On February 14th 1934, the Toronto Maple Leafs became the first professional sports team in history to retire a number in honour of a player when they retired Ace Bailey’s #6 after he suffered a gruesome career-ending injury.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have now honoured 19 players this way by raising their banners to the rafters. Since some of these players used the same number at different times, there are 13 numbers retired by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Though Toronto has more player banners in the rafters than any other NHL team and the second most retired numbers (Montreal has 18 banners and 14 numbers), there are still many more legendary Leaf players deserving of the honour.