Toggle sidebar

Who is the next Ranger to get his number retired?

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
Amazing Kreiderman said:
As much as I loved Graves and Richter, I never really felt they deserved their numbers to be up in the rafters. But, at the time, before the big four went up, we only had 2 numbers up there. It's amazing that in almost 80 years of a franchise, only Giacomin and Gilbert got their numbers raised to the rafters.
Click to expand...

Bill Cook and Frank Boucher should have been the first 2 raised half a century ago.
 
A lot of 'ifs', but, if the Rangers rebuild yields a Cup and he is captain, I could see Kreider's 20 going up. By the end of his career, if he's a career Ranger, captain, 300-goal-scorer, and Cup winner, I could see it. I appreciate it's highly speculative. But he has put in a good foundation.
 
Lundqvist will be the next jersey. Very little doubt in my mind.

As for the Rangers approach to Jersey retirements, I don’t have a problem with any of the numbers up there. From a personal standpoint, I think there isn’t a set formula for the process. Some of its on-ice, some of its off the ice, it’s awards, influence, time served, etc.

Outside of Hank, I don’t know if there’s one that inherently just feels right.
 
really what they need to do is create a team hall of fame which i'm sure would be called the garden of honor....when the building was renovated they could have created an area for fans to go and see all things about the past history and then you could honor and teach younger fans about lester patrick, frank boucher, bill & bun cook, brad park, phil esposito, ron greschner and so on without flooding the rafters with banners and devaluing the honor while also still paying respect and tribute to the history of the franchise...
 
  • Like
Reactions: lemonybergamot
egelband said:
A lot of 'ifs', but, if the Rangers rebuild yields a Cup and he is captain, I could see Kreider's 20 going up. By the end of his career, if he's a career Ranger, captain, 300-goal-scorer, and Cup winner, I could see it. I appreciate it's highly speculative. But he has put in a good foundation.
Click to expand...
Bern would literally die of happiness if this happens. And then we’ll read a post from him using 77,373,942 words to describe how right he was about CK and how wrong we all were about him.

In all honesty, I love CK, but anyone considering him is a slap in the face to numerous Ranger players that have trumped his performance here in NYC.
 
Thirty One said:
OK, you HAVE to retire exactly one player's number from after the 2005 lockout, in addition to Lundqvist.

Go.
Click to expand...

There's no good answer to this:
  • Staal, based on longevity. 892 games played. Girardi is the only one in the neighborhood with 788. Kreider and everyone else are in the 500s and below.
  • Jagr, based on peak. 1.18 points per game as a Ranger. No one else is close. Gaborik had 0.90. Zibanejad and Straka in the 0.8s. Panarin doesn't meet my arbitrary minimum game threshold.
  • McDonagh or Stepan, based on full body of work. Combination of games played (500s) and production.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: CasusBelli
Crease said:
There's no good answer to this:
  • Staal, based on longevity. 892 games played. Girardi is the only one in the neighborhood with 788. Kreider and everyone else are in the 500s and below.
  • Jagr, based on peak. 1.18 points per game as a Ranger. No one else is close. Gaborik had 0.90. Zibanejad and Straka in the 0.8s. Panarin doesn't meet my arbitrary minimum game threshold.
  • McDonagh or Stepan, based on full body of work. Combination of games played (500s) and production.
Click to expand...
Yeah if you were forced to choose, it would have to be Staal. He'll finish with well over 900 games in uniform, and while he had sucked for years now, you can at least say, "Well he battled through the injuries that wrecked the second half of his career."

Of course none of those guys are worthy, but if you HAD to choose, gun to head, I don't know how you wouldn't go with Staal. Before his was crippled, he was an excellent player.
 
After Hank, probably Staal. Like others have said, he's played the most games, management favorite, assistant captain for years, good team guy, overcame injuries, etc. It'd be a good ending to a feel good story, but not really worthy when you look at his performance imo. I don't think Staal ever led the team in scoring, or was an instrumental playoff performer?? Don't think he ever won any individual awards either, did he? Same reasons I would not retire nearly any of the ex-Rangers mentioned like Callahan, Stepan, Nash, McDonagh, etc. they shouldn't be retired for being fan favorites. Zibanejad and Panarin haven't been here long enough, or accomplished anything.
 
White Death 24 said:
Lundqvist I get.

Other than that, can we stop making this an achievement for all but the elite of the elite?

Pretty soon there won't be any single digits or traditional goalie numbers left and that's terrible. Who the hell wants to see 24 shirts with 70 -98 skating on the ice?

After a while, it seems to be more of a cash grab/fan stroke job than an actual honor.

IMO, it adds to the lore when new, dynamic players carry on the legacy of a number. If Graves didn't wear #9 cuz Bathgate, or Leetch didn't hear #2 if we retired Park long ago. Heck, we have #1 and #35 in the rafters. If Hank goes at #30 what's left? 30/31/33? Cuz 32/34 are typical enforcer numbers.

To me, it starts to lose it's aura when teams retire soooooo many players.

I reiterate. The legacy is more honorable than the retirement.
Click to expand...

It's absolutely ridiculous to retire so many classic numbers. From the numbers 1 to 11, 6 numbers are retired. An absolute farce and it has become more of a gimmick than it holding any value.

You almost start applauding the fact that we haven't won that many cups, because if so, there wouldn't be a single number left.
 
  • Like
Reactions: White Death 24
DutchNYR said:
It's absolutely ridiculous to retire so many classic numbers. From the numbers 1 to 11, 6 numbers are retired. An absolute farce and it has become more of a gimmick than it holding any value.

You almost start applauding the fact that we haven't won that many cups, because if so, there wouldn't be a single number left.
Click to expand...

I think teams will eventually get to the point where they unretire numbers but allow only special players to wear them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DutchNYR
The darkest answer to this would be that the next two numbers retired are 30 and then 31. After 31 puts up a dozen great years here without a cup. Sorry for ruining your weekend with that thought.

In reality, someone probably goes up to the rafters before then. Park would probably have the best odds. Staal and Girardi would be dumb but I can see it happening. Wouldn’t mind Greschner. If Kreider plays out the rest of his contract here with a few more deep playoff runs, I can see that too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom