It appears the Leafs currently have a practice of keeping honoured numbers out of circulation anyway, with JVR being the last to wear such a number. Why not just make it official if it'll make all the greats happy? You could make it part of the Leafs' centennial season celebration next year, converting an "honoured" number into a "retired" number every 2 weeks. You could convert them all in the span of one year that way, or at the very most two years.
You might run into the problem of asking whether Wendel Clark deserves to have his #17 retired. I say retire all current honoured players, and then raise standards for future players.
see when everyone gets into this whole "the #s should be retired. I always wonder why and people generally go with "well everyone else does it."
i don't know if this sits with me. I like the concept that they were going with. Like
special people get to wear
special numbers. Or like. Mats made #13 special, YOU could wear #13 special. etc. And I think it also kinda boils down to this.
it's always about the crest. not the name on the back or the number. If the person died - show respect to the # and put it out of circulation what have you.
but I don't get this whole push of "It's the Crest on the Front - but hey! if they're good retire them because everyone else does." no. Pay your respects and show that these specific people did the crest well (I suppose) - but it's still not even about Name/Number. it's STILL about the leafs.
that's how i see it and why i'll never push for a full # retirement
I don't blame MLSE in the sense that it's not their direct obligation to educate fans, but you couldn't expect fans to go read up on books or Wikipedia to learn the Leafs' history. It's up to MLSE to be proactive and reach out to the fans and make history come to life.
Legends Row is a fantastic start. The next best thing they can do after that is set aside some space in the ACC for an exhibit covering players who a) couldn't make Legends Row because of room, and b) don't deserve a statue but still deserve a mention in Leafs' history. That way, you can cover players like Reg Noble, Babe Dye, Busher Jackson, Joe Primeau, Red Horner, Bill Barilko, Bob Baun, Allan Stanley, Carl Brewer and others.
The possibilities are infinite depending on how much space MLSE can set aside for such a project. I think it's especially beneficial for them to include Noble and Dye because the Leafs are the only team besides the Habs who can trace their history back to the founding of the NHL. Why wouldn't they take advantage of those extra years of history that no one else can?
the first off-season I became a leaf fan, i TOTALLY went to Wikipedia and googled up EVERYTHING. like. I learned about the pats, about Smythe, about Keon etc etc. (I really studied up on mats because if not for him and his overtime winner during the Ottawa sweep - I'd be a Sens fan.... (ew) )but that was on me.
There is a reason why people feel that Montreal does history SO well - because it's sooo respected/honoured. Detroit has a stall for Lindsey and he's there at times (they did that for Keon Saturday night). but like we never (used to) do that. it was like - "Push out Bower again, get the cheer, play the game."
and i truly have to wonder (again going back to my 19,000 x 5 x 1 being a real hard-core fan mathology) how many ppl REALLY know who bower is? (etc etc).
that's where MLSE could have a section on tehe website or something.
