When Charlie McAvoy made his NHL debut, he actually was snapping a franchise record in the process.
OK, it was a pretty meaningless record, but still.
Up until McAvoy debuted for the Boston Bruins, the only other player in franchise history to wear No. 73 was Michael Ryder, who played with that number on his sweater from 2009 through 2011.
As for McAvoy, why 73?
Well, during a town hall with Bruins season ticket holders, McAvoy explained why.
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“I wish I had a better story for this one. When I was down in Providence they gave me 43, and that was just kind of ‘Here you go, here’s your number.’ Which was fine, I thought that was a cool number, and I was playing and ultimately I got that chance to come up and play in the playoffs. So everybody at the beginning of the year picks a number at training camp, what number you would be if you had gotten called up. So you’ve got 25 guys on the roster in Boston and then 25 down (in Providence), so I think there was probably 50-plus numbers that were taken, and then I think there’s 10 numbers that were retired in Bruins history, maybe less, so really by the time that happened and I got the chance to come up there really weren’t very many numbers left.
“So there was some cool ones, I remember 58 was there, 76 was there, a couple other ones that special players wear in the league, so I thought of that, I thought of (Kris) Letang, (P.K.) Subban, a couple other guys. I saw 73, and I wore seven in college so I thought that would be cool, and I just landed on 73. I thought, hey I don’t really know too many people that have worn this number, so let me go for it, try to make it mine and really just kind of took off from there, and when I got the chance to change it I said no I like it, so I’m going to keep with it.”
While there’s no questioning Letang and Subban’s mark on the NHL, neither are exactly revered in Boston. So for McAvoy, he might’ve actually dodged a bullet by not wearing 58 or 76 with those opponents in mind — even if his heart was in the right place.
