31 Days to Opening Night spotlights Martin Jones and the NHL’s No. 31 goalie legacy

Every NHL season, the league’s roster churn tends to look forward, but the “31 Days to Opening Night” format keeps one eye on history. In a series themed around the numbers that have mattered most, Yahoo Sports framed No. 31 as a goalie-specific calling card, pointing to Antti Niemi and Martin Jones as the two clear standouts who wore the mark back-to-back in the NHL’s modern era.

The entry focused on Jones begins with where his NHL journey started. Yahoo Sports wrote that Jones entered the league with one of the Sharks’ biggest rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, after signing as an undrafted free agent. That detail matters because it is the kind of origin story goaltending fans recognize, where the path is less linear and the climb is usually measured one opportunity at a time.

From there, the piece situates Jones within the longer theme of No. 31 meaning something more than just a number on a jersey. The underlying point in the series is that teams do not usually assign a digit like 31 casually; for a position as specialized as goaltending, the number becomes shorthand for a style of presence in net, the trust of a defense, and the pressure of being the last line of defense.

The spotlight also emphasizes the continuity between eras. Niemi and Jones are presented as the two most notable back-to-back No. 31 goaltenders, which makes the comparison more than trivia. It creates a narrative bridge between different team identities and different coaching timelines, while still orbiting the same role, save-making, and mental stamina that define professional goaltending.

There is a practical angle to a series like this, too. Opening Night brings lineup decisions, but the goalie is often the anchor of the entire defensive structure. By centering a specific player and a specific number, the preseason countdown nudges viewers to pay attention not only to who is on the roster, but also to the tradition that teams carry when they hand responsibility to a starter or a major rotational option.

What to watch next is whether this kind of legacy framing becomes a springboard for how teams talk about the position in training camp. The most consequential storyline in the opening weeks will always be performance in game conditions, but number-based spotlights can shape expectations by reminding fans what kind of pedigree is associated with certain digits in the league. In Jones’s case, the key through-line in this installment is his undrafted entry and the way he became one of the most prominent No. 31 goaltenders.

Because this write-up is based on a single Yahoo Sports feature and there was no additional confirmed reporting available in the research step, readers should treat any broader career details beyond the undrafted signing detail and the No. 31 context as incomplete in this publication draft. The central verified takeaways here are the No. 31 goalie theme and the Kings undrafted-free-agent starting point for Jones as reported by Yahoo Sports.