New numbers for new faces

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

There are new faces in the Saint John Sea Dogs lineup this season — but also some new numbers.

Reid Calder is the first player in franchise history to wear No. 73 while Mathis Gauthier is the first to wear No. 65.

Kency Pierre-Noel, when he makes his playing debut, will become the first Sea Dog to wear No. 81. Matteo Mann, who is nursing an injury while attending Philadelphia Flyers camp, will be the first to wear No. 76.

Here's a quick look at some of the other new numbers.

• No. 1 — Plenty of goaltenders have worn Patrick Leaver's number over the years. Thomas Couture was the most recent.
• No. 6 — Matthew MacLean is the first player to sport the number since Jordan Spadafore in 2019-20.
• No. 8 — Tristan Dassylva's number has been well worn in recent years. Cole Burbidge, Carter McCluskey and Hunter Gartley are all recent players to wear No. 8.
• No. 27 — Benjamin Amyot's number was most recently used by Connor Trenholm. Some big names have worn it in the past: Scott Howes, Mike Hoffman and Oliver Cooper.
• No. 30 — Justin Robinson's number was last worn by goaltender Matthew Williams. Surprisingly, this number hasn't been worn a lot over the years. Alex Fournier is the games leader (72).
• No. 43 — Egan Beveridge is just the third Sea Dog to wear the number. David Mosher and Alexandre Lafreniere each wore it for two games.
• No. 79 — Luka Benoit is just the second player to wear the number, joining goaltender Marco Cousineau. Benoit wore the same number last season.
• No. 86 — Danny Akkouche remains the only player to wear this number in team history.
• No. 88 — Chad Bellemare joins Maxime Cajkovic as the only players to wear the number.

While the Sea Dogs do not have any retired numbers, it's always worth mentioning this as well: Alex Grant's No. 20, Mike Thomas' No. 17 and Jonathan Huberdeau's No. 11 have not been worn since these players departed.