Mark Kastelic knows he won’t get to wear the same number his grandfather wore for the Bruins. Four, the most famous number in franchise history, has been hanging from the rafters since 1979.
No, Kastelic is not the grandson of Bobby Orr. His grandfather was Pat Stapleton, who was one of the last Bruins to wear No. 4 before Orr took the NHL by storm in 1966.
Stapleton may not have been the star that Orr was – no one was – but he was a very good defenseman in his own right. Stapleton was a three-time All-Star with the Chicago Blackhawks. In the 1968-69 season, he broke the NHL record for assists by a defenseman with 50, a record he held for one year until that Orr guy shattered it with 87. He played for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union, and actually retrieved the puck after Paul Henderson’s series-winning goal and held onto it for the rest of his life.
But Stapleton’s professional career started with two seasons in Boston from 1961-63. Now, more than 60 years later – and four years after Stapleton passed away at the age of 79 – his grandson will don the same spoked-B, just with a different number.
“To wear the same jersey that he's worn in the past is something that, personally for me, I think is really cool,” Kastelic said Tuesday. “I don't think very many guys ever get that opportunity. … It’s gonna be pretty special to put it on knowing he’s worn it in the past. I’m sure it’ll be a surreal feeling.”
The Bruins acquired Kastelic last week as part of the Linus Ullmark trade. The 25-year-old spent his first three NHL seasons with the Ottawa Senators, carving out a role for himself as a physical, defensive fourth-liner who is willing to drop the gloves and who excels on faceoffs (56.3% career).
While Kastelic was not the biggest part of the return, he was a player Bruins general manager Don Sweeney identified as someone who could fill some needs in the bottom six.
“We’re happy to add another right shot,” Sweeney said last week. “He’s well above 50% on his faceoffs, an area that we got a little bit wonky in the earlier part of the playoffs. … He can play both center and wing. Probably toggles pretty well with Johnny [Beecher] in that case, left-shot draws, right-shot draws in the defensive zone. We’re going to build in penalty-killing. … Brings an element of toughness that we value, and he’s really excited to be a Boston Bruin.”
That all sounds good to Kastelic. He is indeed excited to be a Bruin, and he was excited to hear Sweeney’s plan to get him more involved on the penalty kill. Kastelic said he had always killed penalties and taken pride in it, but the Senators curiously didn’t use him there despite his strong 5-on-5 defensive work (his 2.23 expected goals against per 60 minutes was tops on the team among players who played at least 40 games).
“That’s something that I always felt was a big part of my game in juniors and in the minors as well,” Kastelic said. “I feel very confident in my abilities on the penalty kill. … To hear him say that really motivates me to work on that part of my game more and work with the coaches and watch a lot of video. I think I bring a lot of good qualities to the penalty kill, which is faceoffs and a good stick and long reach, and not afraid to block shots as well.”
As for the physicality, that runs in the family. His father, Ed Kastelic, played 220 NHL games for the Washington Capitals and Hartford Whalers from 1985-92 and racked up a whopping 719 penalty minutes during that time while dropping the gloves with some of the toughest fighters of the era.
Mark Kastelic, who has 17 NHL fights to his name to date, brings some of that to Boston in addition to his grandfather’s connection to the franchise. Needless to say, the whole family is excited.
“They're really excited,” Kastelic said. “I think it's just pretty special and it means a lot to them, and it just means a lot to me following in my dad and my grandpa's footsteps, just being in the NHL.”
As for what number he will actually wear, keep an eye on 12. That’s the number Stapleton wore for the rest of his NHL career after leaving Boston, and it’s one Kastelic has worn to honor him in the past, including last year in Ottawa. Kevin Shattenkirk wore 12 for the Bruins last season, but it appears unlikely he’ll be re-signed.
Whether he’s wearing one of Stapleton’s numbers or not, Kastelic knows he’ll always have the hockey lessons he learned from his grandfather.
“He had a huge part in my upbringing and taught me a lot about the game and about being just an all-around player and like a very high-IQ player,” Kastelic said. “He always taught me about the mental side of the game as well, which I think I take more value in than anything, and just being positive in all situations, no matter what. … I just take a lot with me to this day from what he’s taught me along the way.”
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