In the early days of DTFR, we made an educated guess as to who each team might honor in the future regarding retired jersey numbers. Since then, the Vegas Golden Knights came into existence and more than a few jersey numbers went out of circulation across the league.
It’s time for an update and a look at who the Anaheim Ducks might honor by hanging their name and number from the rafters of Honda Center someday.
Anaheim Ducks Current Retired Numbers
8 Teemu Selanne
9 Paul Kariya
27 Scott Niedermayer
Did Anything Change In The Last Five Years?
Yes! Paul Kariya and Scott Niedermayer (called it, not to brag) had their jersey numbers retired by the Ducks since 2015. Both are very deserving.
Possible Numbers to Retire Someday
10 Corey Perry
Perry won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the regular season MVP for 2010-11, when he scored 50 goals and also added a Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy to his trophy case that season, but he has yet to get back to the 50-goal plateau and only crossed the 40-goal plateau once since then with 43 goals in 2013-14.
Since 2013-14, Perry added back-to-back 30-goal seasons with 33 goals in 67 games played in 2014-15, and 34 goals in 82 games in 2015-16.
Nicknamed “Scorey” Perry, his production is much more reminiscent of that of Barry Pederson in a Vancouver Canucks sweater– and he shares more in common with Pederson these days too as a player battling significant injuries.
He missed five months of the 2018-19 season (his last in Anaheim) due to a torn meniscus and an MCL injury. Since then, despite joining the Dallas Stars via free agency on a one-year deal ahead of the 2019-20 season, Perry has looked like a shell of his former self on the ice.
That’s not to say he can’t extend his career another year or two, but at 35-years-old, it’s unlikely that he’ll reach top-six forward status on any roster anytime soon.
Nevertheless, he racked up a Stanley Cup ring in his sophomore season, which also happens to be the Ducks’ only Stanley Cup championship to date back in 2007. In 988 career NHL games with Anaheim, Perry notched 372 goals and 404 assists (776 points), which was about .785 points per game as a Duck.
In his 14 seasons with Anaheim, there was perhaps no bigger name on the roster– aside from Teemu Selanne, Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger– so he’s more than likely to see his No. 10 rise to the rafters when he hangs up his skates.
15 Ryan Getzlaf
No, it’s not a product of “cancel culture”– a phrase that didn’t even exist in the mainstream Internet lexicon the last time we did this in 2015– to think that professional athletes should be held to “higher standards” for their words (the same standards the average professional actually has in their office– well, in theory), but the fact of the matter is that Getzlaf used a homophobic slur in Game 4 of the 2017 Western Conference Final and was fined $10,000 by the league for it.
Was it an “honest” mistake? Perhaps.
Did Getzlaf learn from it? Well, no, not right away anyway.
He didn’t exactly apologize upon owning up to it, remarking to reporters after Game 5 that “[a] situation like that, where I’m on the bench by myself, frustration set in. There was obviously some words said, not necessarily directed at anyone in particular. It was just kind of a comment. I’ve got to be a little bit more responsible for the words I choose.
“Definitely as a father, as somebody that takes a lot of pride in this game and the respect for it, it’s tough to see somebody refer to it as what TSN did (a homophobic slur). I didn’t mean it in that manner in any way. For that to take that route was very disappointing for me. I do accept responsibility and I accept the fine.
“We talked to the league and I understand that it’s my responsibility to not use vulgar language. Period. Whether it’s a swear word or whatever it is. We’ve got to be a little bit more respectful of the game, and that’s up to me. I accept that responsibility and we’ll move forward.
“That’s my responsibility to understand that there are eyes and ears on us all the time. Fortunately enough, nobody heard it. If you can read lips, it’s a little bit harder, and I apologize for that. That’s a thing that you won’t hear from me again. I hope I didn’t offend anybody outside the circle that we trust.”
Sure, it might have “just [been] kind of a comment”, but it’s still irresponsible. Getzlaf addressed needing to be more responsible, but then slaughtered any responsibility for his action with the “[i]t’s tough to see someone refer to it as [homophobic]” part.
Might as well translate to “I’m sorry that you’re not sorry for not understanding me when I clearly used a slur according to the league”.
And that “I hope I didn’t offend anybody outside the circle that we trust” part? What the hell does that mean, exactly? Anybody “outside the circle” should still deserve your respect.
