Inside The Penalty Box 09.10.07: Leetch’s No. 2 Heading To The Rafters
Posted by Neil Borenstein on 09.10.2007
Not many New York Rangers have been immortalized at the top of Madison Square Garden since the team’s founding as an Original Six squad in 1926. But on Jan. 24, the Rangers will add their third player in four years to get his number retired when Brian Leetch’s No. 2 goes to the rafters. Check out my thoughts on this momentous event for one of the best defenseman to ever play the game.
No. 2 To The Rafters
Leetch's Number To Be Retired By Rangers
Leetch spent 17 of his 18 seasons with the Rangers.
man never after the spotlight even when he deserved it, Brian Leetch will soon have the lights shine brightly on him. The New York Rangers announced on Thursday that prior to their game against the Atlanta Thrashers on Jan. 24, the organization will retire Leetch's No. 2.
Upon Leetch's retirement on May 24, it was an obvious assumption that the next step for perhaps the greatest defenseman ever to wear a Rangers sweater would be that of raising his number to the rafters of Madison Square Garden.
During his 18-year career, in which he spent 17 of them with the Rangers, Leetch became known as a superior offensive force that could rack up a lot of minutes and create many scoring chances starting all the way from his own defensive zone. Though his defensive skills have come into question, his ability to break up plays in the defensive zone and the fact that he did play on very poor defensive teams overall for seven straight seasons does take a lot of that criticism off of him.
In 1,129 games with New York, second all-time in Rangers history, Leetch holds the organization's record for assists with 741. He also ranks second in team history in goals with 240.
Including Leetch's short stays with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, he has career totals of 247 goals and 781 assists for 1,028 points along with 571 penalty minutes in 1,205 games played.
"He is simply the greatest defenseman in the history of the franchise and gave the same effort when it came to helping the community off the ice," said Rangers general manager Glen Sather, according to The Sports Network in Canada. "There is no higher honor to grant Brian then to have his number raised to the rafters of Madison Square Garden to join the other Garden legends."
The Rangers have previously retired only four other numbers since entering the NHL as an Original Six team in 1926. Rod Gilbert became the first Ranger to have his number retired when No. 7 was sent to the rafters in Madison Square Garden on Oct. 14, 1979. More than nine years later, the Rangers retired Eddie Giacomin's No. 1 on March 15, 1989. The two banners remained by their lonesome until the Rangers retired the number of another goaltending legend in New York, Mike Richter. On Feb. 4, 2004, the Rangers lifted No. 35 to the rafters. Then last season, on Jan. 12, 2006, the Rangers retired No. 11, belonging to the man that delivered the first Stanley Cup to the Big Apple in 54 years – Mark Messier.
Now, the Rangers will retire No. 2, making Leetch the first defenseman in the organization's history to have his number raised.
"I appreciate that the New York Rangers have extended the honor of raising my jersey to the Madison Square Garden rafters alongside team icons Rod, Eddie, Mike, and Mark," Leetch told newyorkrangers.com. "New York City, the Garden and Rangers fans hold a special place in my heart and have supplied me with a lifetime of extraordinary memories. This night will be a very special one for me and my family and I look forward to returning to Madison Square Garden and being able to call it home."
The night will also be special for fans of both the Rangers and Leetch. I don't think anybody symbolized what it was like to be a member of the Rangers quite like Leetch. He wasn't always outspoken and did get a lot of relief in the leadership department with Messier around. But he let his play do the talking. He was one of the best at putting on end-to-end rushes that would just boggle the mind of the opposing defense. The one he had a few years back against the New York Islanders that resulted in a goal still mystifies me.
Leetch can really only be remembered as a Ranger. In fact, that's how he wants to be remembered.
"I'd be happy to be remembered as a Ranger. That's good enough for me," Leetch said to John McGourty of NHL.com. "I didn't know a lot about New York City before I went there. I really embraced the city and the people treated me so well. I didn't know how long I'd be there so I thought I'd move in my second year and I wound up staying 15 years, right in the city, and I loved it."
Leetch was almost a lifer with New York, until he was traded in March 2004 by the Rangers to the Maple Leafs. The Rangers were out of the playoff picture and needed to head toward rebuilding, while the Maple Leafs were stocking up for the postseason. Though Leetch had expressed an interest in being part of the Rangers during a youth movement, Sather did not have a mutual feeling. In return for Leetch, the Rangers received Maxim Kondratiev, Jarkko Immonen, a first round draft pick in 2004 and a second round draft pick in 2005. What the Rangers got back didn't really matter though. The fans wanted Leetch.
I remember attending a game against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden almost two weeks after that trade occurred. Not only did the Rangers lose in embarrassing fashion, but the fans were completely deflated. In fact, Devil fans were pretty much able to take over the enthusiasm in the building. Chants of "We want Leetch back" and "Fire Sather" were chorused throughout The Garden from the Rangers' faithful. They were irrelevant since neither of which were going to happen. But the showcase of displeasure really proved just how much Leetch meant to the team and the fans. The Rangers weren't going to make the playoffs, but it hurt like a dagger to the heart to see one of our products go somewhere else after damn near 17 years.
I don't think the fans were the only ones hurting from that trade. I think Leetch took the trade personally and used that in all future circumstances when he could have gladly returned to Rangers with open arms waiting for him.
