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Evening Line
by Paul on 02/12/08 at 08:38 PM ET
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via Bob Duff of the Windsor Star,
Former Windsor Spitfires captain Adam Graves is a wonderful person and deserves every accolade he receives, but aren’t the New York Rangers getting a little carried away when the recent announcement that they plan to retire the No. 9 sweater worn by Graves sometime during the 2008-09 season? Sure, he was a 50-goal scorer, a Stanley Cup winner and a stand-up guy in the community, but sweater retirements should be rare occurrences and left for players headed to the Hall of Fame - like Andy Bathgate, another Ranger who wore No. 9, won a Hart Trophy with them and is already enshrined in the Hall.
Filed in: NHL Teams, New York Rangers | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Adam+Graves,
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I’m not old enough to have seen Bathgate play, but I’m sure he was a better player than Graves, based on stats and trophies alone. Still, teams retire numbers for players based on more than just stats. Being a Hall of Famer isn’t a prerequisite for having your number retired by the team you played for. It seems to me that retiring a player’s number is also a way of saying that this player meant more to this organization than simply being a great player.
Adam Graves is one of the most (if not the most) beloved Rangers in team history. Plenty of players wore #9 after Bathgate left (starting immediately after he left, as a matter of fact, though that might have been the practice back then). Since Graves, only Pavel Bure has worn #9, and he asked permission from Graves to use it. There has been a sense around this team that you don’t wear #9, just like you didn’t wear #2 from when Leetch left until Jan. 24 when it was retired. Graves was traded in 2001, and Bure retired in 2003, so it’s possible that the feeling that Graves “owns” #9 might have faded with time (though with him still working as a public face of the Rangers, it would take a while). Again, times have changed and I’m sure that this obsession with numbers wasn’t the same back when Bathgate played. But the connection that Graves has with Rangers fans is extremely strong, and no Rangers fans I know think he doesn’t deserve this honor.
Since Graves has always been very unselfish, maybe the Rangers should have him share the number, if so many people think Bathgate is being slighted here. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.
Posted by K24 from NYC on 02/12/08 at 09:52 PM ET