Habs To Retire Dryden's Number

[q]The Montreal Canadiens will retire the jerseys of Ken Dryden and Serge Savard this season, the Quebec television station RDS reported Tuesday.

The Canadiens are expected to make the announcement in a news conference Wednesday.

Dryden wore the Montreal jersey from 1970 until his retirement in 1979. He won the Vezina trophy five times and captured six Stanley Cup titles.

In 397 matches in the NHL, all with the Canadiens, Dryden had a 258-57-74 record and a goals against average of 2.24.

Savard played with the Canadiens from 1966-81. Savard collected 100 goals, 312 assists in 917 games with the Habs. He then finished his career with the Winnipeg Jets, where he played two seasons.[/q]

[tsn.ca]

how does a 5 time Vezina winner not have his number retired until 27 years after his retirement?

[elf.elynah.com]

evilnaturedrobot
how does a 5 time Vezina winner not have his number retired until 27 years after his retirement?

Because retiring numbers wasn't nearly as common 27 years ago as it is today.

that's fair, but by 1985 the Canadiens already had 6 numbeers hanging from the rafters, so it's not as if it wasn't done. And Dryden played a crucial role in they're 70's run.

At the same time Plante didn't get his number retired until 1995 (which also silly), so I can understand wanting to raise his number first. But wating 11 years for Dryden doesn't make alot of sense.

I always liked Dryden's number. Typical iconoclastic choice for him (although I suppose there might have been some other reason for ending up with that number, other than going against the flow). It's such a rarely used number; I wonder how many Canadiens would have chosen 29 even if it wasn't going to get retired.

So here's the follow-up question: I wonder who was the first modern-era NHL goalie to choose (and stick with) a number other than 1, 30, or 31. Could it have been Dryden?

Edit: As soon as I hit "post," I remembered that Tony Esposito was 35 or something high like that. I can't remember whether he or Dryden got to the NHL first. Around the same time, right?

Hillel Hoffmann

So here's the follow-up question: I wonder who was the first modern-era NHL goalie to choose (and stick with) a number other than 1, 30, or 31. Could it have been Dryden?

Edit: As soon as I hit "post," I remembered that Tony Esposito was 35 or something high like that. I can't remember whether he or Dryden got to the NHL first. Around the same time, right?

Esposito played for the Hawks in '69-'70 and wore # 35. Tony also played some for the Habs in '68-69 but I don't recall what his uniform number was there. Dryden, who first played late in the '70-'71 season (6 games plus all 20 playoff games) may have just been given (rather than having chosen) # 29 when he was called up. The two other goalies were Rogie Vachon # 30 and Phil Myre # 1. #29 was certainly unusual at the time, and #31 would have been more traditional.

I found a database that said Gilles Meloche wore #27 and he came up at about the same time as Dryden.

But those were the earliest I could find goalies in other than 1, 30, or 31.

In retrospect, the fact that it's not 1, 30, or 31 makes it a lot easier to retire.

jtwcornell91
In retrospect, the fact that it's not 1, 30, or 31 makes it a lot easier to retire.

Good point. COnsidering that goalies all tended to wear the same number, it probably was almost unthinkable to retire a netminders number. The fact that Dryden didn't wear one of the standard numbers wouldn't change that .

Hillel Hoffmann
I always liked Dryden's number. Typical iconoclastic choice for him (although I suppose there might have been some other reason for ending up with that number, other than going against the flow). It's such a rarely used number; I wonder how many Canadiens would have chosen 29 even if it wasn't going to get retired.

29 is an iconic number in Cornell hockey worship.

Just think how efficient it could be. Retire one number and honor three or four players at once. Though I don't know what you would do if you later decided you wanted to honor some other goalie who had worn 30.

David Harding
Just think how efficient it could be. Retire one number and honor three or four players at once. Though I don't know what you would do if you later decided you wanted to honor some other goalie who had worn 30.

I was going to write that the Yankees retired #1 on behalf of Billy Martin and Bobby Richardson - I had always thought that was the case - but I did a little research to find a link and apparently it is only in honor of Billy Martin.

ugarte

David Harding
Just think how efficient it could be. Retire one number and honor three or four players at once. Though I don't know what you would do if you later decided you wanted to honor some other goalie who had worn 30.

I was going to write that the Yankees retired #1 on behalf of Billy Martin and Bobby Richardson - I had always thought that was the case - but I did a little research to find a link and apparently it is only in honor of Billy Martin.

Yup, only Billy. But #8 is retired in honor of both Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey. It was simultaneous. So there is a baseball precendent.

KeithK

ugarte

David Harding
Just think how efficient it could be. Retire one number and honor three or four players at once. Though I don't know what you would do if you later decided you wanted to honor some other goalie who had worn 30.

I was going to write that the Yankees retired #1 on behalf of Billy Martin and Bobby Richardson - I had always thought that was the case - but I did a little research to find a link and apparently it is only in honor of Billy Martin.

Yup, only Billy. But #8 is retired in honor of both Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey. It was simultaneous. So there is a baseball precendent.

If the Yankees retire any more numbers, their rookies will have to start wearing quaternions.

David Harding
Just think how efficient it could be. Retire one number and honor three or four players at once. Though I don't know what you would do if you later decided you wanted to honor some other goalie who had worn 30.

Boston Celtics have retired a jersey number from multiple players. I haven't been there in years, but seem to remember a jersey with Loscy, who wore 18, but preferred not to have the number taken out. It was later retired, 18, with Cowens.

jtwcornell91
If the Yankees retire any more numbers, their rookies will have to start wearing quaternions.

Hey, there are still single digit numbers that haven't been retired. Well, at least until Jeter and Torre are done...

.... on January 29, 2007 when the Habs play the Senators.

[www.canadiens.com]