After wearing No. 19 with his past two teams, Reilly Smith found out he wouldn’t be able to keep that number this season with the New York Rangers. But he will be able to look up in the rafters at Madison Square Garden and see No. 19 hanging there, in honor of Rangers legend Jean Ratelle.
So with his preferred digits retired by his new team, the veteran forward reportedly will flip the numbers and wear No. 91 in 2024-25 with the Rangers.
F Reilly Smith will wear jersey number 91 for the New York Rangers. Number last worn by Alex Wennberg in 2023-24. #NYR pic.twitter.com/fTU3nrGlXS
— NHL Jersey Numbers (@NHLNewNumbers) August 12, 2024
Smith was acquired in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1. The 33-year-old wore No. 19 for his one season with the Penguins, after wearing the same number for six seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights. He had much good fortune with No. 19 in Vegas, scoring 20+ goals three times and winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.
Before arriving in Vegas, Smith wore No. 18 with the Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers. That number currently belongs to forward Riley Nash in the Rangers organization. Nash played one game with the Rangers last season and spent the remainder of the campaign with Hartford in the American Hockey League.
So, Smith will try something new this season on Broadway.
Rangers history with No. 91
Smith will be the sixth player in Rangers history to wear No. 91. Of all the numbers in the nineties, it is the one used most often all-time by the Blueshirts, ahead of No. 90, which three players wore, most recently Justin Richards in 2021.
Interestingly, this will be the fourth straight season a Rangers player wears No. 91. And Smith will be the fourth different player in that stretch to do so, accepting the torch, if you will, from forward Alex Wennberg who wore it last season but signed with the San Jose Sharks in July.
Like his predecessors wearing 91 with the Rangers, Smith could be handing the jersey back soon. Smith is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.
That said, let’s examine the first five players to wear No. 91 in Rangers history.
Markus Naslund – 2008-09
The best player to wear No. 91 for the Rangers was also the first to do so. Markus Naslund, the former Vancouver Canucks captain who scored 395 goals and 869 points in the NHL, wore 91 during his one season in New York, his final one in the League.
Naslund wore No. 19 when he played for the Canucks and was one of the elite forwards in the NHL. After signing with the Rangers, he switched digits because Scott Gomez already had No. 19. That sweater number was not retired until 2018, so after Gomez, it was also worn by Ruslan Fedotenko, Brad Richards and Jesper Fast.
But we digress.
Naslund scored 24 goals and had 46 points for the Rangers in 2008-09, his 10th straight season with at least 20 goals. He retired even though there was another year remaining on his contract.
Evgeny Grachev – 2010-11
Next to wear No. 91 for the Blueshirts was Evgeny Grachev, though not for long. An intriguing forward prospect, who scored 16 goals with Connecticut in the American Hockey League, Grachev played only eight games with the Rangers in 2010-11. He never recorded a point and played for the St. Louis Blues the following season.
After scoring one goal in 26 games with the Blues, it was back to Russia in 2013-14 for Grachev, who played the remainder of his career in the KHL.
Sammy Blais – 2021-2023
It took 11 years before another Rangers player wore No. 91. Sammy Blais took it after being acquired from the Blues in the Pavel Buchnevich trade. Blais wore No. 9 previously in St. Louis, but that number was already retired in honor of Adam Graves and Andy Bathgate by time the energetic forward arrived on Broadway.
Blais was limited to 54 games over two seasons with the Rangers because of a knee injury. He never scored a goal with the Rangers and ended up with nine assists.
On Feb. 9, 2023, Blais was sent back to the Blues as a part of a package for defenseman Niko Mikkola and the next player to don No. 91 …
Vladimir Tarasenko – 2023
Vladimir Tarasenko was happy to take over No. 91 from Blais since that’s the number he wore with great success for the Blues for 11 seasons, including 2018-19 when they won the Stanley Cup.
Unlike Blais and Grachev before him, it didn’t take long for Tarasenko to score his first goal wearing No. 91 for the Blueshirts. Tarasenko lit the lamp in his Rangers debut on Feb. 10 against the Seattle Kraken at MSG. He went on to record 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in 31 regular-season games with the Rangers, and four points (three goals, assist) in seven Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Tarasenko left after the 2022-23 season, signing as a free agent with the Ottawa Senators. After being traded ahead of the 2024 deadline, Tarasenko helped the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup last spring. He scored the series-deciding goal in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Rangers.
Alex Wennberg – 2024
Like Tarasenko, Alex Wennberg was a trade-deadline acquisition, who also wore No. 91 in New York. Unlike Tarasenko, Wennberg didn’t have a connection to the number after having worn 41, 10 and 21 previously for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Panthers and Kraken.
Wennberg was a solid third-line center, who played well defensively and on the penalty kill. He did not, however, produce much offensively, scoring one goal in 19 regular-season games and one in 16 playoff games. However, his lone postseason goal was the memorable OT winner in Game 3 of the conference final against the Panthers.
