The Chicago Blackhawks will be retiring the No. 81 in honor of Marian Hossa this season, with a ceremony set for November 20 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hossa was a huge part of three Stanley Cup championships for the Blackhawks and recorded 415 points in 534 regular season games with the club. He also has a history with the Penguins, having joined them at the end of the 2007-08 season for a Stanley Cup run that ended unsuccessfully against the Detroit Red Wings.
One of the most dominant two-way players of his generation, Hossa was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2020 after a 19-year NHL career. He sits 59th all-time in points with 1,134, 61st in games played with 1,309, and received Selke Trophy votes in 13 different seasons, despite being a winger. Hossa is the eighth player in franchise history to receive this honor, following Glenn Hall, Pierre Pilote, Keith Magnuson, Bobby Hull, Denis Savard, Stan Mikita, and Tony Esposito.
- It appears as though Andrew Hammond might not be attending Florida Panthers camp on a PTO after all, as he has been linked to HC Traktor in the KHL. The 34-year-old netminder actually played 11 games in the NHL last season – his first action at that level since 2017-18 – posting an .879 save percentage. In his career, Hammond holds a .916 save percentage mostly because of his incredible 20-1-2 record with the Ottawa Senators as a 26-year-old rookie in 2015.
- Jake Virtanen may be returning to an NHL rink in the next few weeks, as Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now reports Edmonton or Calgary are likely PTO destinations for the free agent forward. That follows Ryan Rishaug of TSN’s tweet earlier this week suggesting that the Oilers were waiting on Virtanen’s decision after extending a tryout offer. Virtanen, who spent last season playing in the KHL, was found not guilty of sexual assault in July following his trial regarding an incident in 2017.
Wonder if the Hawks will do the same with Keith and Seabs. Once Seabs contract is up of course.
Oof. Hossa. Seriously? He got the job done for the Hawks, sure, but c’mon.
Just about every other retired Chicago number won *multiple* individual trophies: Hull, Pilote, Mikita, Hall, Esposito have between them 44 First or Second Team All-Star nods and 26 major individual trophies. Magnuson’s one of those stupid Terry O’Reilly-esque Gee We Luvv Our Tough Guyz decisions, and Denis Savard, well … winning accolades as a center in the 1980s in competition with Gretzky, Lemieux, Hawerchuk, Trottier, Dionne, Francis, Yzerman and Stastny was not what you could call easy, and even so he got a 2nd Team nod, was a trophy finalist three times, and scored over a thousand points in Chicago.
So when they retire Steve Larmer’s, or Doug Wilson’s, or Chris Chelios’, or Ed Belfour’s numbers — or bloody hell, what about Doug Bentley, or Charlie Gardiner, or Earl Seibert’s (!!!) — then we can talk about Hossa.
You forgot to mention that Hossa played a full season for the Detroit Red Wings in the 2008-09 season and went to Cup Final that years vs his old team, the Penguins, who he only played a handful of games for after being traded by Atlanta.