Teams re-using gameissued/worn jerseys

[slricks]

Hello all, I love reading here, but don't post much.

I have a pretty neat relic from the Hurricanes' first season, but some things aren't adding up with it.

The jersey is a 97-98 1st set Road(Red), game issued. The player it was issued for was Ashlin Halfnight, #29. However, after contacting him and consulting any resources available, I found that he never played in a game, or likely never wore the jersey.

This is fine with me, as I love having one of the first Carolina jerseys ever produced, but there are stick and puck marks on the jersey, as clear as day. So I wondered how possible it was that this jersey was worn by another player, and then when Halfnight got the call-up they had the sweater re-lettered in case of emergency. Does this happen? I would imagine it might be more possible for a first-year team without all of the resources of an established club.

Unfortunately, I have very recently framed and displayed the jersey, so it is a pain in the butt to take it down and examine for extra stitching from a previous nameplate. I just wonder if my jersey has a little more history than I had thought previously. What do you think?

[lafountain]

First of all welcome.

2nd of all, yes it is very possible that the team reused the jersey for Halfnight, or the other possiblity is that it was worn or used in the preseason. Both of these are options that would explain the puck marks on the jersey. Even today, teams, if a player is sent down might strip the nameplate off and reuse the jersey.

[Nathan]

Hello all, I love reading here, but don't post much.

I have a pretty neat relic from the Hurricanes' first season, but some things aren't adding up with it.

The jersey is a 97-98 1st set Road(Red), game issued. The player it was issued for was Ashlin Halfnight, #29. However, after contacting him and consulting any resources available, I found that he never played in a game, or likely never wore the jersey.

This is fine with me, as I love having one of the first Carolina jerseys ever produced, but there are stick and puck marks on the jersey, as clear as day. So I wondered how possible it was that this jersey was worn by another player, and then when Halfnight got the call-up they had the sweater re-lettered in case of emergency. Does this happen? I would imagine it might be more possible for a first-year team without all of the resources of an established club.

Unfortunately, I have very recently framed and displayed the jersey, so it is a pain in the butt to take it down and examine for extra stitching from a previous nameplate. I just wonder if my jersey has a little more history than I had thought previously. What do you think

Yes, it does happen, and for non-MeiGray or pre-MeiGray teams, it's relatively common.

Usually a team will do something like this.

1) Divide training camp roster up, with longest shots getting the highest numbers, guys with a decent chance of callup lower numbers, and roster players their preference of number

2) Sit down with the front office after training camp and see who is actually still in the pipeline to get called up that year

3) Pull nameplates from the high-numbered jerseys for possible callups

4) Pull nameplates from the lower-numbered jerseys for guys who won't be called up (outright release, back to Europe, etc)

5) Throw plates from point 4 on the point 5 jerseys

6) Leave the high-numbered jerseys un-attributed to be re-lettered the next year

In Halfnight's case, he was a decent prospect who could have been called up. It's possible that he wore, say, #71 in the preseason but had a strong camp and was a very late cut. #29 could have been someone who decided to retire, or play in Europe, or something. The Halfnight nameplate would be pulled from 71 and put on 29 just in case.

It's also not uncommon for a team to assign a quad-A type player (healthy scratch at NHL level, top line or pairing at AHL level) a number to be carried over from year to year. I know of at least two jerseys that followed a certain player over a span of close to five years and picked up wear from all those preseasons and his sporadic regular season games.