After being part of the Maple Leafs' squad that was ousted by the Philadelphia Flyers in six games in the Conference Semifinals of the 2004 playoffs, Leetch hit unrestricted free agency. Of course, with the looming collective bargaining agreement negotiations ahead and the possibility of a salary cap, general managers around the league were very hesitant to sign players considering the uncertain future of economics in the NHL. Leetch still called for a decent amount of money, so he wasn't going to receive a high-end offer during the 2004 offseason.
But when the league resumed to action in the summer of 2005, he was very much on the market. And instead of coming back to New York, he went for a one-year, $4-million deal with the Bruins. He did go to Boston College for a year, so it wasn't an outrageous location. But a return to New York would have seemed more likely, except that I think Leetch was still feeling the burn.
One year passed in Boston, and Leetch once again hit the market in the summer of 2006. Rumors really heated up that Leetch would make a return to Broadway and become part of the Rangers organization for the 2006-2007 season, when the team was headed toward great things and potentially another run to the playoffs. But those turned out to be just rumors. Leetch chose to sit out an entire season despite receiving offers from almost all teams in the NHL, not just the Rangers.
On May 24, 2007, he officially called it quits.
I can't say I blame Leetch if he did feel a little betrayed by the Rangers, or more specifically Sather. It isn't a common thing in sports to be able to play for one team over an entire career. Steve Yzerman, for example, is idolized by Detroit Red Wings fans for many reasons. But one of the first you'll likely hear about is the fact that Yzerman's entire career was spent in Detroit. Leetch was almost there. And he wanted to be there. He wanted to remain in New York and retire a Ranger. He didn't care that the Rangers needed to become more youthful and might not be competitive for a few seasons. Hell, they hadn't been competitive for seven years! What's a few more?
On the other hand, however, trading Leetch gave Sather an opportunity to work toward that youth movement. It might not have been meant to clear Leetch out of the way, but instead bring in some young talent that only a player like Leetch could receive in a return. At the time, this was a very difficult concept to grasp for me. Like I said earlier, it doesn't matter what the Rangers got in return – we wanted Leetch. But with the Rangers trying to rebuild, the team got back some decent prospects and picks for Leetch. New York may not have benefited as much from that return as they would have liked. But at the time of the deal, it made sense.
This was not a situation like the Adam Graves trade of 2001, where Sather traded a fan favorite of the Rangers just to get him out.
On June 24, the Rangers dealt Graves to the San Jose Sharks for Mikael Samuelsson and Chris Gosselin. Gosselin has amounted to absolutely nothing, and Samuelsson only became productive over the past couple of seasons with the Red Wings. This deal was clearly just to get Graves, who I will admit was diminishing in productivity, off the team. And while sometimes cutting losses it part of the game, somebody like Graves deserved a little better. I still contend that move was classless on the part of Sather, and a big reason why I refuse to fully respect the man who I don't think understands what it means to be a part of the Rangers organization.
Graves played two seasons with the Sharks and then called it a career. He's back with the team now as a Special Assistant in Prospect Development and Community Relations. In fact, he will be entering his third season with the team in a front office role.
Graves is another player that I feel really needs to have his number retired. It's a shame that the Rangers have allowed the No. 9 to be worn by anybody else (Pavel Bure.) Graves might not exactly be in the same class as Messier, Richter and Leetch when it comes to Rangers lore. But he was an important part of the 1994 Stanley Cup run and did so much for the New York community off the ice. In my opinion, Graves is an icon in Rangers history and should be respected as such. Nobody else could live up to that number like Graves did and he did enough with the organization both on and off the ice to deserve the immortality that comes with having one's number retired at MSG. He deserves such a distinction.
For now, though, Leetch will get that distinction, and a very-much deserved one at that.
He doesn't just deserve it for being a Ranger, though. He deserves to be admired because of what he did for American hockey, as well. And though things like that are normally reserved for Hall of Fame inductions since number retiring is generally team specific, I think it deserves some attention. After all, Leetch is the best defenseman America has ever put out there and he might not have been given the chance to represent his country as much as he did had it not been for his play on the ice with the Rangers.
Leetch has given the USA program a lot of credibility. I think he's a big reason why we're starting to see a lot of tremendously talented players from America get more recognition at drafts. The top two players taken in this year's draft were American – Patrick Kane to Chicago and James Van Riemsdyk to Philadelphia. He's definitely not the only player in such a respect to open these kinds of doors for kids, but I believe he's one of the main contributors, just like players like Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Jeremy Roenick and Richter are/were. He is even considered a legend on the United States Olympic ice hockey roster page.
Leetch represented America three times in the Olympics – 1988, 1998, 2002. He also played on the Team USA squad that won a gold medal in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, the same tournament that named Richter as MVP and awarded him a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
I know that won't get as much attention on Jan. 24 as his time with the Rangers will, obviously. But it deserves at least some attention since his time with Team USA was a big part of his career.
On Jan. 24, New York is in store for another momentous occasion when one of the true greats gets his place in Rangers' history. Leetch deserves the fanfare, he deserves the immortalization in Rangers history and he deserves to get some closure on his career as a New York Ranger.
Send all comments, questions, suggestions and telephone numbers from the ladies to br7qbsteelers@yahoo.com.
Until next week, you have just been Inside The Penalty Box!
man never after the spotlight even when he deserved it, Brian Leetch will soon have the lights shine brightly on him. The New York Rangers announced on Thursday that prior to their game against the Atlanta Thrashers on Jan. 24, the organization will retire Leetch's No. 2.
