Your Favorite Number 27

February 24, 2021

This is going to be a great trip down memory lane during this edition of the Your Favorite Number series, presented by Jewel-Osco. A look at four forwards who wore No. 27 for the Wolves takes us all the way from our first game in 1994 to our final games before the pandemic.

Over the course of the organization’s first 26 years, most Wolves jersey numbers have been shared by several great players. To celebrate their brilliance, we are creating highlight reels of Wolves who wore the same jersey number and asking you to vote for your favorite.

This week’s clips feature four Wolves who made a difference while wearing No. 27: Tim Bergland, Antoine Roussel, Jordan Caron and Brandon Pirri.

When the Wolves took the ice for their first game on Oct. 1, 1994 at Detroit, Bergland was a starting forward alongside Steve Maltais and Brian Wiseman. Three games later, when the Wolves played their first home game on Oct. 14 before a sellout crowd, Bergland became an instant hero by producing two goals and one assist in Chicago’ 4-2 win over Detroit.

Bergland suited up for each of the team’s first 128 games and 244 of the Wolves’ first 245 regular-season contests and also helped the Wolves win the 1998 Turner Cup. In five years with the team, the Crookston, Minnesota, native delivered 53 goals and 81 assists in 361 regular-season games. He ranks eighth on the organization’s all-time list for games played and 20th in scoring with his 134 points.

Roussel spent just one season with the Wolves, but the team’s first player from France honed the playing style that has led to more than 500 NHL over the last nine years. Playing primarily on the fourth line, Roussel irritated opponents every night while posting four goals, five assists and 177 penalty minutes for the 2012 Midwest Division champs.

Caron, the Boston Bruins’ first-round pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, spent two seasons with the Wolves. In 2015-16, the physical forward shared third on the team in goals (17) and ranked fourth in points (36). During one stretch, Caron scored a goal in nine out of 11 games to earn a stint with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. Caron changed roles in 2016-17 to help Chicago take the Central Division crown. He finished his tenure with 22 goals and 39 assists in 127 games. He’s still playing today with Villacher SV in Austria, where he was teammates with defenseman Frederic Allard until two weeks ago when the latter joined the Wolves.

Pirri just capped a remarkable three-year run in his adopted hometown of Chicago. He asked his agent to connect him with the Wolves shortly before the 2017-18 season, which led to a bunch of goals, assists, wins and opportunities with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. The Toronto native rolled up 62 goals and 67 assists in just 124 regular-season games for the Wolves to jump to No. 23 on the team’s all-time points list. He also earned 49 games in Vegas and posted 15 goals and 8 assists — becoming a folk hero there during the 2018-19 season when he scored a goal almost every game for an extended stretch.

To vote for your favorite Wolves player who wore No. 27, visit one or more of the team’s social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and make your opinion known!

If you missed any of the previous episodes, here they are: