Hossa is an interesting choice to “break the ice” (pun intended) for the next group of Blackhawks players with their jerseys retired. The Blackhawks mini-dynasty was sure to feature a few jersey retirements, most notably still active Chicago players Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. This will be the first jersey to head to the rafters since Pierre Pilote and Keith Magnuson had their numbers retired in a joint ceremony in November 2008. He did not spend the majority of his career in Chicago, only playing eight of his 19 NHL seasons with the Blackhawks.Ĭhicago has only retired seven numbers in their entire history. Then again he stopped in Chicago at the end of his cup hopping tour that saw him on the losing end of the Stanley Cup final with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings in the two years before joining the Blackhawks in 2010. Yes, Hossa was a part of all three cups of Chicago’s mini-dynasty from 2010-2015. Does he deserve the honor, or is their front office just being opportunistic? Does Hossa fit those? The Blackhawks will retire Marian Hossa’s jersey this season. Then again, a jersey retirement was supposed to be an even rarer honor, the kind saved for the game’s best and franchise icons. Hossa was a great enough player that his Hall of Fame credentials shouldn’t be called into question. Maybe some teams are trying to recognize as many players as possible.īoth those reasons might be what encouraged the Chicago Blackhawks to retire Marian Hossa’s number on November 20th. Maybe it’s because some teams see it as a glorious marketing opportunity. That’s not just in the NHL but in all professional sports. Jersey retirements seem to have gotten much more common. Granted the Devils are “new” by NHL standard, but it was always an interesting sightseeing Stanley Cup banners outnumber retired number banners (well, at least until Martin Brodeur was the fourth number retired during the 2015-2016 season). My New Jersey Devils only had two retired numbers for most of my life in Scott Stevens and Ken Danyeko (that number has since grown to five).
Seeing a player’s jersey retired seemed like the rarest of rare accomplishments growing up.
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