He also deflected to being “a little bit more respectful of the game”, but slurs of any kind have nothing to do with “the game”– they’re directed at people.
In the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Chicago Blackhawks forward, Andrew Shaw, was suspended for one game and fined $5,000 for using a homophobic slur and making an obscene gesture toward officials.
A year later, what’s another $5,000 and not being sidelined for a game?
Pocket change for Getzlaf– a player with an $8.250 million cap hit through 2020-21 and making a salary of $9.250 million in the 2016-17 season alone.
None of this isn’t to say that Getzlaf hasn’t possibly learned from his actions and tried to make a positive change in both his conduct on the ice, as well as in the LGBTQ+ community in Anaheim, but it is to make a point about whether or not character requirements for jersey retirements or Hall of Fame inductions should play more than just a minor consideration in the grand scheme of things.
That said, Getzlaf also was in his sophomore season with the Ducks en route to winning the Cup in 2007, and has amassed 274-691–965 totals in 1,053 career NHL games– all with Anaheim– since the 2005-06 season.
He had a 91-point season in 2008-09, and broke the 30-goal plateau with 31 goals and 87 points in Anaheim’s strong 2013-14 regular season.
He’s no Bobby Hull (an actual domestic abuser and racist), but if Getzlaf hasn’t grown as a person and the Ducks sweep the incident under the rug in favor of “honoring a great hockey player– you know, one who had a lot of respect for the game”, then that’d be a disgrace to the jersey numbers already hanging from the rafters inside Honda Center.
36 John Gibson
After posting a 1.33 goals against average and a .954 save percentage in three games in the 2013-14 season (all wins by the way– one of them being a shutout), Gibson followed up his league debut with a 13-8-0 record in 23 games as a backup in 2014-15, with a 2.60 GAA and a .914 SV%, as well as a shutout.
He made his debut as a starter in the 2015-16 season and had a 21-13-4 record in 40 games along the way, with an impressive 2.07 GAA and a .920 SV%, as well as four shutouts that season. Gibson then improved upon his save percentage and shutouts in a season the following year for the Ducks with a 25-16-9 record in 52 games, as well as a 2.22 GAA, a .924 SV% and six shutotus in 2016-17, en route to Anaheim’s ultimate defeat in the Western Conference Final at the hands of the Nashville Predators that spring.
Since then, the last three seasons haven’t been very kind to Gibson.
Granted, the Ducks as a whole have been on the downward trend and are going through a rebuild (or whatever you want to call it).
In 2017-18, Gibson had a 2.43 GAA and a .926 SV% with four shutouts and a 31-18-7 record in 60 games played. Certainly not bad, in terms of save percentage and wins, but that goals against average took a turn for the more, well, average.
In 2018-19, he had a 2.84 GAA and a .917 SV% with two shutouts and a 26-22-8 record in 58 games. This season, despite the regular season being cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gibson had a 20-26-5 record and one shutout in 51 games, as well as a 3.00 GAA and a .904 SV%.
Yikes. That’s Martin Jones and Jonathan Quick territory, which, coincidentally happens to be both the starting goaltenders for the rest of the California teams.
That said, Gibson has shown before that he’s one of the better American goaltenders to come around in a long time, so with an actual defense in front of him, the Ducks can win more games!
Then again, if Anaheim constructs a defense that’s solid and he continues to struggle, then it might just mean that his better days are behind him, which is a shame and puts a damper to his potential as the first Ducks goaltender to possibly have his number retired in franchise history– and that’s fully acknowledging that Jean-Sebastien Giguere exists.
Final Thoughts
It’s too early to try to speculate which of the rookies and young players in Anaheim will 1) stick around as part of their rebuild/retool and 2) become key components of the franchise in the long-term to the point of being a franchise star, so the Ducks remain limited in their possible future jersey retirement ceremony’s based on the last five years.
Anaheim’s had two great serviceable “franchise” players to build around in Perry and Getzlaf, but both are nearing the end of their playing days with little hardware to show for their time in Anaheim while one (Perry) doesn’t even play for the Ducks anymore.
Think about that.
The Ducks had a solid core to work with from winning the Cup in 2007, through their most recent appearance in the Western Conference Final in 2017, and they only won one Clarence S. Campbell Bowl and one Stanley Cup in that span.
