It was announced today that Dallas Stars center Martin Hanzal will wear number 11 next year, instead of number 10 like he did last year.
When Hanzal joined the Dallas Stars for the 2017-18 season, he wore the number 10, taking up the number after Patrick Sharp left.
There’s a certain former Stars captain who used to wear the number 10, and especially after the retirement of Jere Lehtinen’s 26 last year, fans may see this news and start to wonder, “What could this mean?”
Realistically, probably nothing.
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First and foremost, Hanzal wore 11 throughout his time with the Coyotes. It’s also the number he typically uses when he plays on the Czech team in international competitions.
Hanzal probably would’ve gone with 11 in the first place when he came to Dallas, but it was already being used by Curtis McKenzie. McKenzie departed the Stars organization this off-season for a contract with Vegas, leaving 11 open for Hanzal to take.
As for the number 10, it’s been in use since Brendan Morrow left the organization, as Shawn Horcoff wore it for two years right after he left. After Horcoff, Sharp wore it for two years, and then Hanzal wore it last year. Both Horcoff and Sharp wore 10 for a long time before coming to Dallas.
Morrow left in a trade and was still playing through the 2014-15 season. In a case like that, it’s not unusual that the Stars decided not to hold the number and instead reissued it to other players when asked.
Hanzal’s number change here in all likelihood has absolutely nothing to do with the Stars potentially wanting to retire Morrow’s number. If he hadn’t changed numbers, the Stars would’ve probably let him continue to use it for the foreseeable future.
However, with Hanzal changing, the Stars could decide to hold it back for now just in case, but they probably would’ve done that after Sharp left if they were planning on doing so, since Morrow had retired by that point. They also would’ve likely tried to convince Hanzal, who hadn’t worn 10 before, to pick another number, if they were simply allowing Horcoff and Sharp to retain their old numbers with the intention of retiring 10 in the near future.
It’s not out of the question that the Stars may retire Morrow’s jersey at some point, but they have at least one other retirement that’s more pressing: Sergei Zubov’s 56. No other player wore 56 for the Dallas Stars before Zubov did, and no one has worn it since his retirement in 2009, though it’s a less common number in general. The Stars will retire Zubov’s number before Morrow’s, if they do retire Morrow’s down the road.
Debating which players may have their numbers retired can be a fun exercise, but in this case, it doesn’t mean much that Hanzal changed numbers, if it means anything at all.