In pro sports, players come and go all the time. Some leave a mark; some leave such a huge mark that their numbers are retired. Others just slip in and slip out of team history that you don’t even recall who they were or when they played for a respective team. Though we’re only 6 numbers in on our sweater series, that fact has been something we’ve touched on – if through nothing more than mentioning other noteworthy players to wear the team number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Number 6 has the same story attached to it – you can run off a list of players who have worn the jersey numbers. Some players are noteworthy; others are head-scratching elements of team history that many won’t recollect. I’m going to touch on a player here who indeed left a mark – if nothing more than through broken glass throughout the National Hockey League – in his time in Tampa.
The big body of Kurtis Foster, 6’5″ and 225 pounds, may have not been the fastest or most agile of defnesemen in team history, but his slap-shot was a destructive force.
Foster was part of the turbulent days of OK (Not Really) Hockey in Tampa, playing a single season with the Bolts after being signed by former GM Brian Lawton in 2009. Foster was trying to resurrect his career that had been cruelly jeopardized by way of a broken leg suffered while playing for the Minnesota Wild (link warning – it’s vide and not for squeamish persons.)
Foster posted 8 goals and 34 assists while in Tampa Bay, and broke enough panes of glass (with thanks to his powerful-yet-errant shot) that he incurred a bill for the damages.
Foster wasn’t re-signed by the Lightning (the Yzerman administration was just getting underway) and has bounced around since the 2010, playing in the NHL (Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks, New Jersey Devils, Minnesota Wild, Philadelphia Flyers), AHL (Syracuse Crunch while with Anaheim), and in Europe (Tappara Tampere of the SM-Liiga and Zagreb Medvescak of the KHL.) His 42 points with the Bolts remains the high-water mark of his professional career.
(Other players to wear #6 for the Lightning: Alain Cote, Donald Dufresne, Adrien Plavsic, Craig Wolanin, Jeff Norton, David Wilkie, Karel Betik, Bryan Muir, Adrian Aucoin, Sascha Goc, Andrew Hutchinson, Josef Melichar, Ryan Malone, Sami Salo)
Would defenseman Kurtis Foster have worked in Guy Boucher’s system (2010-2013)?
| Yes | 14 |
| No | 8 |
