The number 8 hasn’t exactly been a lucky number for Flames players. The landscape is littered with players who wore it for one or two seasons and there was a six year stretch (1990-96) where no Flames player wore that number. Jusso Valimaki currently sports #8 on the Flames roster, so there is some hope for that much maligned digit in Flames franchise history. But before there Juuso, there was Valeri Bure.
You could argue that no one player really symbolizes the struggles of those late 90’s Flames teams more Bure. The potential was there, but the results weren’t as a team.