eva unit zero 271 Report post Posted July 27, 2011 Osgood's personal achievements are light. That's the knock against him in the HHOF and retiring his number. He has an impressive resume, but he was never really a star in this league. He was never really considered among the top of his position. Osgood was one of the top five goalies for the 90s as a whole. As for personal achievements, a large number of HHOFers are in despite never winning a trophy. Osgood is well more than worthy based on established standards. You can have the standards you believe the Hall should go by, but ultimately Ozzie belongs there because he's well above many players already in. I really don't get your line of reasoning. It's as if you're trying to prove Ozzy's number should be retired by naming people who shouldn't have theirs retired. And what does trading Messier or Fuhr have to do with anything?? My point with Messier and Fuhr was that the Oilers traded Gretzky and still won the Cup. That's how stacked the team in front of Fuhr's 4 Cup wins as starter were. Remove WAYNE GRETZKY, and still have a Cup winner. A further point regarding Fuhr; Osgood and Fuhr were each the best goalie in the playoffs three years during their careers. But Osgood only played eight playoff seasons. You're also putting way too much weight on being a Wing for a long time. Yes that's a factor, because you want to retire a number of a player who is associated first and foremost with that team and considered synonymous with the organization (unlike the Avs retiring Bourque's number), but it requires a lot more than that. And to be clear, I like Ozzy. I've been a fan over the years and defended him here countless times. But I still don't think he warrants having his number retired. No currently retired Wing began his career with another team, or spent time outside of Detroit for any significant amount of time. So that classification in Detroit is not MY criterion. And using it disqualifies Shanahan, Draper, and Chelios. But Osgood has a Hall of Fame resume on his Wings career alone, and he spent a long time with the club in a key role. Norm Ullman is the next most recent player I can think of who matches that who is retired but does not have a banner. So disqualifying Osgood because you have to look back to Sawchuk for a retirement-worthy goaltender is a questionable practice. Jersey retirement should be based on the merit of the player, not the depth of the organization's history. Osgood's 317 wins as a Red Wing rank 4th among all single-team totals for goaltenders. Only nine goaltenders have won 300 games with one team. Only 19 have won 250, and only 35 have even won 200. most of those 35 are either active, ineligible, or in the Hall. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eva unit zero 271 Report post Posted July 27, 2011 Actually that doesn't invalidate that argument, you just disagree with it. Because Ozzy played for the Wings for a long time and racked up an impressive resume does not some how erase the significance that in their entire history, the Wings have officially retired six numbers. The point still holds that the Wings use an extremely high standard for retiring numbers. My point was that you can't look at the age of a team and state that they should or should not retire his number; the Wings had a ridiculous amount of roster turnover for a period of about 40 years from 1955 to 1995. Other original six teams went through periods with far less turnover, and therefore longer terms for the key players. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hockeytown0001 7,652 Report post Posted July 27, 2011 Ozzie's finest moments - -Fighting Patrick Roy -1998 Playoffs -Leading the Isles to the playoffs -2008 Playoffs -400th win 1 WizardOfOz30 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WizardOfOz30 1,886 Report post Posted July 27, 2011 Ozzie's finest moments - -Fighting Patrick Roy -1998 Playoffs -Leading the Isles to the playoffs -2008 Playoffs -400th win Yes to all of those but you forgot the goal he scored against Hartford, that always makes one of my top Ozzie moments. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hockeytown0001 7,652 Report post Posted July 27, 2011 Yes to all of those but you forgot the goal he scored against Hartford, that always makes one of my top Ozzie moments. That too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDrfa9RrLN8 1 WizardOfOz30 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cusimano_brothers 1,655 Report post Posted July 30, 2011 Toronto Star . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
