Retiring Numbers

[hockeybronx]

It's late and I'm thinking...

Do you guys think there will ever be a time when teams have to "unretire" a players jersey number. There are only so many numbers and it's unlikely that we'll go to three digit numbers.

At what point will we look back and realize that the person who's number got retired wasn't that good afterall.

[roopi]

It seems as though teams usually only retire a number every 10 year so it is pretty safe to say that most teams should be ok for quite some time.

[t3rry]

i think maybe they will decide that "this number is only reired with this jersy"

[aiy_yah]

My understanding is that they only retire a number for a certain team. For example, Cam Neely's #8 is retired in Boston only. A team like Calgary can have a player wearing #8. The only exception is that #99 is retired throughout the league. But, it's almost sacreligious to wear that number anyways.

Well, unless you are Kent Nilsson, who, as I recall reading, wore #99 one season.

[t3rry]

Originally posted by aiy_yah
My understanding is that they only retire a number for a certain team. For example, Cam Neely's #8 is retired in Boston only. A team like Calgary can have a player wearing #8. The only exception is that #99 is retired throughout the league. But, it's almost sacreligious to wear that number anyways.

yea but there are still only 99 numbers per team

[Team_Mclaren]

there's been talk that they can go triple digits.....

[88CRX]

Originally posted by t3rry



yea but there are still only 99 numbers per team

so.......... most teams dont even have any retired

[max_boost]

I don't see it being an issue. When Lemieux officially calls it quits, the NHL should officially retire #66 as well.

[buh_buh]

yes there are only 100 numbers but there are only ~30 players on a roster. You'll need to retire 70 jerseys before you run out of numbers to use.

[jdmsource]

Originally posted by buh_buh
yes there are only 100 numbers but there are only ~30 players on a roster. You'll need to retire 70 jerseys before you run out of numbers to use.

ya good call kevin

[hockeybronx]

I know that there are a lot of numbers, but I'm thinking about the long term future.

Look at teams like Montreal, they must have 10-15 numbers retired.

When you compare what was considered good way back when to what is good now, then pretty much the top half of every team these days should be retired.

The game is faster, the players are stronger, there are more goals and yet more saves and players are reaching new heights.

[buh_buh]

Originally posted by hockeybronx
Look at teams like Montreal, they must have 10-15 numbers retired.

uh... the Montreal Canadien's have been around since like 1910 and they have retired 8 numbers (including Gretzky). In order for them to retire 62 more numbers, it would take them another 634 years to do it

You think hockey will still even be around in 634 years???

[hockeybronx]

634 years hey?

Yeah I wonder if hockey will be around then. Hockey will probably consist of superhuman robots playing at levels humans could never play and all we do is sit back and bet on it all.

Life without hockey, man I'm glad I'll be dead by then!