Peter Bondra and Olaf Kolzig at the team’s alumni event this past weekend. (Caps Outsider)
If you google “Olaf Kolzig” or “Peter Bondra” and “retired number,” you’ll find no shortage of blog content making a case for the Capitals to raise #37 and #12 to the rafters. Caps Outsider’s first article on this came back in 2009.
In their half-century as a franchise, the Capitals have only retired four numbers: #7 Yvon Labre, #5 Rod Langway, #32 Dale Hunter and #11 Mike Gartner. Once Alex Ovechkin hangs up the skates in a few years, #8 will join the list. That likely will be followed by Nicklas Backstrom’s #19. A case can be made for #74 John Carlson and others on 2018’s Stanley Cup winning squad, though those fellows will likely languish like Bondra and Kolzig as great Caps whose numbers are up for grabs by new players.
While it’s unlikely that any new Caps player will opt to wear 37 or 12 (for some reason, Jeff Friesen sported Bondra’s #12 in 2006), the Capitals likely don’t have plans to decorate the rafters with any more players from the past. That’s why they need a Ring of Fame, which is essentially a team Hall of Fame. It’s a way of honoring and celebrating players, coaches, broadcasters and even owners for their contributions to the organization, while leaving the ‘jersey ceremony’ for a select few.
Currently, more football teams have a Ring of Fame than any other sport, including the Commanders. Some baseball teams have one, including the Washington Nationals. In hockey, it appears only the Vancouver Canucks have one.
Occasionally, the Caps invite back alumni – as it did this weekend – and sometimes honors members with ceremonial puck drops, visits to the broadcast booth, and charity event participation. Inscribing some of these names in a Ring of Fame would be a suitable consolation prize if there’s no plans on restricting more numbers from further use.
Who would belong on this Ring of Fame? These answers are obvious. Labre, Hunter, Langway, Gartner, Kolzig, Bondra, and several other deserving folks, like Calle Johansson, Craig Laughlin, Dennis Maruk, and Braden Holtby. Let’s not forget broadcaster Ron Weber, longtime equipment manager Woody Leydig, and Abe Pollin.
Retiring a number doesn’t have to be the same thing as inducting a player into a team’s hall of fame. With that in mind, what better time would there be to do this than now?
