While it may be a while before he gets to wear it, Matt Carle came into a major honor on Friday when it was announced that he will wear the No. 25 jersey with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning have not issued the number since the 2005-06 season, the last season for Dave Andreychuk, captain of the 2004 Stanley Cup Champion team.
The decision was made with the blessing of Andreychuk, who remains with the team as Vice President of Fans and Business Development, and that endorsement was a big deal for Carle, who signed a six-year contract with the team last month worth $33 million.
"That was a big thing for me," Carle said in remarks reported via Twitter by beat writer Damian Cristodero of the Tampa Bay Times. "I'm comfortable with my decision and happy to wear the number and be able to honor him.
Carle has been wearing No. 25 since his youth hockey days, and wore it at the University of Denver, where he won NCAA Championships in 2004 and 2005, and was presented with the Hobey Baker Award in 2006 as the top player in college hockey. He wore No. 25 with the Sharks at the end of the 2005-06 season, but gave up the number the following year when Mike Grier signed with the team. Carle wore No. 18 for the remainder of his career with the Sharks, and switched to No. 5 when he was traded to the Lightning before the 2008-09 season, but donned No. 25 again when he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers later that year.
Carle returns to Tampa with big expectations after signing a hefty free agent contract, although the expectations could have been larger elsewhere, as he was widely regarded as the primary backup target for teams that missed out on Ryan Suter. Adding Andreychuk's old number, however, raises the stakes for Carle.
Tampa doesn't have a particularly old-school crowd that will chastise Carle if he doesn't live up to expectations - for an example of that, look to Madison Square Garden with Wade Redden or Michal Rozsival but the fact remains that Andreychuk personally okayed this move does add to personal expectations. There's also the matter of Tampa's generally raised expectations, having added Carle, fellow blueliner Sami Salo and goaltender Anders Lindback to complement a lineup that already includes Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Victor Hedman. Tampa is bidding for a return to the top of the Southeast Division and possibly a Stanley Cup run after reaching the Eastern Conference Finals two seasons ago, and Carle is expected to be a big part of that.
Adding the number of one of the franchise's most beloved players to the mix will only up the pressure to perform.
