For those of you have been following us here at Notinhalloffame.com, we are in the process of ranking all major North American sports franchises and how they honor their past players. One of the organizations that we suspect will be in the top five will be the Montreal Canadians, who have just announced that former Defenceman, Guy Lapointe will be the latest man who will have his number raised to the rafters of the Bell Center.
Lapointe was a member of the Habs’ “Big Three” corps of blueliners, which included fellow Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, Larry Robinson and Serge Savard, which anchored the team to six Stanley Cups in the 1970’s, including four in a row. He was part of the team from 1968 to 1989 where he was named a First Team NHL All Star once and a Second Team selection three times. Lapointe was also gifted on offense as he scored 572 Points as a member of the Montreal Canadians. Internationally, Guy Lapointe was a member of Team Canada’s famed 1972 Summit Series and the 1976 Canadian Team.
Guy Lapointe wore the number 5 with the Canadians, which was the same number that was worn by another Montreal legend, Bernie Geoffrion who had that number retired in 2006. This is not the first time that a number has been retired twice by the Habs as the number 12 was previously retired twice in honor of both Yvan Cournoyer and Dickie Moore and the number 16 was hangs from the Bell Center in respect to both Elmer Lach and Henri Richard.
Like every other former player who has had their number retired by the Montreal Canadians organization, Guy Lapointe is also a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, an accolade he achieved in 1993. As always the Canadians have set the bar high for other NHL franchises to follow in regards to retired numbers.
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