The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced Friday that as of next year, Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby’s number will be retired across the league.
The announcement was made shortly after Crosby’s No. 87 was retired by his junior team, Rimouski Oceanic, before the team’s game against the Sherbrooke Phoenix.
Crosby was on hand for the ceremony and received a standing ovation that reportedly lasted longer than six minutes.
“Seventeen years ago I had a decision to make: come to Rimouski or go to college,” Crosby told the crowd during his speech, via The Athletic‘s Josh Yohe. “I was 15 years old… my parents decided they’d come for a visit. I remember the anticipation of that visit. The thoughts that went through my mind: what would they think of this place? What’s it like there in Rimouski, is this the right place for me?”
“I remember my mom called me right after saying ‘Sidney, you’re going to love it here.’ That’s all I needed to hear. Mom, you were right.”
The Cole Harbour, N.S., native scored 303 career points in 121 games with Rimouski between 2003-05 after he was selected first overall in the 2003 QMJHL Draft. According to the league, he scored a hat trick in his first major junior game — just the start of a prolific career in both major juniors and the NHL. ‘Sid the Kid’ won two league MVP awards, won back-to-back CHL Player of the Year honors — the only player in history to do so — and led the Oceanic to a QMJHL championship in 2005.
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“Just how much I loved it here,” Crosby told reporters of his memories of Rimouski. “I think whether it was my teammates, people within the organization, the city itself… I think it’s just right from the start, just somewhere I loved to be. So happy to be here for two years, not only as a hockey player but spending time off the ice around here. Whether it’s billets or people you meet through the team, all those friendships and relationships that I made are still ones to this day that I still have.”
Crosby also won silver with Team Canada at the 2004 World Junior Championships and earned gold the following year before the Penguins selected him in the 2005 NHL Draft.