Chris Phillip's number 4 to be retired

[saskriders]

Surprised nobody has made a thread on this yet.

Personally I am happy to see this happening, and have been saying for a while that I think 1000 games with the Sens should guarantee a number retirement. Even if he was never elitea faded in his later years he was very good in his prime, and was an essential part of our formative and best years.

I hope that some day 25 and 65 can be up there, even assuming Karlsson doesn't return.

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[Stylizer1]

Surprised nobody has made a thread on this yet.

Personally I am happy to see this happening, and have been saying for a while that I think 1000 games with the Sens should guarantee a number retirement. Even if he was never elitea faded in his later years he was very good in his prime, and was an essential part of our formative and best years.

I hope that some day 25 and 65 can be up there, even assuming Karlsson doesn't return.

He was a good player for us but no worthy of having his number retired. Neither is Chris Neil or Karlsson.

 

[robsenz]

Love Phillips, but I don't see how his number gets retired without Neil right there beside him

 

[Fandlauer]

Well deserved as the longest serving Sen. Neil I could take it or leave it. I'm a Karlsson fanboy but by the end of his career he will probably have played the majority for another team, if San Jose wins a cup let them do it.

 

[milkbag]

He almost led us to the Stanley cup finals.

Standards are a good thing to have

 

[thinkwild]

I keep thinking of the hall of fame debates where we wonder how the standards got so low as to let some players in back in the early days. And now we are supposed to use them as comparables. No more #4's in Ottawa because of Phillips? Imagine 20 years from now we win a cup with 5 all stars and a phillips like #4 dman the debates they will have.

But Chris Phillips was a great warrior for Ottawa. Coming in as a highly touted offensive dman, takes his first year off to work on the farm to help his parents, had to play wing at times to get ice time as they tried i guess to restore his offensive ability from junior. And then finally settling in with Volchie and Chara as a rock back there, moreso in the playoffs. Glad we get to honour him.

 

[Sensung]

No to either of the Chris' getting their # retired.

 

[coladin]

Well deserved. He isn’t a HOF, obviously, but seeing someone else wear 4 would always look weird. Kind of like seeing 19 out there

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Phillips played in 1,179 games over 17 seasons with the Senators, who selected him No. 1 overall in the 1996 NHL Draft. He played his final game on Feb. 5, 2015.

Through the years, he scored 288 points on 71 goals and 217 assists.

Couple of great articles

Senators to retire former alternate captain Chris Phillips' number - Sportsnet.ca

Phillips to have No. 4 retired by Senators

https://www.tsn.ca/ottawa-senators-to-retire-chris-phillips-number-1.1377000

 

[TheDebater]

Not many players can claim they played their entire career with only one team (not even Alfie). Retiring a jersey is not simply just for the "elite" players, it is for the players that made an impact on their team and are basically associated with said team. When you think "Chris Phillips", the next thought it automatically "Ottawa Senator". He was also a very good player and had a long NHL career with over 1,000 games while providing us with some memorable moments.

This team is young and needs to start building some history for future generations to look up at the rafters and ask "who were those guys?". In my opinion at this point only Alfie and Phillips should have their numbers retired. Spezza very well could have been close, but I put him in the same group as Hossa (remember him), Karlsson and Chara. Maybe the only time I would consider retiring Karlsson's number as a Senator is if for some miraculous reason, he returns here in the future and retires as a Senator. But in 10 years time, looking back,his 600 games played as a Senator might not be enough to define him as a Senator. However, if his career is cut short by injury and say he plays only another 200-300 games, then I could flip my opinion in favour of retiring his jersey too.

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

Why'd we even make the Ring of Honour?

I assumed it would be for players like Phillips and Neil - career Sens who had the tenure, but not the accolades for number retirement. But apparently 1000 games is all you need, and if you're retiring Phillips there's no reason not to retire Neil as well...

As for Karlsson, are you guys off your rocker? Over 600 games, highest scoring defenseman in franchise history, two Norris trophies, a 4x First Team All Star, team captain, and a guy who should by all accounts still be here? If they don't retire his number within three years of his retirement, I'll turn my Fandom card in and go cheer for the Leafs.

 

[The Lewler]

I gotta say, I'm not sure about this one.

Ring of Honour, absolutely.

