Note: Originally written on 9/10/25, but it did not publish due to technical difficulties.
We’re officially just 29 days away from the San Jose Sharks kicking off their 2025-26 season against the Vegas Golden Knights at the SAP Center.
As a result, today we’re going to take a look at the Sharks’ history of the number 29.
The Sharks’ history with the number 29 dates back to the 1992-93 season when 6-foot-6 defenseman Dean Kolstad stepped on the ice for the team in teal. He played ten games with the Sharks that season, as he spent the majority of the campaign with the International Hockey League’s Kansas City Blades. During his time in the Bay Area, he recorded two assists and 12 penalty minutes. That stint would ultimately be the last of his NHL career, as the Minnesota North Stars draft pick would spend the remainder of his career in the minor league system until he called it a career following the 1997-98 season.
Jimmy Waite would be the next player to wear the number 29 for the Sharks. He joined the organization following a stint with the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that drafted him eighth overall in 1987.
Waite played the 1993-94 season with the Sharks, making 15 appearances. During that stint, he recorded a goals against average of 4.30 and an .843 save percentage.
Following his disappointing season in the Bay Area, Waite would return to the Windy City for the 1994-95 season. Today, he still works for the Blackhawks organization and has been their goaltending coach for over a decade.
A couple of years later, 5-foot-9 goaltender Geoff Sarjeant would step between the pipes for the Sharks wearing the number 29. He appeared in four games for the Sharks during the 1995-96 season, registering a 4.92 goals against average and a save percentage of .839. He’d retire following a stint with Moskitos Essen in the German DEL.
A future Hockey Hall of Famer and two-time Stanley Cup champion would be in net for the Sharks starting in the 1997-98 season. Mike Vernon would play two and a half seasons with the Sharks following his time with the Detroit Red Wings.
Vernon would play 126 games for the Sharks, recording a 2.39 goals against average and a .904 save percentage during his time in teal. He moved to the Florida Panthers during the 1999-00 season before finishing his career with his hometown team, the Calgary Flames.
Paul Kruse had the shortest time wearing the number 29. He appeared in a single game for the Sharks during the 2000-01 season, playing just 3:32 and earning five penalty minutes for a fight against Jim Cummins of the Anaheim Ducks.
Following that season, Kruse moved to the United Kingdom where he captained both the Sheffield Steelers and Belfast Giants. He retired following the 2003-04 season.
The Sharks drafted goaltender Vesa Toskala in the fourth round of the 1995 NHL Draft, but he didn’t make his debut with the team in teal until the 2001-02 season. He’d go on to appear in 115 games over the course of five seasons in the Bay Area, registering a 2.34 goals against average and a save percentage of .914.
Toskala moved to the Toronto Maple Leafs ahead of the 2007-08 season. He left North America following a short stint with the Calgary Flames after the 2009-10 season and played a couple of seasons in Europe before calling it a career.
Ryane Clowe is undoubtedly the player most associated with the number 29 in San Jose. A sixth-round pick by the Sharks during the 2001 NHL Draft, Clowe joined the team for the first time during the 2005-06 season. Over eight seasons, Clowe played 423 games in teal and tallied 271 points during that period. His career would unfortunately be cut short due to injury during the 2014-15 season, and he’d officially retire following the 2017-18 season. He was recently in the headlines after resigning from his assistant general manager role with the Sharks and immediately taking the same job with the New York Rangers.
6-foot-6 forward Kurtis Gabriel played 11 games with the Sharks during the 2020-21 season. During that time, he failed to register a point but had 55 penalty minutes. After splitting time with the Toronto Marlies, Chicago Blackhawks, and Rockford IceHogs the following season, Gabriel called it a career.
The most recent player to wear the number 29 was goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood. The Sharks acquired Blackwood from the New Jersey Devils in an attempt to rebuild his career, which was ultimately successful. He played 63 games in net for the Sharks, recording a .902 save percentage and a goals against average of 3.31 with a struggling defense in front of him. He was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in a deal that saw Alexandar Georgiev and Nikolai Kovalenko come to the Bay Area along with draft picks.
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