In the fifteen season history of the Minnesota Wild no player has yet to be given the honor of having his jersey raised to the rafters of the Xcel Center. As the Wild go forward we may never see a player’s number retired until the team can gain some more successes in the form of division, conference, or Stanley Cup titles.
The completion of this last season marked 15 seasons since the Minnesota Wild began their journey as a franchise and returned NHL hockey to the Twin Cities. It seems like it was just yesterday that the first game at the Xcel Center was played, but a lot has happened since then. Lots of faces have donned the Wild sweater since then with lots of different contributions and successes. Still for all of the great moments and players, noticeably missing from the rafters at the X next to the “1 Wild Fans” banner is any of those great player’s names.
In the Wild’s 15-year history none of their players have had their jersey number retired yet. Granted it’s a sensitive/complicated subject to immortalize a player by retiring his jersey number, but as we look to the next 15-years of Wild hockey surely there will be a player who has taken the ice for the Wild who is worthy of having their number lifted to the rafters, right?
Looking back at the list of players names like Gaborik, Backstrom, and Brunette come to mind just to list a few. Still I like many other Wild fans wonder if their performances were enough to garner this huge honor. After all it seems historically that players who get their numbers retired played on successful teams. As most of you know the Wild have not had all that successful of teams.
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Also lonely in the Xcel Centers’ rafters is the Wild’s lone Northwest Division title from 2008. That lone division title is the one title that the Wild have won in 15 years. That lack of success has tended to detract from the great individual performances of many of the Wild players of the past. After all Marian Gaborik who scored 437 points with the Wild to include two 40 plus goal seasons, or Niklas Backstrom who won the William Jennings Trophy in the 2006-07 season and averaged almost 22 wins a season in his nine with the Wild.
The best way to explain this might be to look at a highly successful franchise like Montreal. The rafters at the Belle Centre are packed with great names and their numbers as well as numerous Stanley Cup banners. It can be argued that many of those retired numbers would not be there had the Canadiens not won an insane amount of championships. Former North Star coach and GM Bob Gainey is a great example of where his number might not have been retired had he played somewhere other than Montreal. After all Gainey only had 501 points in 1160 NHL games, but his contributions to five Stanley Cup victories is invaluable and that’s why his number 23 hangs up with names like Richard, Beliveau, Lafleur, or Roy.
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On the team now the Wild have players that have the chance to have their numbers retired, but they have to deliver on the promise of success. Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are beloved and could certainly make it to consideration, but until they bring multiple division titles, a conference title, or even a Stanley Cup they might just fall short of making it to the rafters like so many before them.
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The measure of team’s success will ultimately be what they are remembered for. The case in point being, how many of you remember how many goals Gaborik scored for the Wild? Or did you remember how he never quite was able to lead the team to anything more than one division title?