Wikipedia:

List of the National Hockey League retired numbers

This is a list of National Hockey League players whose numbers have been formally retired by their teams.

Note that three retired numbers were in honor of players who had never played for that team in the NHL:

  • Frank Finnigan was a star with the original Ottawa Senators in the 1920s and '30s. Upon the return of the Senators in 1992, Finnigan was the last living Senators player from their Cup teams, and was used as the face of the team until his death. To commemorate this, the Senators retired his number 8 that year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were the first NHL team to retire a number. On February 14, 1934 prior to the first NHL all-star game the Leafs retired Ace Bailey’s #6

Number retirement policies will vary by team. The Toronto Maple Leafs have retired outright only two team numbers: #5 (Bill Barilko) and #6 (Ace Bailey). After that, the Leafs no longer retired team numbers but rather adopted a policy of "honouring" distinguished players at ceremonies.[1] For example, both Tim Horton and King Clancy who shared the #7 were so honoured in 1995, but the team number remains available for use.[2]

Some teams (especially after franchise shifts) have revoked or suspended retired numbers. The Carolina Hurricanes revoked the retirement of numbers #2 (Rick Ley), #9 (Gordie Howe) and #19 (John McKenzie) which were retired by its previous Hartford Whalers incarnation, although Carolina has not issued #9 so far. By contrast, Dallas and Phoenix honor numbers retired in their original cities.

Only five players have had their numbers retired by two franchises: [3]


Alphabetical list

Listing by number

Listing By Team

League-Wide Retirement

Boston Bruins

Buffalo Sabres

Calgary Flames

Carolina Hurricanes

Chicago Blackhawks

Colorado Avalanche

Dallas Stars

Detroit Red Wings

Edmonton Oilers