Dave Keon - will he forgive?

[drummond]

Watching Dave Keon appearance in the ACC yesterday got me thinking, will he ever give the Leafs consent to retire his Number. He was a Leaf great if not the Leafs greatest of all the time. Lifting his name and number to the rafters is long overdue.

The ugly history between Keon and Ballard has been well documented
http://mapleleafslegends.blogspot.no/2006/05/dave-keon.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Keon

After Ballard death it was Cliff Fletcher in particular who tried to repair the relationship.

Obviously, the disgusting way Ballard treated him is inforgivable and I can understand that he hated him to his death, but I can't understand his continuing ill-feelings towards the Leafs organization even though it has changed ownership many times since Balard death. (Keon said few years back that "all ownership is the same".) The relationship has been slowly changing as Keon agreed to appear during official events in Toronto couple of times.

The Leafs want to honour his number, but for some reason, Mr. Keon will only allow his number 14 to be fully retired.

So what to do now?  Give him his wishes or retire his number against his wishes?

 

[Kin]

The Leafs want to honour his number, but for some reason, Mr. Keon will only allow his number 14 to be fully retired.

So what to do now?  Give him his wishes or retire his number against his wishes?

Well, as you point out the schism is about retiring the number vs. the "honouring" thing they do now. If Keon doesn't want them to honour his number then I don't think you'd do it against his wishes because you can hardly honour a guy by giving him something he has said repeatedly he doesn't want. If the guy doesn't want anything to do with a ceremony there's no reason to force it on him. I figure if we've really got respect for the guy and what he did for the franchise then the least fans and the team could do is leave him be.

For what it's worth, I agree with Keon that the Leafs should retire the numbers of their greatest players. 1, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 21 and 27. Maybe 93 if you're feeling generous. Still lots of numbers to choose from.