Niklas Hjalmarsson Days Until The Blackhawks Season Opener

May 18, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Blackhawks defenseman

Niklas Hjalmarsson

(4) in game one of the Western Conference Final of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

We had so much fun doing our Countdown to Faceoff series last season that we decided to do it again. The calendar has turned into October ,we look at jersey numbers from past and present as we count down the days until October 9th and opening night against the Dallas Stars.

Niklas Hjalmarsson is the current wearer of #4 and he’s only a handful of Blackhawks all-time that can say they have won two Stanley Cups while wearing a Chicago Blackhawks jersey. Hjalmarsson is probably in the second layer of the core, which is ironic since it looked like he was going to be a San Jose Shark after the 2010 season, but Stan Bowman chose #4 instead of Antti Niemi (and rightfully so) and the rest is history. Hjalmarsson always gets the toughest defensive assignments and is a shot blocking wizard especially during the playoffs. The question is who will be his defensive paring partner this season. Johnny Oduya or someone else of Oduya gets traded.

Here is a list of the some former #4’s in Chicago Blackhawks history.

1. Bill Gadsby-1946-1955 Gadsby played 9 seasons for the Hawks scoring 54 times with 136 assists.

2. Allan Stanley-1955-1956 Stanley scored 14 goals and 29 assists in 111 games played for Chicago

3. Moose Vasko-1959-1966 Vasko played in 641 games during 10 seasons with the Blackhawks. Vasko scored 32 goals and 153 assists. Vasko picked up a goal and an assist during the 1961 Stanley Cup run.

4. Tom Reid-1968-1969 Reid played the first 86 games of his NHL career with the Blackhawks picking up 7 assists before being traded to the Minnesota North Stars.

5. Doug Jarrett-1970-1975 Jarrett also wore #20, during his career with the Blackhawks he scored 38 times with 178 assists in 721 games played.

6. Dave Logan-1975-1980 Logan also wore 14 and 2 throughout his Blackhawks tenure, during his time with the Blackhawks he scored 4 goals and 24 assists.

7. Bobby Orr-1977-1979 The legendary Orr played in 26 games for Chicago, during his time in Chicago he scored 6 goals and 21 assists. His career totals are 657 games 270 goals and 645 assists.

8. Keith Brown-1980-1993 Brown was 7th overall selection in the 1979 NHL draft by Chicago and he is in Top 5 of most Blackhawks Defensive Categories. Brown played in 812 games for Chicago scoring 64 times and adding 266 assists.

9. Keith Carney 1994-1998 Carney appeared in 271 games for the Blackhawks scoring 14 goals and 37 assists before taking his talents to Phoenix.

10. Doug Zmolek-1999-2000 Zmolek finished his NHL career with 105 games in Chicago, During his last stop he scored 2 goals and 21 assists.

11. Chris McAlpine-2001-2002 McAlpine played in 90 games picking up 9 assists in Chicago.