[Waivers] September 30th - 39 players (Baertschi, Goldobin, Biega)

[khay]

On 10/4/2019 at 7:36 AM, NHL97OneTimer said:

That's a very subjective answer....yes to Gretzky but no to Mario.  Where then is the line drawn?  That's the issue. There's pros and cons to everything and I agree that it would be nice for a player to pay tribute  by wearing #19 or whatever.....but it's probably best left the way it is.  There will never be another Trevor Linden or Markus Naslund.....that's the most respectful message you can make.

A hard question but in my humble opinion, if a player escalated the sport and the league to another level from where it used to be, then he is worthy of league wide jersey retirement. It's more for their contribution to the sport rather than how great of a player they were.

 

In Basketball, only MJ is deserving of league wide retirement. A predominantly American sport that became popular worldwide thanks to his airness. All you need is a hoop and a ball to play.

 

In hockey, that's 99. A predominantly Canadian and sport in the midwest and northeast US, became more of a thing in North America and probably Europe as well (not sure about Europe to be honest, maybe it was already popular before the Great one).

 

[khay]

On 10/2/2019 at 8:15 PM, CanuckGAME said:

 

The #66 has nothing to do with the NY Islanders.  Why the **** cant he wear it?

 

Its actually sad that people think this way about numbers.  If I was an NHLer I would want to wear #19 in honor of my favorite player, Markus Naslund.  Not as a sign of disrespect,  but as a sign of respect.  Numbers shouldn't even be retired.  They should just be hung from the rafters to remember but the players should continue to be able to wear them.

That's actually a good point. Never thought of it this way before for some reason.  Honor them by "retiring" the jersey forever up to the rafters but players should be able to wear them if they want to. Most people probably wouldn't dare wear 99 though.

 

 

[Ballisticsports.]

Even Gretzky wanted to wear #9 because of Gordie Howe, but the number was taken, he tried #19  and #14 , before the suggestion of wearing 2 #9's, and he was nervous of doing that. Funny how things work out

6 hours ago, khay said:

That's actually a good point. Never thought of it this way before for some reason.  Honor them by "retiring" the jersey forever up to the rafters but players should be able to wear them if they want to. Most people probably wouldn't dare wear 99 though.

 

 

 

[Ryan Strome]

On 10/3/2019 at 1:25 AM, filthycanuck said:

In the NHLs yester-years wearing a high number was considered almost taboo, unwanted and unnecessary attention. Numbers between 1-30 were so common. Like the #19, it was worn by many great players, Sakic, Naslund, Yzerman just to name a few and theres many more that wore it. Thats the difference. When you make an impact like a Gretzky or a Lemieux and you were the first to wear a certain high number, you're legend is tied to that number. If Ho-Sang was a phenom coming to the league, there might be some acceptance, but fact is he doesn't. He needed the talent to back up wearing that number because as I mentioned before, unwanted attention, if the only other guy that wore 66 was a top 3 player all time, theres not much players you can compare that too. If Tim Schaller decided to wear 99, trust me, he'd be the laughing stock of the league

I always viewed 99 better but in reality one could make an argument that would be hard to counter that Mario is the greatest of all time. The guy missed 3 years and came back and dominated. Especially after his health issues just puts him in a league of his own.