The Los Angeles Kings are expected to have Andrei Kuzmenko make his team debut on Saturday night against the St. Louis Blues. When the team's new forward takes the ice, he will make franchise history immediately as the first player to wear the jersey number 96.
This will be the fourth team that Andrei Kuzmenko has played with in the NHL and the third just this season. He began his career with the Vancouver Canucks and in 124 games had 47 goals and 48 assists.
He would be traded to the Calgary Flames during last season and in 66 games had 18 goals and 22 assists before being traded at the end of January. Kuzmenko would join the Philadelphia Flyers and played in seven games with two goals and three assists in that stretch.
Kuzmenko has shown he has an excellent shot and can be a big goal scoring threat. However, that has certainly tailed off as of late and it will be worth seeing if he can regain that form with Los Angeles.
In addition, Kuzmenko probably will start to factor into the team's power play but that might not happen right away.
What other players have had a jersey number over 90 with the Los Angeles Kings?
In the franchise history, there has been six other players who have had a jersey number over 90 and there is none more famous than Wayne Gretzky, who would make the 99 jersey one of the most recognizable in hockey. In addition to that, Jeremy Roenick wore 97 in his one season with the Kings in 2005-06, and Ryan Smythe wore 94 in his two seasons in Los Angeles.
The Kings do have one other player currently with a jersey number above 90 in Brandt Clarke who has number 92, which Rick Tocchet wore in the 1990s. Finally, Carl Grundstrom is the last player with a jersey number this high as he wore 91 for a few seasons recently.