One number, one uniform, 17 seasons
January 30. That is the date Anaheim have set aside to raise Ryan Getzlaf’s No. 15 to the roof of Honda Center.
The club confirmed the ceremony on Tuesday. Getzlaf spent all 17 of his NHL seasons with the Ducks, which is not a sentence anyone gets to write often now. He played 1,157 regular-season games, scored 282 goals and added 737 assists. No player in franchise history has appeared in more games or scored more points.
He made three All-Star teams. He stopped playing after the 2021-22 season, and even in that final year he put up 34 assists in 56 games.
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2007 still defines the franchise
Anaheim have won the Stanley Cup once. Getzlaf was in his second NHL season for it, posting 25 goals and 33 assists across the 2006-07 regular season before adding seven goals and 10 assists in 21 playoff games as the Ducks went all the way.
The date of the ceremony is not an accident. Two days earlier, on Jan. 28, the club marks the 20th anniversary of that championship.
“Ryan Getzlaf’s impact on the Ducks will be felt for generations to come,” owners Henry and Susan Samueli said in the club’s announcement. “While no player in club history played more games or scored more points, it’s his leadership, championship DNA and community contributions we will remember most.”
Getzlaf becomes the fourth Duck honoured this way. Teemu Selanne’s No. 8, Paul Kariya’s No. 9 and Scott Niedermayer’s No. 27 already hang at Honda Center, and the Samuelis named all three when they set out where Getzlaf’s jersey would sit.
Two of those three shared the ice with him. Selanne and Niedermayer were central to the 2007 run, with Getzlaf the young centre who grew into the role they left behind. The Regina, Saskatchewan native wore the captain’s C for more than a decade before he retired, through the good years and through the rebuild that followed them.
The banner goes up on Jan. 30, two nights after the club looks back at the only title it has.
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