Bleacher Report’s Joe Yerdon offers a list of 11 NHL alumni who should have their numbers retired by their NHL employers, and two of his picks are more or less “slam dunks”:
Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings
Seeing how long it took the Detroit Red Wings to honor Sergei Fedorov and retire his number made us wonder how long it might take for them to do the same with some of their more recent greats.
We’ve already seen them retire Nicklas Lidström’s No. 5 in 2014 and he wasn’t elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame until the following year. But two other more modern Red Wings are worthy of number retirements as well.
Pavel Datsyuk was elected to the Hall as part of the Class of 2024 and Henrik Zetterberg has been eligible for election since 2021. Both players were vital to helping them win the Stanley Cup in 2008 and returning to the Final the following year as well. Datsyuk was also part of the 2002 Cup championship team and was a human highlight reel throughout his career in Detroit.
Both players were brilliant defensive players and could score like mad. Datsyuk did so with moves that left jaws dropping while Zetterberg was more of a classic offensive player with a healthy mix of style and ability. Those Red Wings teams were a wealth of riches, but Datsyuk and Zetterberg joining the likes of Lidström made them frustrating to game-plan against.
The Red Wings have been mired in playoff darkness the past nine seasons and, sure, retiring Fedorov’s number could be seen as a way to help fill the building by more cynical fans, but if they were to honor Datsyuk and Zetterberg similarly, we doubt there’d be any complaining.
Continued; I don’t think that honoring Datsyuk or Zetterberg would be a cynical celebration, but the fact that the Red Wings are only offering single-game tickets to the Fedorov retirement game as part of a 5-game plan does make me roll my eyes at the team’s…Inflexibility.
I understand that the Wings are a business and that they’re here to make money as much as anything, and part of the team-fan marriage is acknowledging that you pay to watch hockey in some way, shape or form through your tickets, FanDuel Sports Network bill, etc., but I just think that tucking the Fedorov game into a 5-game plan is a little ruthless.
Again, that’s part of the bargain, but it strikes me as the wrong way to do things. When the Eurotwins’ numbers are retired, I don’t know whether things might change ticket-wise, but I can always hope.
#13 for sure and I think Z gets in the HOF as well. If the Sedin twins got in then so should Zetterberg. Conn Smythe winner and pretty much shutdown Crosby in two Cup Finals. To me any player that has spent most of their career with a franchise and gets in the HOF should get their number retired no doubt about it. It was a shame they waited so long to retire Red Kelly’s number 4.