Satans Hockey Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 (edited) The number was not retired. It was "honored", much like the Maple Leafs do with their numbers. (Apparently one must die tragically to get one's number retired in Toronto.) And it took a while to get to this point. At first Lou wouldn't hear of any ceremony to honor Kinnear; it's all part of Lou's "the team is more important than any one player" stance. It took quite a lot of convincing to allow Lou to give the go-ahead for Geordie Kinnear Night, and even then he wouldn't let the Rats retire #4.This goes back to the long-running dispute on these boards about what the Devils should do when Stevens and Brodeur retire. Some are for retiring some numbers, others are completely against the concept. I like the way the Leafs do it. His number is up in the rafters, so who cares if someone still wears it. Edited July 29, 2004 by NJDEVILICEONFIRE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowdyFan42 Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I like the way the Leafs do it. His number is up in the rafters, so who cares if someone still wears it. Okay, fine. Let's rip that stupid #25 off of Hale's back and give him a real defenseman's number... like 3. And I'm sure you'll have no objection to giving #4 to Matteucci when Stevens retires. Oh, and while we're at it, when Marty finally calls it quits, let's immediately reissue #30 to Ahonen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satans Hockey Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I like the way the Leafs do it. His number is up in the rafters, so who cares if someone still wears it. Okay, fine. Let's rip that stupid #25 off of Hale's back and give him a real defenseman's number... like 3. And I'm sure you'll have no objection to giving #4 to Matteucci when Stevens retires. Oh, and while we're at it, when Marty finally calls it quits, let's immediately reissue #30 to Ahonen. I like the way Leafs do it. It doesn't bother me if someone else weres that number because it didn't take anything away from what the player who wore it before them. Im sure many people don't feel this way but I don't mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHICO IS GOD Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Numbers should be retired but it should be a selective process. And this is little off-topic but what does a team do if they run out of numbers? (would be a while before something like that would happen, but some of the older and more prestigous franchises may encounter a problem like this in the future) There's been players that have asked permission from the player and team to use a retired number but it would be a bit of a problem for teams to just "un-retire" numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyk Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 They would probably do something like the Leafs do and just honor the number which allows a player to wear it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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