Maple Leafs Retire Seventeen Jersey Numbers

The Toronto Maple Leafs reversed policy and retired seventeen jersey numbers as part of their 100th anniversary celebration in their home opener last night. The Maple Leafs were staunchly against retiring numbers for decades and would rather honor numbers instead of taking them out of circulation. The club policy reversal came as a surprise to many, and changes which numbers can be worn by incoming players. The following numbers were retired:

1: Johnny Bower and Turk Broda
4: Hap Day and Red Kelly
5: Bill Barilko
6: Ace Bailey
7: Tim Horton and King Clancy
9: Charlie Conacher and Ted Kennedy
10: Syl Apps and George Armstrong
13: Mats Sundin
14: Dave Keon
17: Wendel Clark
21: Borje Salming
27: Frank Mahovlich and Darryl Sittler
93: Doug Gilmour

One player currently affected by the change is forward James van Riemsdyk. Up until last night van Riemsdyk wore number 21—a number now retired to honor Borje Salming—so van Riemsdyk switched to number 25. He had known about the change since the summertime, and jokingly admitted to TSN’s Mark Masters that that he chose 25 to “make him look bigger.”

Van Riemsdyk becomes the 44th Maple Leaf to wear number 25, and follows prominent Maple Leafs Steve Thomas and Peter Zezel. The change doesn’t seem to to affect him though as he scored last night in his first game with his new number.