There must be a future for Sillinger as a relator after what must have been a nearly full-time job buying and selling homes with all the relocating he had to do throughout his career.
We can only hope that he was able to keep his jerseys from the record 12 teams he was on. The clubs he played for, with the number of seasons in parenthesis, were the Detroit Red Wings (4), Mighty Ducks of Anahiem (2), Vancouver Canucks (3), Philadelphia Flyers (2), Tampa Bay Lightning (2), Florida Panthers (2), Ottawa Senators (1), Columbus Blue Jackets (2), Phoenix Coyotes (1), St. Louis Blues (2), Nashville Predators (1) and New York Islanders (3). During eight of his 17 seasons Sillinger would play for more than one NHL franchise, 13 seasons if you factor in junior and minor league hockey clubs. Only five times after reaching the NHL did he finish a season where he started, something that certainly must have been difficult for his family.
Here is what Mike's closet would look like had he just one of each jersey style he wore, 40 in all, spanning the classic era of 1990-91, the crazy alternates of the mid to late 90's, a return to the throwbacks in the early 2000's to the change to the Reebok Edge jerseys in the mid 2000's. They include 14 different home jerseys, 14 road styles, 9 alternates and 3 throwbacks. I'm uncertain if any player has ever worn as many different jerseys in his NHL career, so until we're shown to be wrong, we are going to declare Mike Sillinger's career total of 40 different jerseys in a career The Official World Record as recognized by Third String Goalie until proven otherwise.
And he actually missed another jersey by playing all of 1991/92 for Adirondack. If he'd been with the Wings, he'd have worn their awesome throwback from that season.
ReplyDeleteWOW , i just finished my post about Mike Sillinger too ! It did'nt occur to me that it was his birthday today ! Wow. Check it out here but it's in french tough. http://etcestleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/la-journee-mike-sillinger.html
ReplyDeleteDo you realize that every birthday the guy had ( 2 days before July 1st) he had to wonder where he'd play the next year ?
For his many jerseys, he probably wore most of them but sometimes he only played a handful of games with some of these teams like Ottawa and Nashville. But still it certainly is a record.