55 in 2022-23, but Scheifele is undoubtedly one of the best. In 12 seasons since being drafted, he has scored 272 goals and added 373 assists for 645 points and is the final player left who played in the inaugural season, though he is an unrestricted free agent (UFA) next summer who is likely to be traded.
#61: Maxim Afinogenov (2009-10)
Maxim Afinogenov joined the Thrashers in fall 2009 after nine seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. Playing on a one-year deal and wearing the same #61 he did with the Sabres, the right-winger posted a career-high 24 goals and was second on the team in points with 61, behind only Nik Antropov.
Following the season, he signed a five-year deal with the KHL’s SKA Saint Petersburg and never returned to the NHL. He played in the KHL through 2019-20.
#63: Ben Chiarot (2013-2015)
Ben Chiarot wore #63 for the first 41 games of his NHL career.
Chiarot — drafted in the fourth round by the Thrashers in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft — made his Jets debut in 2013-14 with #63 on his back. He played just one game that season, but also wore #63 the following season, where he played 40 games.
Prior to the 2015-16 season, he switched to #7 after Keaton Ellerby, who wore that number from 2013 through 2015, left the team to play in the KHL. Chiarot played 264 games over four seasons with #7 as he became a regular on the Jets’ blue line.
Since leaving the Jets as an UFA in 2019, Chiarot has played for the Canadiens, Panthers, and Detroit Red Wings. He has worn #8 for all three clubs.
#64: Logan Stanley (2020-Present)
Logan Stanley stands out on the Jets not only for his hulking 6-foot-7, 230-pound frame, but also for his jersey number. The defender, drafted 18th overall in 2016, became the first player in team history to wear #64 when he made his NHL debut in the shortened 2020-21 season.
Stanley wore #17 in juniors with the Windsor Spitfires, #20 with the Kitchener Rangers, and #7 with the Manitoba Moose. #7 and #20 were available in the 2020-21 season when he got his first call-up, but Stanley elected to stay with the #64 he’d worn during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 preseasons.
#65: Johnathan Kovacevic (2021-22)
Johnathan Kovacevic became another young defenseman to wear a unique jersey number — one number up from Stanley — when he made his NHL debut in 2021-22.
Kovacevic wore #65 during his four-game NHL stint, which came in his fourth year with the organization. He wore #4 with the Moose, but that number was already taken by Neal Pionk.
Kovacevic was claimed off waivers by the Canadiens in October, 2022. He played 77 games for them in 2022-23 and wore #26.
#67: Michael Frolik (2013-15)
Michael Frolik was one of the Jets 2.0’s first big trade acquisitions. The right-winger and 10th overall 2006 pick came to the team in 2013-14 after GM Kevin Cheveldayoff swung a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Czechian product brought the #67 he wore for his entire six-year career to that point with him.
Frolik played two seasons with the Jets, posting 42 points in each of them, before signing as a UFA with the Calgary Flames. He wore #67 for the Flames for four-and-a-half seasons, and also with the Sabres and Canadiens in brief stints thereafter.
Frolik now plays in Europe and continues to wear #67.
#73: CJ Suess (2019-2022)
CJ Suess wore #73 in his one-game game NHL debut in 2019-20, and the same number in three games the next season. The undrafted left-winger wore #20 and #25 with the Moose previously, and while both were available when he made his NHL debut on Nov. 1, 2019 — Cody Eakin wore #20 after coming to the team at the 2020 Trade Deadline nearly four months later — Suess opted to wear something new.
Suess wore #53 in one game with the San Jose Sharks in 2022-23, but rejoined the Jets’ organization on a two-year AHL deal ahead of 2023-24.
#75: Arvid Holm (2022-23)
#75 has still never been worn in game action — only in warmups and on the bench.
In the 2022-23 playoffs, goaltender Arvid Holm wore #75 when he backed up Connor Hellebuyck in the first-round series between the Jets and Vegas Golden Knights. Holm was backing up because the Jets’ number-two goaltender that season, David Rittich, was nursing an injury and couldn’t dress.
The only way Holm was going to see any minutes was if Hellebuyck got injured, and Hellebuyck didn’t. The Jets lost in five games, and Holm became a UFA after not being tendered a qualifying offer.
#81: Kyle Connor (2017-Present)
Kyle Connor’s #81 is a flip of the #18 he wore for three seasons with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms prior to being drafted and for a season at the University of Michigan after being selected 17th overall in 2015. When he arrived on the pro scene, veteran centre Bryan Little already wore #18, and “I don’t think he would’ve given me #18,” Connor said in 2020.
