Mats Sundin played for 3 Canadian NHL teams throughout the '90s and 2000s. No wonder he never won a Cup.
Tomorrow night, the Toronto Maple Leafs will do something that they rarely do (no, not win the Stanley Cup...). They will retire Mats Sundin's #13. He'll join Ace Bailey and Bill Barilko as the only Maple Leafs to ever have their numbers retired by the club. That got me wondering, what does it take to have a player's number retired? Obviously, each team has a slightly different requirement to do the honor. After hours (okay, minutes) of research, here's what I found.
Montreal Canadiens - Basically, if you're French-Canadian, scored a few goals, won a Cup, were really short or gave up 10 goals in a game, your number was retired. Then there's Ken Dryden. He was pretty good, though.
Toronto Maple Leafs - The Leafs have a tradition of only retiring numbers of Stanley Cup champion players. Of course, after decades and decades of having nothing to do, they lifted that requirement for Mats Sundin. Or maybe they're honoring his number. There's a difference...
New Jersey Devils - It's pretty simple in New Jersey: if you're a defenseman and you win three Stanley Cups, your number gets retired. That includes Martin Brodeur as a defenseman.
New York Rangers - Following New York sports tradition, if you were a fan favorite and didn't sign with your team's biggest rival, your number is automatically retired.
New York Islanders - The Isles also require a Stanley Cup for a player's number to be retired. Or maybe they've just been so awful lately that there's been no numbers to retire...
Every news piece out of the NHL lately seems negative. There's either someone getting suspended, a coach getting fired or a player suffering a concussion. Because of that, the fact that I haven't had a post dedicated to the Devils in a while and Scott Niedermayer Night this Friday, I decided that now would be a good time for the 14th DGA Top 10 Video Special in the series: Scott Niedermayer's Greatest Moments as a New Jersey Devil. Scotty was an amazing skater and playoff hero. This was by far the easiest video special I've ever put together. Enjoy.
#10 - OFF THE FACE-OFF
I included this one because of the fact it's a Devils defenseman scoring a power play goal against the New York Rangers. That makes it special.
#9 - THE VERY FIRST GOAL
Scott Niedermayer scored 112 goals as a New Jersey Devil, and it all started with this one. Here's his first NHL goal, and a spectacular goal as well.
#8 - WELCOME TO PHILADELPHIA
The 2000 Eastern Conference Finals will always go down as one of the greatest playoff series in Devils history, and it all started with this Niedermayer goal, 55 seconds in to Game 1.
#7 - WIN ONE (or 400) FOR MARTY
As the Devils tried to clinch a playoff spot in the Spring of 2004, Scott Niedermayer scored this overtime winner that also turned out to be Martin Brodeur's 400th career win.
#6 - ONE IS GREATER THAN FIVE
Scott Niedermayer goes to work on 5 Boston Bruins, thus proving that quality is better than quantity.
#5 - "SCORE! MARSHALL! IN OVERTIME!"
One of Mike "Doc" Emrick's greatest calls in his career game in the 3rd overtime of Game 5 of the 2003 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Scott Niedermayer's shot ended up being jammed home by Grant Marshall and the Devils won the series, and eventually, the Stanley Cup.
#4 - IT ONLY TAKES THREE TO SCORE
After returning to the Devils in time for the 2000 Stanley Cup playoffs from a suspension, Scott Niedermayer put a rebound of John Madden's slapshot past Mike Vernon for a rare 3-on-5 short-handed goal that tied the game at 2!
#3 - THE UNSUNG HERO OF GAME 7
The unsung hero of Mike Rupp's game-winning Game 7 goal of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals has to be Scott Niedermayer. Watch as he keeps the puck in the offensive zone and sends a wrister towards the net that Rupp is able to deflect through J.S. Giguere.
#2 - TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT
After a crushing loss in triple-overtime in Game 5, the Devils went to Dallas with a chance to win the Stanley Cup. Scott Niedermayer opened the scoring with a sweet short-handed goal.
#1 - WELCOME TO THE SHOW
Welcome to the Scott Niedermayer Show. During Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Detroit, a 21-year old Scott Niedermayer showed the world that a legendary career is just getting under way.
#27 joins #4 and #3 this Friday!
Thanks to McKay4429061 and 0zachNJDparise9 for uploading all of the classic Devils footage that they do on YouTube!
