Players you would like to be/should be honoured with their jersey retired

BlueBull

Habby Man
Oct 11, 2017
1,696
1,434
Vancouver Island
On the team he most influenced.
I know i talked about bobby smith, though i don't this will be retired but i think his number 15 has a shot of being retired either in montreal or minnesota. that's just an example though. Go forth!
 

MarkStone

Frankie Fryer
Mar 12, 2016
1,692
403
Hot take: None, jersey retirements are one of the more short-sighted traditions in North American professional sports. Honoring a number : fine. Retiring a number? No thanks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Iapyi and Whaleafs

DowntownBooster

Registered User
Jun 21, 2011
3,202
2,414
Winnipeg
Hot take: None, jersey retirements are one of the more short-sighted traditions in North American professional sports. Honoring a number : fine. Retiring a number? No thanks.

I agree. When I was much younger I thought it was great to see a number retired by a team. However, the older I get the less meaning there seems to be as there are so many retired numbers throughout the NHL. That's probably why we see 'football' type of numbers worn by players these days. It used to be that hockey jersey numbers ranged from 1 to 35 making it much easier for memorizing the players that wore a certain number.

I thought the Leafs originally had the right idea with honoring players by raising a banner with their name and number but they would leave the number in circulation. Most players growing up choose a number to emulate their favorite player and it's a shame when they make it to the NHL only to find that the number is often unavailable because it's been retired previously by the team they are on. I think the Leafs made a mistake when they decided to retire all the numbers that were previously just honored.

:jets
 
  • Like
Reactions: MarkStone

Whaleafs

“The Leafs are mulch again”
Mar 24, 2017
1,348
2,068
HFX
Hot take: None, jersey retirements are one of the more short-sighted traditions in North American professional sports. Honoring a number : fine. Retiring a number? No thanks.

> Be Montreal
> retire virtually every number under 30
> force players to wear high numbers
> unintentionally promote individualism
> be Montreal
 

MarkStone

Frankie Fryer
Mar 12, 2016
1,692
403
I agree. When I was much younger I thought it was great to see a number retired by a team. However, the older I get the less meaning there seems to be as there are so many retired numbers throughout the NHL. That's probably why we see 'football' type of numbers worn by players these days. It used to be that hockey jersey numbers ranged from 1 to 35 making it much easier for memorizing the players that wore a certain number.

I thought the Leafs originally had the right idea with honoring players by raising a banner with their name and number but they would leave the number in circulation. Most players growing up choose a number to emulate their favorite player and it's a shame when they make it to the NHL only to find that the number is often unavailable because it's been retired previously by the team they are on. I think the Leafs made a mistake when they decided to retire all the numbers that were previously just honored.

:jets

Yep, Leafs ruined a good thing because that policy was lumped in with all the bad decisions management/ownership has made with that club over the decades. Victim by association.
 

Terry Yake

Registered User
Aug 5, 2013
26,599
15,008
paul kariya for the ducks

although with his upcoming induction into the HOF I think he'll finally be willing to accept the organization's invite to "return" and finally get his # retired
 

GMR

Registered User
Jul 27, 2013
6,087
5,061
Parts Unknown
The fact that those 3 aren't retired is ridiculous what are the Red Wings thinking
Kelly and Fedorov departed under contentious circumstances. Not sure why Ullman isn't retired, other than maybe not winning the Cup. Also, he spent many seasons in Toronto before retiring.
 

VanIslander

A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
Sep 4, 2004
35,134
6,428
The #12 who blew past Malkin then here is deking around Crosby for a shorthanded goal.

crosby-controller-disconnected.gif
 

Iapyi

Registered User
Apr 19, 2017
5,072
2,361
Canadian Prairies
i completely agree with those who say that retiring #s is asinine. honour the player not the #.

just a minor point as well but in hockey they wear sweaters not jerseys.
 

ES

Registered User
Feb 14, 2004
4,151
821
Finland
I made a table in order to rank teams based on their history and number retirements.

The history takes account two things - the years contested and the number of Stanley Cups won. For each team I counted only their history in their current home as teams tend to evaluate their history differently - Stars respect two number retirements made by North Stars while Hurricanes and Avalanche have taken retired numbers from the previous home back to circulation. So I have counted Stars have 24-year-history and not 50. With Lehtinen's number going to rafters early next year, they have then three - Broten and Modano numbers have officially retired by Dallas Stars even though both played for North Stars (and in Broten's case, most of the career was in Minnesota)

One Stanley Cup adds 10% to the years contested. Therefore comparing two of the 1967 expansion teams, Blues with no Cups stands at 50, Penguins with 5 Cups is at 75. The Original Six takes first six places, with Canadiens on top at 367,2 (pre-NHL years counted, so it's 108 years * 3,4 thanks to 24 Cups)

This number is then divided by numbers retired +1. This +1 added so that teams with no retired numbers can be compared. Of those teams, Sharks have most years in business with 26.

Note that if number is retired for two players (such as Canadiens #16 for Elmer Lach and Henri Richard) it is only counted once.
SJ26 26 26,00
PIT50575225,00
DET9111191,1723,89
MTL10824367,21522,95
CHI916145,6620,80
NSH19 19 19,00
CBJ17 17 17,00
TOR100132301316,43
NYR914127,4814,16
CGY37140,7213,57
BOS936148,81013,53
ANA24126,4113,20
FLA24 24112,00
VAN47 4749,40
TB25127,529,17
NYI4546369,00
WSH43 4348,60
LA5026068,57
PHI5026068,57
MIN17 1718,50
EDM45567,578,44
OTT25 2528,33
NJ35345,557,58
DAL24126,436,60
STL50 5076,25
WPG6 6 6,00
BUF47 4775,88
CAR2012235,50
ARI21 2135,25
COL22226,463,77
VGK0 0 0,00
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Coyotes was a bit of difficult to evaluate - officially they have honored but however no played has used 7, 27 or 97 since the honoring ceremonies I included them. The table also has non-player numbers (MIN #1 and FLA #93) included.
 

Wingsfan 4 life

Registered User
Oct 9, 2016
1,711
428
I may be biased since I idolized him growing up, but I'd really like to see Steve Larmer's #28 go up into the United Center rafters.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->