Better late than never, right?
On Friday, February 1st, the Detroit Red Wings finally retired the jersey of Red Kelly.
Kelly, now 91 years old, won the Stanley Cup eight times and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969, two years after helping the Maple Leafs' to their most recent Stanley Cup.
Nearly 52 years after retiring, Kelly saw his No. 4 raised to the rafters at Little Caesars Arena.
"Seventy-one years ago I joined the Detroit Red Wings out of junior and they gave me No. 20 as a number."
"I came back the second year and they changed my number to 4 from 20 and I complained. I said, 'I liked my 20, why are you changing it?' They said, 'One number is lighter to carry than two.' So I thank them, appreciate for the great years we had in Detroit."
The Simcoe, Ontario product played 21 seasons in the NHL split between the Red Wings and Maple Leaf. After winning four cups with the Wings, Kelly converted to a centre after making the jump to Leafs. He notched 823 points in 1316 career games and has the most Stanley Cup in NHL history that never played for the Montreal Canadiens.
Back in 2017, Kelly was named one of the NHL's 100 greatest players.
Kelly's No. 4 was retired by the Maple Leafs on October 15th, 2016. He's one of nine players in hockey history to have their number retired by two different organizations.
Nicklas Lidstrom (5), Steve Yzerman (19), Sid Abel (12), Terry Sawchuk (1), Alex Delvecchio (10), Ted Lindsay (7) and Gordie Howe (9) are the other Red Wings to have their number retired.
