Leafs players reveal why they wear the numbers they wear

"Mostly because of Marty Brodeur. Growing up, he was a guy I had posters on my wall of. It's a common goalie number and it's one teams always kept reserved for goalies. I've never met him in person. He's up there as one of the best goalies of all time. He's a legend.


If you could ask Brodeur one question about goaltending, what would it be?

I'd be more interested in learning about Brodeur the man instead of the goalie. If we could talk, I'd like to talk to him about his life, his experiences, instead of hockey."

-Matt Murray on his #30

"I've been wearing it my whole life. My dad wore it when he played baseball and basketball."

- Auston Matthews on his #34

"I liked Patrick Kane growing up. And my brother actually wore 88 when he was really little.

'It's an homage?'

Yea but to my brother."

- William Nylander on his #88

"There's a little story behind it. I just flipped the numbers around and had a really good season. It stuck. I had always worn 19. Growing up, you watch Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, a lot of great players wore 9 or 19. So that stuck with me.

When I was playing minor hockey and I went from the Senators to the Marlboros and Cody Goloubef was wearing 19. He ended up becoming the best man at my wedding. But he didn't offer it up. So once I got to know him, I wasn't surprised by that. There weren't too many players wearing 91 at the time, obviously (Sergei Fedorov) was.

'You started a trend.'

Yea, Stammer (Steven Stamkos) wears it now too."

- John Tavares on his #91