Permanent retirement of #4? I dunno. And yes I was here for his whole career. I remember when Big Rig was elite shutdown.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Don’t really agree with it. He was never a franchise player and it sets a pretty low bar.

 

[Qward]

Why is it against Buffalo on a Tuesday night in February?

 

[Sensung]

Why is it against Buffalo on a Tuesday night in February?

Sell tickets!!!

 

[JungleBeat]

Not worthy of it.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Why'd we even make the Ring of Honour?

I assumed it would be for players like Phillips and Neil - career Sens who had the tenure, but not the accolades for number retirement. But apparently 1000 games is all you need, and if you're retiring Phillips there's no reason not to retire Neil as well...

As for Karlsson, are you guys off your rocker? Over 600 games, highest scoring defenseman in franchise history, two Norris trophies, a 4x First Team All Star, team captain, and a guy who should by all accounts still be here? If they don't retire his number within three years of his retirement, I'll turn my Fandom card in and go cheer for the Leafs.

I had an opinion, but then I saw this and it says everything I could ever say and more.

People who think EK isn't worth of getting his number retired here are out to lunch AND dinner.

 

[Inkling]

If it were up to me, I would not retire #4, but at the same time I'm not super against it. It's very rare for a player to play that many games and people under-rate him because he didn't put up a lot of points but he was a really great shutdown D-man for the Sens for a long time. It makes it a bit awkward for Chris Neil though since he also has over 1000 games but he wasn't nearly the skilled player that Phillips was, although he contributed a huge amount of heart and leadership.

 

[Sun God Nika]

This is actually a joke. I respect Phillip's for his tenure a lil mad at him for staying a few years after he should of retired but he is no where near worthy enough to have his number beside alfie

 

[TheDebater]

What makes a number worthy of retirement? Is there some league wide standard that I am unaware of? Every team is different and every team has it's own unique players that provided something memorable for that team over the years. There is a very very strong possibility that no other player comes close to the number of games played as a Senator that Phillips played. That to me is an important accomplishment in this day and age of money-first players. Furthermore, Phillips was actually a good defenseman most of his career and was a leader who brought his best effort most games and led by example, plus he scored a couple of big playoff goals in his career too.

Not every player who has his number retirement has to be an elite 1000+ point type player, that would be unfair to the defensive defenseman type players who are pretty valuable to a contending team.

 

[Kamina]

As with everything, our team has lower standards for jersey retirement compared to the rest of the league.

I suspect this decision is also money-related. They'll take every opportunity to milk glory day nostalgia for ticket sales.

 

[TheDebater]

As with everything, our team has lower standards for jersey retirement compared to the rest of the league.

I suspect this decision is also money-related. They'll take every opportunity to milk glory day nostalgia for ticket sales.

I would buy a 90's era Chris Phillip's Jersey.

 

[Stylizer1]

Spezza deserves it too then.

 

[SPF6ty9]

This is actually a joke. I respect Phillip's for his tenure a lil mad at him for staying a few years after he should of retired but he is no where near worthy enough to have his number beside alfie

My thoughts as well, it's kind of embarrassing that our standards for number retirement are so low. Phillips should be ring of honour, nothing more. Canadiens are running out of numbers because of all their HOFers and we're putting up a banner for a member of the Hall of Kind of Good for Maybe a Little While But Played a Long Time. Rolls off the tongue.

 

[The Lewler]

What makes a number worthy of retirement? Is there some league wide standard that I am unaware of? Every team is different and every team has it's own unique players that provided something memorable for that team over the years. There is a very very strong possibility that no other player comes close to the number of games played as a Senator that Phillips played. That to me is an important accomplishment in this day and age of money-first players. Furthermore, Phillips was actually a good defenseman most of his career and was a leader who brought his best effort most games and led by example, plus he scored a couple of big playoff goals in his career too.

Not every player who has his number retirement has to be an elite 1000+ point type player, that would be unfair to the defensive defenseman type players who are pretty valuable to a contending team.

I vehemently disagree with you. Retired jerseys are for extremely elite high performing players.

I'm not saying a truly elite defensive defenceman couldn't get there with that numbers of games played, but one with zero Stanley Cups absolutely doesn't cut it. (ie Ken Daneyko in comparison)