Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
McDonald is more perplexing to me, but of course the franchise was a lot younger when they did it. But he only played 492 games (21st all time) - less than Kipper/Vernon/Stajan/Macoun/Conroy. Obviously he wasn't raftered for his tenure, but it's interesting to me because none of those guys I listed felt like they were even around for that long
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I don't think its tenure in terms of games played but that Lanny became the face of the franchise, he retired as a Flame after the cup (think Bourque, Andreychuk type legacy finishes), scored the tying goal in the Stanley Cup final, is basically the brand ambassador, etc.
Iginla was also the face of the franchise for indisputable reasons.
Vernon did win a Stanley Cup for us but he just isn't in the same category as the first two for me - he was a cog in those great teams like MacInnis, Roberts, Loob, Nieuwyndyk, etc. When you think Lanny or Iggy think Flames but Vernon I could see as a Red Wing who went to the SCFs and won a cup for them.
If we base retiring a jersey based on number of games played then it should be Iggy, Gio, Backlund, Regehr, MacInnis, Fleury, Otto, Peplinski, Monahan, Brodie, Suter, then Johnny in that order.
Vernon only appeared in a total 527 games for the Flames, left, and came back for a retirement lap and that's actually fewer games played the Matt Stajan!