Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
IIRC, Niewendyk did do a lot of off ice stuff in the community. I remember him being pretty hurt about getting booed when he returned to Calgary for the first time because he felt he had done a lot of stuff in the community and that his quarrel was with ownership, not the fans. Didn't help that MacInnis and Gilmour had both essentially left the team over contracts before him, and at that point the fans were no longer too happy tending to blame players, and not ownership. Than add in that management completely mishandled getting decent assets for trading off any those guys eventually, save getting Iginla for Niewendyk, and Regehr for Fleury later on. Oddly enough deals that Al Coates made.
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Nieuwendyk learned what every player should always keep in mind: Fans identify with the team. If you screw with the team - such as by holding out in violation of an existing contract - not many fans will side with you. The merits of your belief don't really matter in that case.
The flip side, of course, is that most fans often forget just as easily. Nieuwendyk is really the type of player that I think this honour was created for. A guy who's number would never be retired, but who deserves to be feted by the fans.