As far as off-ice talents go, almost all hockey players are highly skilled in the art of shortening last names into affectionate nicknames.
But when the Boston Bruins tweeted out a picture of one of their up-and-comers at prospect camp, we thought that even the most ‘bro’ hockey players would have a hard time making this one concise.
While it’s come to light that Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson’s name is actually two separate last names, It’s not the first time a hockey player has sported a name bar from shoulder to shoulder, so we compiled a list of some of the NHL’s all-time longest last names.
5. Jonathan Marchessault
Before Jonathan Marchessault had his explosive two seasons with the Florida Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights, he was known as JAM, which was the spelling of his then-initials, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault. He went on to drop the first part of his name when he was with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013, but even then, his last name checks in at a considerable 12 letters. We’d wager that the removal of the extra weight on his jersey has added to his speed and recent success, but it’s no surprise that even with the shortening, Brad Marchand had something to say about his last name.
4. Vladimir Konstantinov
Russian last names are notoriously long and hard to pronounce for North American broadcasters, so it’s no surprise that we have one featured on the list. Konstantinov spent time in the Russian league with Moscow and six seasons with Detroit in the NHL, and though he doesn’t hold any dumbfounding records in regards to stats, his name bar is one of the longest the league has ever seen, being 12 characters in length.
3. Jamie Langenbrunner
Jamie Langenbrunner is all about longevity.
In his NHL career, that spanned over 20 years, and in his last name, that racks up a total of 14 characters. The two-time Stanley Cup winner and former New Jersey Devils captain will be one of the head coaches for the Annual USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game this month, and we bid his players the best of luck in spelling and remembering his last name.
2. John Vanbiesbrouck
Vanbiesbrouck had no shortage of nicknames during his playing career, ranging from ‘Beezer’ to ‘VBK’. We don’t blame his teammates for making the attempt to make his massive 14 character last name more concise, as his is the only one in NHL history to include every vowel. The longtime NHL goaltender recently took up a new position with USA Hockey as Assistant Executive Director of Hockey Operations. We hope they have a name tag long enough to fit both that title and his last name.
1. John Brackenborough
The longest last name in NHL history was written on a birth certificate in Parry Sound in the year 1897. John Brackenborough, affectionately nicknamed the ‘Spider’ by his teammates, started his career in 1915 before he took a three year military leave. His career was tragically cut short when he lost his right eye in a hockey game versus the University of Toronto. He went on to join the Boston Bruins, but only played six games with the club before retiring from the NHL entirely.
