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When Ovechkin retires, does the NHL 'retire' the number 8

Fenway

Fenway

HF Bookie and Bruins Historian
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Sep 26, 2007
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Granted, as of today, Gretzy still has the most career records in the NHL, but Alex still has something left in the tank. Could he score 105 more goals to hit 1,000? You can not bet against him.

99 was an easy number to retire league-wide. 8, however, has a history on other teams, but #8 has not been retired as often as you would think.

  • Cam Neely, 2004: #8 Boston
  • Teemu Selanne, 2015: #8 Anaheim
  • Frank Finnigan, 1992: #8 Ottawa
  • Bill Goldsworthy, 1992: #8 Minnesota North Stars now Dallas
  • Barclay Plager, 1981: #8 St. Louis

Bettman opened the door for this in 1999, and the NHL has to consider retiring #8 league-wide.

Alex has baggage, but Bettman was on Long Island to honor him. Obviously #99 stays retired, but should #8 be retired as well?

capitalsoutsider.com

Alex Ovechkin's Records - Capitals Outsider

Alex Ovechkin has a number of NHL and Capitals records. Though he's still trying to get the ultimate record - most regular season goals in a career - he's
capitalsoutsider.com capitalsoutsider.com
 
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Shark Finn said:
Didn't Ovechkin already state he's going back to Russia after next season?
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He is certainly entitled to do that.

I worked for NBC at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, and Alex was the face of the entire Russian team.

1744012987190.png


I thought Bettman was wrong in 1999, as it was a slap at hockey history. Was Gretzy the best player of the '80s and '90s? Absolutely. The best of all time? That is open to debate.
 
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no. there are too many other players associated with it for it just to be "ovechkin's number" for all time. in addition to the ones you mentioned there are two future hall of fame defensemen, doughty and makar. + lots of other notable players like pavelski, werenski, trouba. the reason they could get away with retiring 99 was because nobody else had worn it. they could probably do 66, 68, 87, 97 for the same reason (i.e. they are really just associated with one person each). not that they should but they could.
 
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OV has 1239 points less than Gretzky, 3 SCs less, and is not a top 10 player all time. No knowledgeable fan thinks the NHL has to consider this.
 
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Gretzky has an argument for the most perfect career - not just in hockey, but in any team sports, ever. It was kind of a unique and special circumstances to retire his number.

I can't see that ever happening again. Ovechkin is nowhere close.

Also - the player in the league today most likely to surpass Ovechkin in all-time ranking (outside of Crosby/McDavid who are argubaly ahead already) is.......Makar. Who also happens to wear Jersey #8.

If when Gretzky was retiring Jagr was also wearing jersey #99, I'm sure the league wouldn't have retired it.
 
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Fenway said:
He is certainly entitled to do that.

I worked for NBC at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, and Alex was the face of the entire Russian team.

View attachment 1008038

I thought Bettman was wrong in 1999, as it was a slap at hockey history. Was Gretzy the best player of the '80s and '90s? Absolutely. The best of all time? That is open to debate.
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I mean, not really
 
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They should not have retired Gretzky's number, and this would make much less sense. I've never even heard it suggested until now... won't happen.
 
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Did he break Gretzky's all time point record? Pretty sure he got his number retired because he beat Howe by like 1000 points.


Gretzky's number being retired league wide is stupid as well. His number should be retired by the Oilers, and Kings.
 
Michael Farkas said:
If Gretzky wore 9, I sincerely doubt it would have been retired league wide. It was a perfect storm that he lit the record book on fire and wore a number that no one was wearing nor wore (essentially) anyway...
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You even see this in beer league.

No one bats an eye at 2,4,8,9,19.

You'll get chirped if you wear 66,68,87,97,99 though. Even see 88 get chirped.
 
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Number 8 is a too common number to get retired, like mentionned if Gretzky wore a more general number chance are he would have not been retired league wide.

When he will retire, many active nhler will be wearing it (current list this season):
8
Tyson Barrie CGY
Michael Bunting PIT
Brent Burns CAR
Drake Caggiula EDM
Ben Chiarot DET
Noah Dobson NYI
Ryan Donato CHI
Drew Doughty LAK
Andreas Englund NSH
Cale Fleury SEA
Conor Garland VAN
Dennis Gilbert BUF
Johnathan Kovacevic NJD
Cale Makar COL
Mike Matheson MTL
J.T. Miller NYR
Alex Ovechkin WSH
Nick Schmaltz UTA
Nico Sturm FLA
Chris Tanev TOR
Jacob Trouba NYR
Zach Werenski CBJ
Cameron York PHI

in 1997,
99
Wayne Gretzky* NYR


Just on that technical level, either
) asking people to change their numbers, a much bigger ask than retiring a number no one wear (and no one would have for a while),
) Putting a grant father close, so by the time no one wear it, kids following the league would not have seen Ovechkin play .... That not much fun. Specially with a Makar being number 8 for them.

League did not remove number 9 after Howe-Richard, 66 after Lemieux, Gretzky will be a one off for hockey career at least would be my guess.

I feel this is less than 1% of 1% chance of happening type and the way the question asked: Obviously #99 stays retired, but should #8 be retired as well? As if anyone would have possibly considered the question as changing the #99 for #8 as the league wide retiree numbers, is getting way too prisoner of the moment. Ovechkin is not even clearly the most legendary player of his own generation.
 
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No way. As great as Ovi is, retiring 99 was unique because it’s such an iconic number and unlikely it would be in circulation. 8 is too much of a normal number to be taken out altogether.
 
no chance

retiring 99 league wide was dumb and only happened because it's a unique number that was almost never worn
 
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Beliveau said:
OV has 1239 points less than Gretzky, 3 SCs less, and is not a top 10 player all time. No knowledgeable fan thinks the NHL has to consider this.
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If you were "knowledgeable" fan you'd know about different scoring eras.
Adjusted Ovechkin has ~700 points less but ~240 goals more than Gretzky.
240 is a very huge amount of goals => 12 goals difference each season in 20 years career=> 50G vs 38G each year average. Howe has only 285 adjusted points less than Gretzky.
Also big teams were filled with HOFers, for some reason those so called "knowledgeable fans" pretend that it's not worth adjusting too.
 
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