Your Favorite Number 32

March 31, 2021

While the numbers 30, 31, 33, 34 and 35 have been reserved for goaltenders over the years, No. 32 has been owned by Wolves skaters who’ve helped their teams achieve greatness. Let’s take a look at the candidates to become known as Your Favorite Number 32, presented by Jewel-Osco.

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. 32: Dan Plante, Arturs Kulda, Ivan Barbashev and Zach Whitecloud.

Plante wore No. 25 and 27 during his first two years with the Wolves before shifting No. 32 for his final two seasons in Chicago. Whichever number the Wisconsin native wore, good things proceeded to happen. He appeared in 306 regular-season games from 1998 to 2002 — a stretch when the Wolves won two league championships (the 2000 Turner Cup and 2002 Calder Cup) and also reached the 2001 Turner Cup Finals. Plante produced 58 goals and 49 assists in regular-season action, then added five goals and 10 assists during 48 postseason appearances as he played in every 1999, 2000 and 2001 playoff game along with six more in 2002.

Kulda, a native of Riga, Latvia, was just 19 years old when he was thrown into the Calder Cup fire in 2008. Selected by the Atlanta Thrashers in the seventh round of the 2006 NHL Draft, Kulda wrapped up his juniors career with the Petersborough Petes and then rushed to Chicago to help the Wolves capture the 2008 league championship. After a five-game internship at the end of the regular season, Kulda earned the trust of head coach John Anderson and appeared in 21 of the team’s 24 playoff games on the way to the title. That included three assists during the six-game Calder Cup Final series against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Kulda went on to play three full seasons in Chicago and finished with 12 goals and 46 assists in 197 regular-season games.

The Wolves’ good luck with teenage prodigies from Eastern Europe continued with Barbashev, a Moscow, Russia, native who was picked 33rd overall in the 2004 NHL Draft by the St. Louis Blues. The skilled forward made his professional debut with the Wolves on Oct. 10, 2015, at the age of 19 and produced 10 goals and 18 assists over 65 games during his rookie year. He split his next two seasons between the Wolves and the Blues and notched 34 goals and 41 assists in 131 games for the Wolves before transforming into a full-time NHL player. Barbashev scored 14 regular-season goals and three postseason goals for the Blues during their 2019 Stanley Cup championship season.

Whitecloud enjoyed a banner rookie season with the Wolves as the defenseman’s fundamentally stout play at both ends of the ice helped to steer Chicago to the 2019 Calder Cup Finals. In addition to producing six goals and 22 assists in 74 regular-season games, the Brandon, Manitoba, native led the AHL with a +39 plus/minus rating. In the playoffs, he increased his offensive production despite dealing with an injury. Whitecloud shared the team’s postseason lead in points with three goals and 12 assists in 22 games. He returned to Chicago for the 2019-20 season, but played so well during the first half of the season that the Vegas Golden Knights recalled him for good at the end of January. He has been a staple in Vegas’ lineup ever since and owns four goals and eight assists spread across 20 Stanley Cup Playoff games and 49 regular-season contests.

To vote for your favorite Wolves player who wore No. 32, 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: