The San Jose Sharks are just a couple days away from training camp, less than a week from their first preseason game, and most importantly, 23 days away from kicking off the 2025-26 season against the Vegas Golden Knights at the SAP Center. In honor of that, we’re going to take a look at the history of the jersey number 23 for the Sharks. The Sharks’ history of the number 23 dates all the way back to the Sharks’ inaugural season and defenseman Link Gaetz. 48 of Gaetz’s 65 career NHL games came during the 1991-92 season, his only season with the Sharks. During that season in the Bay Area, he registered 12 points and a staggering 326 penalty minutes, or an average of 6.79 penalty minutes per game. Gaetz departed the Sharks following the 1991-92 season, and spent the next decade and a half bouncing around the minor leagues and semi-professional levels of hockey before officially calling it a career after the 2006-07 season. The next player to wear the number 23 was the Sharks’ 10th overall pick in the 1992 NHL Draft, six-foot-five winger Andrei Nazarov. The Russian forward wore the number for his first few partial seasons in San Jose before changing to the number 62 for the latter portion of his time in the Bay Area. Over the course of his five seasons in San Jose, Nazarov played 169 games, recording 51 points and 490 penalty minutes. He’d go on to have a lengthy NHL career, split with many teams around the league, and after 571 career games he called it a career during the 2005-06 season as a member of the Minnesota Wild. After a decade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, defenseman Todd Gill joined the Sharks for the 1996-97 season and assumed the captaincy during his stay in the Bay. He played 79 games in his first season with the Sharks, failing to score a goal but recording 21 assists and 101 penalty minutes. The following season would be his last in San Jose, as after 64 games he’d be moved to finish the season with the St. Louis Blues. Defenseman Shawn Heins would be next to wear the number, making his NHL debut during the 1998-99 season. Heins would spend parts of five seasons with the Sharks, appearing in 81 total games, registering 10 points and 105 penalty minutes during his tenure. Heins left the Sharks in the middle of the 2002-03 season, and after one more partial season in the NHL the year after, he headed overseas to finish his career. After a six-and-a-half year stint with HC Fribourg-Gotteron in the Swiss National League, which included four seasons as captain, Heins called it a career following the 2012-13 season. The Sharks drafted winger Niko Dimitrakos in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL Draft from the University of Maine. He’d make his NHL debut during the 2002-03 season and spent parts of three seasons as a member of the Sharks. He played a total of 134 games, recording 53 points in the process. After a short stint with the Philadelphia Flyers, Dimitrakos headed to Europe to finish his career and ultimately retired after playing the 2013-14 season with Ilves in the Finnish Liiga. Since retiring, he has done some youth coaching and even coached Greece at a tournament during the 2023-24 season. Scott Gomez, a recent inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, was well past his best years by the time he joined the Sharks for the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. He played just 39 games for the time in teal, and recorded 15 points during that time frame. Gomez retired following the 2015-16 season. Today, he’s the head coach of the USHL’s Chicago Steel. Thomas Bordeleau made a few appearances in the number 23 before changing to the number 17 for the latter half of his stint in the Bay Area. Appearing in 44 games over the course of four seasons for the Sharks, Bordeleau recorded 18 points and was a -22 during his short tenure in the NHL. He was traded to the New Jersey Devils over the summer, in an attempt to revitalize his career with a change of scenery. Oskar Lindblom joined the Sharks for the 2022-23 season and played a total of 74 games in teal. During that time, he recorded 15 points. After leaving the Sharks, he returned to his native Sweden where he currently plays with Brynas IF. Jack Studnicka had an unremarkable run with the Sharks at the end of the 2023-24 season, as he failed to record a point and was a -14 in 17 games. He’s currently signed with the American Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers. Currently the number 23 is worn by Barclay Goodrow, who had a previous stint wearing the number as well. The veteran forward has played a total of 345 games with the Sharks so far in his career and has recorded 79 points and 310 penalty minutes.
