'Burgh's Best to Wear It, No. 48: Tyler Kennedy was key to Penguins' 2009 Stanley Cup

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best 100 players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 48: Tyler Kennedy

Hockey has jersey numbers that can be iconic. The single digits tend to be identified with some of the game’s stars from earlier eras. Bobby Orr made No. 4 stand out.

In more modern times, superstars inhabited higher figures such as Mario Lemieux’s No. 66 or Sidney Crosby with No. 87.

And of course goaltenders such as Patrick Roy (No. 33) dominate the 30s.

But what about 48?

In hockey, they tend to call that a “training camp number.” That’s a diplomatic way of saying the player who dons it doesn’t have a secure spot on the roster.

Sure enough, when the Penguins recalled Tyler Kennedy from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League for the first time Oct. 27, 2007, he wasn’t exactly someone they were building the franchise around.

That’s why the equipment staff gave him such an inglorious number.

But through sheer effort and ample humility — he never bothered to ask for a sexier number — Kennedy stuck with the team and became a key component of some considerable success for the Penguins in the late 2000s.

A fourth-round pick in 2004, Kennedy made his debut in 2007-08, finding a home at right wing on the team’s third line with center Jordan Staal and left winger Jarkko Ruutu. Contributing 10 goals in 55 games, he helped the team reach the Stanley Cup Final that spring.

In 2008-09, Kennedy remained on the third line, which included Matt Cooke instead of Ruutu by this point, and spent the entire season on the NHL roster, appearing in 67 games and putting up 15 goals and 35 points.

His finest moment as an NHLer came that spring when he appeared in 24 games and contributed nine points, including a league-leading three winning goals. His most notable goal from that postseason was the deciding score of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, a 2-1 home win against the Detroit Red Wings.

Three nights later, Kennedy and the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in Detroit.

Kennedy spent six seasons with the Penguins, recording a 21-goal season in 2010-11. Perhaps his most lasting legacy is the unique goal celebration the Penguins crafted for him with former WWE wrestler Ken Anderson (AKA Mr. Kennedy).

Other No. 48s of note:

• Waite Hoyt was the ace for the New York Yankees’ pitching staff during their dominance of the 1920s. Later in his career, he spent parts of five mostly mundane seasons with the Pirates during the 1930s. In 1969, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

• Pitcher Rick Reuschel spent 19 seasons in MLB, including a three-year stint with the Pirates in the mid-1980s. During the 1985 season, he mustered a 14-8 record for the last-place Pirates and was named National League Comeback Player of the Year.

• Safety Carlton Williamson was a hard hitter nicknamed “The Hammer” for some strong Pitt defenses in the early 1980s. A third-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers, he won a Super Bowl ring in 1985.

• A first-round pick in 2015, Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree enjoyed a breakout season this past year with 11½ sacks.