Championship teams with no retired jersey numbers

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Jersey number retirements are an interesting topic in the VHL. There is no official register of player numbers, so in many situations, when a team decides to retire someone's number, they may literally have to ask that member what number they want their player to have worn. On multiple occasions, a number has been retired a second time after previously having been retired, because people pay little attention to this stuff. Still, it is an honor for a player to be recognized by a team in this way, although I personally think it would make more sense for each team to just have a franchise Hall of Fame for that purpose. That's an idea for another time, however.

 

Inspiration for this article comes from Diana Maxwell's absence from the New York Americans rafters. I do think that she would be a fringe candidate for this honor; while she only played five seasons with the team, she had some of the best offensive seasons in franchise history while also winning multiple championships. Ultimately, I did not feel like writing an entire media spot about why or why not a former player of mine should have had her imaginary number retired, so I decided to take a broader look at all of the Continental Cup teams that have no representation in terms of jersey retirements (by the team that they won with, to be clear).

 

In total, there are 23 championship teams that fit this distinction. That is slightly over one quarter, and considering that seven of those are from the previous ten seasons, it would not be a surprise to see that number go down in the future. I'm not going to discuss all of these 23 teams in detail, so I have decided to focus on just the rosters that have won multiple championships together. In addition to Maxwell's Season 52/53 Americans, we have the Season 57/58 Riga Reign and the Season 80/81/82 Vancouver Wolves

 

 

Season 52-53 New York Americans

Essian Ravenwing

Unassisted

Tom Lincoln

Phil Shankly

Diana Maxwell

Bobby Digital

 

Season 53 was the last time the Americans won the Continental Cup, and it came as the second of a back-to-back run. They were led by a high-powered offense that stayed almost entirely in tact from the first season. In addition to the aforementioned Maxwell, there were five other players that were present on both rosters. Looking at who might deserve to have their number retired by virtue of their stats and accolades with the team, the obvious candidates are Unassisted and Maxwell. They were the Playoff MVP's in the championship seasons. Although Unassisted had the better career overall, Maxwell had one more season with New York, so I would give her the edge. Perhaps if she had one more season with the team, her number would've been retired, but the real glaring omission is actually Bobby Digital. Digital was the heart of this era of New York, coming up with the team in Season 49 and playing seven seasons with the Americans, six of which he was the captain.

 

 

Season 57-58 Riga Reign

Fredinamijs Krigars

John Locke

Phil Shankly

Niko Bogdanovic
Slava Aleksei

Markus King

 

Riga won three straight Victory Cups from Season 56 to Season 58, and they found success in the playoffs as well with back-to-back Cups. While six players featured on both of those championship rosters, there are two whose time with the franchise warrant consideration for jersey retirement. The first is Fredinamijs Krigars, who scored a franchise-record 332 goals and 738 points in seven seasons with the team. Just reading that alone, it must be confusing why Krigars' number isn't retired. The answer is simple, though: Krigars was one of hedgehog337's players, and he was (and still is) GM of the team. Should he ever retire as GM, I would expect his successor to put Krigars' name up in the rafters. Markus King is the other player on this roster who could may have had their jersey number retired. King won multiple Aidan Shaw Trophies during his six seasons with the Reign as well as the Season 58 Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy. With a 205-89-18 record, King was one of the most successful goaltenders in Riga franchise history.

 

 

Season 80-82 Vancouver Wolves

Jivere Zolnek

Jerome Reinhart

Henry Tucker

Tyler Reinhart

Robin Galante Nilsson

Aike van Giersbergen

 

Considering the recency of it, it's hard to say quite yet that the Vancouver threepeat has been FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY by the franchise. I would assume that something is in the works for at least one of these players. The question, then, would be who? Both Reinharts played four (great) seasons with the team and Aike van Giersbergen was just a backup goalie, so those three are out. Robin Galante Nilsson had over 600 points in eight seasons with the team. From an outside perspective, he looks like a worthy player. Jivere Zolnek also played eight seasons with the team, while Henry Tucker played seven and was captain for three of them. From an outside perspective, any of these three players could be possible candidates, though it is entirely possible that none of them had the locker room presence that left a lasting impression on the franchise. They all played their last games in Season 83, so if any of them are going to have their number retired, it could happen at any time now.