My distinction:
forever a flame - exceptional impact on the franchise through the game of hockey. A top player in the league, contributed significantly to flames regular season success, post season success and the development of players that came after them
Jersey retirement - everything required for "forever a flame" + outsized contribution to "the community."
Vernon, iginla and McDonald meet the distinction for jersey retirement. Macinnis and Nieuwendyk do not.
Fleury makes the distinction for Jersey Retirement and detracts from it at the same time. You can't say the guy isn't a hero for what he's done to open up the conversation about child sexual abuse scandal. And overcoming the demons those experiences left him with. And making a positive impact on other people fighting their own demons and addiction. Yet he's also done some very negative things. And if you focus on the negatives, I think the answer is "no, this isn't a guy for which we can retire a jersey."
But, when you sit back and look at his body of work, I think that the end of the day he gets his jersey retired. The positives outweigh the negatives by a mile and he's had to fight battles and carry burdens like none of the others in the conversation.
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