Wasn't it Leclaire that was living like 5 minutes away walking from the Forum in Montreal? I'm pretty sure he knows very well what number he is wearing.Personally as a Montreal & Roy fan I find it disgraceful.
Did you find every youth goalie in North America wanting 29 for Dryden or 30 when Plante took it from the realm of the backup into THE goalie number offensive?
Goalie numbers have always been special. There's a limited selection, and all of them will have been worn by a huge number of goalies, some great, some lousy, in the past. #33 will follow that path, I'm sure. The whole jersey number to honor the best goalie playing when the young goalie was growing up thing has a long history.
Does it matter though? What is it about Marios legacy that leaves his number untouchable while guys like Orr, Howe/Richard, Roy can have their numbers worn and he can't? Is the sole reason that no significant player wore his number? I mean if that's all that's really not much of a reason. Many players have worn their number in honor of past greats(Yzerman, Lecavalier etc.). Is that an insult to those players?
It's not necessarily all about greatness- though being one of the four who could legitimately be ranked as the best ever to play the game helps- it's about recognition. #66 and #99 are pretty damned unique. Very few people have ever worn them, two in the case of 66 (ojink, not counting the canucks guy who probably won't ever wear that in a regular season game) and four in the case of 99 (Wilf Paiement, Rick Dudley, Joe Lamb). They're too closely associated with one player and just that player, and the players they're rather exclusively attached to are two of the four top players ever. Yzerman, Hull/Howe/Richard, Orr, may all be good, but their numbers are common ones. On a bruins jersey, a 4 may mean a hell of a lot, but what does it mean when a player on the Hurricanes takes it (other then that Aaron Ward needs to get his ass off the ice?) Not a whole lot. But if a player on the Canes goes for 66 or 99, you bet your ass that there's going to be uproar around the league even if he is a star.