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For The Wendel Clark Naysayers

by Mike Chen on 11/22/08 at 06:14 PM ET
Comments (1)

There seems to be a lot of anti-Wendel Clark sentiment floating around both the written press and other media outlets as the Toronto Maple Leafs get ready to honor Clark’s #17 (if you recall, the Leafs don’t retire numbers, they honor the player and the jersey in the rafters instead). The argument is that Clark was a very good player but not one of the greats; his heart and courage are to be admired and his skills were certainly noteworthy but nothing that’s worth cementing into history.

While I agree that Clark doesn’t have Mario Lemieux-like numbers (or awards), to me the whole notion of retiring a number comes down to what the player meant to the organization and the fans. And in the case of Clark, he was a heart-and-soul player that played a tough, respectful game while putting up pretty good numbers on some truly awful teams. Leafs fans love the guy because he busted his butt and he urged his teammates to do the same.

Every franchise has its own history and it’s unfair for someone in, say, Denver to criticize a jersey honor/retirement in, say, Montreal because unless you live there, you’re not going to fully understand the how and why this happened. Here are some players that could easily be head scratchers but they make sense for the team:

-Adam Graves, New York Rangers: A very good player who never was a true great, Graves is beloved among the Blueshirt faithful because of both his stoic play on the ice and his well-known community work off the ice. Going by pure statistics, it’s doubtful most teams would ever grant him the honor of a retired jersey but because Graves means so much to the Ranger franchise in so many different ways, it’s acceptable. It’s all about context.

-Dale Hunter, Washington Capitals: If we’re basing forward jersey retirements based on numbers, it’s hard to argue for a guy who was significantly less than a point-per-game player. Hunter, though, was the longtime Capitals captain, a good soldier who carried his team forward through thick and thin. He dropped the gloves when necessary but he wasn’t too bad with the puck either. One could easily argue that Graves was more talented but it’s hard to determine who meant more to their respective franchises.

-Trevor Linden, Vancouver Canucks: Linden’s #16 is going up in the Vancouver rafters in a few weeks and it’s a similar situation to Hunter. Beloved to the fanbase both on and off the ice, the swan song given to Linden from the Vancouver faithful was umpteen times greater than Markus Naslund’s final skate in Vancouver. In fact, Linden’s numbers are actually worse than Hunter’s, but like the aforementioned players, it all comes down to what the player means to the true Canuck fan.

Talk to a longtime fan of any of the teams I just mentioned and chances are you’ll see their face light up when these players are mentioned. Retiring a number can be about more than just on-ice performance; when a player transcends statistics and becomes ingrained in both the community and the organization, that’s something truly special—and that’s why you won’t get any argument from me about Clark being honored by the Leafs (and believe me, I really don’t care for the Leafs).

And going off on a tangent from this, one thing I really respected in St. Louis was how the organization stated that they weren’t going to let any of their players wear #16 after Brett Hull departed because they knew they were going to retire it. As an on-again/off-again Blackhawks fan, I was always baffled why the team didn’t treat Chris Chelios’ #7 the same way. I could understand if they didn’t retire other great Hawks from the 90’s (Jeremy Roenick, Tony Amonte, Ed Belfour) but Chelios had more tenure and impact in the Windy City than any of those players. However, I was pleasantly surprised when a Hawks TV broadcast had a poll that asked the fanbase whether Chelios’ number should be retired. Of course, the old fart has to finish his infinite playing career first.

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Chris+Chelios, Retired+Numbers, Wendel+Clark,

Comments

Another name to add: Bobby Nystrom. He had something like 600 career points, but he was “Mr. Islander” because of what he meant to the team and the community. Nobody complains about his number being retired.

Maybe a better comparison: Don Mattingly. He didn’t make the HOF. He never won a ring. He may have been over-rated. But he was the best player of an era for the Yankees. Nobody complains about his number being honored nex to Ruth and Gehrig.

Posted by Down Goes Brown on 11/23/08 at 02:52 PM ET

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About Mike Chen’s Hockey Blog

Mike Chen prides himself in being the only hockey writer integrating puck discussion with both Morrissey quotes and Star Wars references. Since 2004, he’s blogged about all things hockey and currently contributes to FoxSports.com, the Battle of California, and RotoRob.

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