Edmonton Oilers newcomers Brett Kulak, Derick Brassard choose interesting jersey numbers

Step on up! It’s time to get your freshly minted Derick Brassard and Brett Kulak jerseys.

The new kids on the block have picked their jersey numbers, the Oilers tweeted Tuesday morning.

Derick Brassard will don number 16 while Brett Kulak will wear 27.

There’s a few intersting notes about these numbers, however. First of all, Brassard’s 16 has been worn all season long by Tyler Benson. The Oilers had sent him down to the Condors just last week.

It’s not a big surprise, however. Veterans usually get their choice of number over younger players, so maybe there was some kind of gentlemanly agreement between Brassard and Benson.

Brassard had previously worn the numbers 10, 16, 18, 19, and 25.

The number 16 has been worn by 16 Oilers prior to Brassard: Dan Newman (1980), Bobby Schmautz (1980), Pat Hughes (1981-85), Selmar Odelein (1986), Kelly Buchberger (1987-99), Rem Murray (2002), Mike York (2002-04), Jarret Stoll (2006-08), Ryan Potulny (2010), Colin Fraser (2011), Darcy Hordichuk (2012-13), Teddy Purcell (2015-16), Jujhar Khaira (2018-21), and Benson this season.

For Kulak, he’s taking number 27. He’s worn three numbers previously: 17, 61 and most recently 77 with the Habs.

The number 27 has been quite common with Oilers in the past with 14 players donning it over time: Dave Semenko (1980-87), Ron Shudra (1988), Dave Hunter (1989), Reed Larson (1989), Scott Mellanby (1992-93), Todd Elik (1994), Peter White (1994-96), Ralph Intranuovo (1996), Georges Laraque (1998-06), Dustin Penner (2008-11), Boyd Gordon (2014-15), Adam Clendening (2016), Milan Lucic (2017-19) and Mike Green (2020).

77, of course, has been worn by Oscar Klefbom, so it’s interesting to see Kulak shift course. Growing up in Stony Plain, Kulak did grow up watching the Edmonton Oilers, so he very well could be throwing it back to a honour a guy like Laraque.