Calgary Flames to retire Miikka Kiprusoff’s number 34 on March 2

The Calgary Flames will be raising a jersey number to the Saddledome rafters during the 2023-24 season. The club announced on Tuesday morning that legendary netminder Miikka Kiprusoff will have his number 34 retired on March 2, prior to the Flames’ home date with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

A product of Turku, Finland, Kiprusoff was a fifth-round selection of the San Jose Sharks in 1995. He broke into the NHL with the Sharks, but was caught up in a l0g-jam of goalies as the Sharks also had Evgeni Nabokov and Vesa Toskala around. So Kiprusoff was traded to the Flames in November 2003 in exchange for a second-round pick in 2005.

Kiprusoff emerged as the top goaltender in Flames’ franchise history. In the remainder of the 2003-04 season he posted a 1.70 goals against average, surpassing Marty Turco’s expansion era record from the previous season for goaltenders who made 20+ appearances. (That goals against average mark has only been surpassed four times in the past two decades.) Kiprusoff backstopped the Flames to within a goal (and a win) of the 2004 Stanley Cup championship that spring.

After that torrid start, Kiprusoff basically rewrote the Flames’ goaltending record books. He’s the franchise leader in games (576), wins (305), shutouts (41), and he’s the leader in save percentage (.913) and goals against average (2.46) among goalies that made 100+ appearances in net. He’s also the single-season leader in games (76), wins (45), shutouts (10), goals against average (1.70) and save percentage (.933). He captured both the Vezina Trophy (as the league’s top netminder) and the William Jennings Trophy (as the goalie for the team with the fewest goals against) in 2005-06.

Kiprusoff redefined goaltending for the Flames franchise. He joins five Hockey Hall of Fame inductees in the Saddledome rafters: Lanny McDonald, Jarome Iginla and Mike Vernon have their numbers fully retired, while Al MacInnis and Joe Nieuwendyk were honoured in the Forever A Flame program.