No Jet has worn #18 since Little’s career-ending injury in 2019, but Connor won’t be switching now — he has dominated with #81 on his back in the seven seasons since adopting it.
A sniper with a wicked shot and also an underrated playmaker, Connor has been a nightmare for opponents, racking up 209 goals and 215 assists for 424 points in 466 games. He owns single-season Jets 2.0 records in goals and points and seems destined to one day hit the 50-goal plateau.
#82: Mason Appleton (2018-2020)
Mason Appleton made his NHL debut in 2018-19 wearing #82 as the #27 he wore with the Moose that season and the previous one was taken by Nikolaj Ehlers. Appleton wore #82 for 36 games in 2018-19 and for 46 games in 2019-20.
He was claimed by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 Expansion Draft and switched numbers to #22. After playing 49 games for the Kraken in their inaugural season, he was reacquired by the Jets at the 2022 Trade Deadline for a 2023 fourth-round pick.
He was allowed to stay with #22 upon his return, despite Austin Poganski wearing #22 for 16 games with the Jets earlier in the season (Poganski didn’t play any games with the Jets when Appleton was on the roster.)
#83: Sami Niku (2018-2019)
Offensive defenseman Sami Niku made his NHL debut in April, 2018 wearing #83. The Finnish defenseman wore #8 with the Moose — and won the Eddie Shore Award for the AHL’s most outstanding defenseman that season as a rookie with that number — but tacked on a ‘3’ to his NHL jersey as Jacob Trouba already wore #8 with the Jets.
Niku played 30 games with the Jets in 2018-19, once again wearing #83. After Trouba was traded to the New York Rangers in June, 2019, Niku switched to #8 and played 23 games with that number over the next two seasons.
Niku was bought out of his contract in September 2021 and joined the Canadiens organization on a one-year deal. He played 13 games there, wearing #15, before returning to Europe.
He played for Liiga’s JyP HT Jyvaskyla in 2022-23, once again wearing #8.
#85: Mathieu Perreault (2014-2021)
Mathieu Perreault is one of only 13 NHL players all-time to wear #85, and the only Jet. He played 708-career NHL games, and wore that number for all but 69 of them.
The versatile Quebec-born centre and right winger wore #85 with the Washington Capitals, who drafted him in 2006, from 2009 through 2013. He then wore #22 in 2013-14 with the Anaheim Ducks, despite no one wearing #85 on the Ducks that season.
Perreault reclaimed #85 upon joining the Jets ahead of the 2014-15 season on a three-year deal and immediately established himself as a reliable producer. He ended up spending seven seasons with the franchise, recording 230 points and becoming well-liked for his skill and willingness to accept and excel in any assignment, whether up or down the lineup.
Perreault finished his career with the Canadiens and #85 still on his back.
#87: Kristian Reichel (2021-Present)
Kristian Reichel, an undrafted Czechian forward, made his Jets’ debut in December, 2021 after spending the prior three-and-a-half seasons with the Moose.
Wearing #87, he played 13 games — scoring one goal and adding one assist — before suffering an injury. In 2022-23, he played two NHL games, recording one assist.
Reichel remains under contract with the Jets for 2023-24.
#89: Sam Gagner (2022-23)
Veteran forward Sam Gagner joined the Jets as a UFA on a one-year deal in September, 2022, bringing his longtime number with him.
Gagner wore #89 — a reference to his birth year of 1989 — for the Jets in 2022-23, where he played 48 games and put up 14 points but saw his role wane in the second half and his season end early due to surgery to repair a hip issue.
Gagner has almost exclusively worn #89 through his 16-year, 1015-game career. He only wore a different number for one season — #9 in 2014-15 for the Arizona Coyotes because Mikkel Bødker already wore #89.
#93: Kristian Vesalainen (2018-2022)
Kristian Vesalainen has worn the highest jersey number in Thrashers/Jets’ history, rocking #93 in 70 games over three seasons. The 2017 24th-overall pick wore #13 with the Moose, but that number was taken by Brandon Tanev when Vesalainen made his NHL debut with a five-game stint in 2018-19.
Vesalainen’s upside seemed as high as his jersey number, but he never worked out. Despite having a wealth of offensive talent and a wicked shot, he could not translate his skills to the smaller North American ice surface and never worked particularly hard or looked particularly dedicated in either the NHL or AHL.
After a 2021-22 where he played 53 games but only recorded three points, he opted to return to Europe instead of signing a new deal as a restricted free agent.
Related: Jets & Former 1st-Rounder Vesalainen Part Ways After Lacklustre Tenure
Vesalainen wore #93 last season with the Swedish Hockey League’s Malmo Red Wings and #10 with Liiga’s HIFK Helsinki.
