Almost 11 years after his retirement, the Calgary Flames have retired Miikka Kiprusoff’s number.
The Flames gave their long-time goaltender the honour in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,289 on Saturday night before their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Kiprusoff, 47, becomes the Flames second goaltender and fourth player to have their number retired, joining Lanny McDonald’s No. 9, Jarome Iginla’s No. 12 and Mike Vernon’s No. 30. He also becomes the seventh Finnish-born player to have their number retired, joining Jari Kurri (No. 17 with the Edmonton Oilers), Teppo Numminen (No. 27 with the Arizona Coyotes), Teemu Selanne (No. 8 with the Anaheim Ducks), Jere Lehtinen (No. 26 with the Dallas Stars), Pekka Rinne (No. 35 with the Nashville Predators), and Mikko Koivu (No. 9 with the Minnesota Wild).
Originally a fifth-round draft pick of the San Jose Sharks in 1995, Kiprusoff made his NHL debut in 2001 and went on to spend three seasons with the Sharks before he was dealt to the Flames early into the 2003-04 season. He then established himself as a consistent NHL starter that season with a 24-10-4 record, a .933 save percentage, and four shutouts in 38 games that year, carrying that play into the playoffs and helping the Flames to just one win from the Stanley Cup in the 2004 playoffs.
Kiprusoff went on to play an additional eight seasons after the 2004-05 lockout as the Flames starter, playing 576 games with the team for a record of 305-192-68, a .913 save% and 41 shutouts. He also played 52 playoff games for the Flames, with a 24-27-0 record, a .920 save% and six shutouts.
Kiprusoff currently holds most of the Flames’ regular season franchise accolades for goaltenders, including games played, starts, wins, and shutouts, and is also the franchise leader in goals against average and save percentage among goalies with at least 30 games played. He is second in games played, starts, and wins in the postseason, all behind Vernon, and is the franchise leader in postseason shutouts, goals against average, and save% among goalies with 15 games played.
All-time, Kiprusoff ranks 47th in games played, tied for 31st in wins, tied for 37th in shutouts. He’s also tied for 8th in goals against average and tied for 11th in save% among goalies with at least 600 games played.
Kiprusoff won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender and the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2006, where he had a 42-20-11 record, a .923 save%, and 10 shutouts in 74 games played.
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