Selänte’s game number 13 and Numminen’s 27 were raised to the roof of the Winnipeg Jets’ NHL arena last night.
Hockey players who starred for the Winnipeg Jets in the 1990s Teemu Selänne and Prank Numminen got their game numbers on the roof of the NHL club’s home arena last night. The ceremonies were seen before the game between Winnipeg and Anaheim, which the Jets took by Kyle Connor 3-2 thanks to a hat trick. Connor had planned to do Selänte’s trademark ventilation if he could get the hat full, but in the end the glove was not thrown in the air.
Selänne played 231 regular season games in the Jets jersey between 1992 and 1996 and scored 306 (147+159) power points in them. Numminen worked for the club from 1988 to 1996 and collected 265 (53+212) points in 547 games.
Selänte’s career then continued in Anaheim, where he won the Stanley Cup in 2007. Numminen, on the other hand, moved to the Phoenix Coyotes, who continued the Jets’ sky in the NHL.
The Winnipeg Jets returned to the NHL map for the 2011–12 season, replacing the Atlanta Thrashers.
The shirt ceremony was already the second of their careers in the NHL for both Finns. The Coyotes honored Numminen’s number 27 in 2010. The Ducks, on the other hand, retired Selänte’s number 8 in 2015.
The roof of the Anaheim arena has the number 8, but in Winnipeg, the number 13 was latticed to the heights. Selänne played with the number 13 for the Jets, because his favorite number 8 was a defender by Randy Carlyle in use.
Selänten’s 13 and Numminen’s 27 will continue to be available to the Jets players, i.e. the numbers were not “frozen”. There are different shirt ceremonies in the NHL, this time it was about honoring game numbers.
However, it is rare for a player to receive a shirt ceremony from two different NHL clubs.
– Teppo took care of me here, all I had to do was follow him. All I could focus on was hockey. Many times on the plane I asked Tepo what city we were going to, Selänne spoke to the local media before the ceremony and described Nummi as his “big brother”.
The game numbers of these nine players have been frozen by two different NHL clubs:
Bobby Hull (Chicago and Winnipeg)
Gordie Howe (Detroit and Hartford)
Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton and Los Angeles)
Ray Bourque (Boston and Colorado)
Mark Messier (Edmonton and New York Rangers)
Patrick Roy (Montreal and Colorado)
Tim Horton’s (Buffalo and Toronto)
Red Kelly (Detroit and Toronto)
Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim and New Jersey)
In addition, there are a few players, such as Teemu Selänne, who have received a jersey ceremony from two different NHL organizations. In the case of Teppo Numminen, then Winnipeg and Arizona are counted as one organization.