Calgary Flames: New fan? We've got you covered!

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CALGARY, CANADA – FEBRUARY 24: The retired numbers of former Calgary Flames players. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images) /

All-Time Fan Favourites

We got through the current fan-favourites. Now let’s get to the all-time fan-favourites. We won’t be spending too much time on each player unless we want this to be extremely wrong. Don’t worry, as we did a countdown for the start of the regular season, we’ve written their complete career histories relating to how many days there were left until that season. We’ll reference each one so you can read more on each player if you’d like.

Lanny McDonald

Lanny McDonald was always known for his glorious beard. And I mean GLORIOUS. Look at this:

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – MARCH 14 1983: Lanny McDonald. (Photo by B Bennett/Getty Images) /

Lanny McDonald served as the Flames captain in the 80s and helped them win their first cup in franchise history in 1989. He retired right after the season ended after he finally and rightfully won his deserving Cup.

“You’ve done it, Lanny. You’ve done it.” gets me EVERY time.

He’s been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and was the first player in Calgary Flames franchise history to have his number (#9) retired. Just this past year, he was also inducted into Alberta’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Mike Vernon

Mike Vernon (#30) is the only other player to have his number retired by the Calgary Flames. Vernon was also part of the 1989 Stanley Cup winning team as their primary goaltender. He also won another cup with the Detroit Red Wings some years later.

Vernon has yet to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he should be going soon. He is known as one of the best goaltenders in Flames franchise history. He set lots of records before Miikka Kiprusoff came and broke them all basically.

Speaking of Kiprusoff…

Miikka Kiprusoff (#34)

Kip is basically known as THE best goaltender in Calgary Flames history. I mean, yes there was Vernon, but Kip came and broke basically all of his records. He eventually retired in 2013 after the season ended, and in his last home game, where it was known that he could potentially retire, the fans gave him a very long and well-deserved standing ovation at the end of the game.

Kiprusoff played internationally on several occasions and had quite a successful career since being traded to the Flames. The only thing missing from his resume is a Stanley Cup.

Al MacInnis

Al MacInnis (#2) is a player who doesn’t have his number retired by the Flames, but it’s an honorary number part of the “Forever a Flame” program that still hangs up beside Lanny and Vernon. He does, however, have his number retired by the St. Louis Blues. MacInnis was also part of the 1989 Stanley Cup winning team (we’re starting to sense a trend here). During that playoff run, he led the playoffs in scoring that year with 31 points and won the Conn Smythe as the MVP during the playoffs.

He’s played internationally for different tournaments and was even part of the extremely memorable 2002 Canadian ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics who won the gold medal for the first time in 50 years. He’s also been in the All-Star games seven times in his career.

MacInnis was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.

Joe Nieuwendyk

The pick the Calgary Flames used to draft Joe Nieuwendyk (#25) was the pick they had to trade for from the Minnesota North Stars that sent Kent Nilsson there. Headlines surrounding Calgary newspapers were “Joe Who?” Turns out he would be one of the best players in franchise history.

In his rookie year, he had 51 goals and got close to breaking Mike Bossy‘s record of scoring 53 goals in his rookie year. He also became the second player ever (after Mike Bossy) to reach at least 50 goals in his first year. For that, he won the Calder Trophy.

Nieuwendyk was also part of the 1989 Stanley Cup winning team (wow, surprised?). He’s also won two other cups and was part of the trade that brought Jarome Iginla to Calgary. Nieuwendyk was inducted into the HHOF in 2011 and is also known for making me think twice every time I spell his name.

Theo Fleury

Theo Fleury (#14) was again, another member part of the 1989 Cup team. He won with them as a rookie. And he wasn’t drafted until the eighth round in the 1987 NHL Draft, so it was a hell of a steal of a late-round pick for the Calgary Flames. This is definitely something Fleury is known for:

Fleury managed to break a few franchise records – beating Nieuwendyk‘s goal record and surpassing Al MacInnis‘ points record (both have been beaten). He came very close to being a part of the Triple Gold Club, with having an Olympic Gold medal and a Stanley Cup, he also had a silver medal at the World Championship.

Fleury has yet to be inducted into the HHOF, but we’re all anticipating it to come quite soon.

Jarome Iginla

Oh, Jarome Iginla (#12). The things I could say about him, so I’ll try my best to keep this short and sweet. Iginla served as the Calgary Flames captain for 13 years before being traded in 2013, with the hopes of achieving a Stanley Cup. He broke Fleury’s franchise records that I just mentioned.

Iginla is probably the biggest Flames fan-favourite right now. Except for last season when he got into a fight with then-Flame Deryk Engelland, but everyone still loves this guy.

In every NHL player in history, Iginla is currently 34th in points (third among active players) and he’s 15th in goals (second among active players, after new Flame Jaromir Jagr). He’s still a free agent right now, so we may be expecting him to announce a retirement. Which I am 150% not ready for, nor will I ever be ready for something like that.

He may be #12 on the ice, but he will forever be #1 in our hearts.

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Calgary Flames: New fan? We’ve got you covered!

By Ramina Shlah | Oct 4, 2017