Should Francis' #29 be retired? Absolutely not!
People go on about his 400+ games, and that is a good achievement. But British players can rack up the 100, 200, 300+ games because they are a commodity that is absolutely neccassary in the British game. Only during the Superleague era did Brits like Francis not get a roster space at a top level club because there was no rule about minimum number of Brits, and so teams loaded up with much better import players because they could.
Since Superleague, Brits must be on the roster by order of the Elite League, so those guys can get their number of games right up there after only a few seasons. With the number of games in a season effectively 50+ (maybe more) including all cup competitions, it is just not that difficult to rack up the games, especially when you only get a few shifts a game for most of the seasons you are on the roster, so the chances of obtaining injuries are greatly reduced as compared to an import who plays far more ice time. Hence, Francis racks up 400+ games.
Now I am sure that people will come up with all sorts of flowery excuses to retire a players jersey, but for me with the exception of Brian Dickson's already retired #14, a players jersey should be retired on his exceptional playing contribution to the club.
#29 was simply not a very good player, he was okay, and even good in his last year playing, but generally below average overall. Did Sheffield, Nottingham, Belfast, Coventry ever want to sign him at any time? No!
His game was generally based around occasional 3rd line quick shifts to harrass the opposition(it certainly wasn't his point scoring), and he invariably took silly penalties for a late hit, or retaliation off the puck, and left the Devils shorthanded. It is simply a fact that he was just not very good, and the idea that the flowery people on this forum want to retire his jersey is just utterly ridiculous.
Retire Jason Stone #10? Maybe there is a more solid argument there as he has played 1000+ games and has played plenty of decent ice time in the bulk of them. But I personally don't think his playing ability really warrants a jersey retirement.
Maybe we could retire all the players jersey numbers within the next 5 years, and then move to a new lettering system, as all the numbers will be hanging in the rafters!
Retiring a players jersey number is a very high honour that should be given to only the creme of the talented players to contribute to the hockey club, and not just because they are a nice guy who says hi in the bar after contributing directly to a home defeat by giving away silly penalties.
But hey, let's retire his number!!!
