"The Great One," NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, whose No. 99 is retired throughout the league, believes the NHL should give the same honor to the No. 9 jersey worn by his late childhood idol, Gordie Howe, who died on Friday.
Gretzky made his case on Tuesday during Howe's public visitation at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, per Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com:
I'm pretty biased. If I had my way, I would do it. But that's for the league.
[...]
I don't think anybody helped promote, support the game, the sport or our country better than Gordie Howe. He was proud to be a Canadian, proud to be from Saskatchewan. And I don't think the NHL is going to overlook the fact of how important he was to the game so I'm sure they are going to do something real special for him.
Per Sports Photos, the two met when Gretzky was just 10 years old, starting a friendship that would span over five decades:
Gretzky played junior hockey with Howe's youngest son, Murray, and later played with his hero in the 1979 WHA All-Star Game when Howe was with the New England Whalers.&n ...
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Article written by Joe Pantorno
Wayne Gretzky Says NHL Should Retire Gordie Howe’s Number League-Wide
June 14th, 2016 by Joe Pantorno Leave a reply »
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