“Huge honour” – Nashville Predators retire Pekka Rinne’s jersey 

“Huge honour” – Nashville Predators retire Pekka Rinne’s jersey 

Pekka Rinne

Finnish ice hockey player Pekka Rinne led the Nashville Predators to their lone Stanley Cup Final in 2017. The longtime goaltender, who has a long list of accomplishments against his name, announced retirement from the National Hockey League (NHL) last year.

He also become the first player to have his jersey retired on Thursday by the organization when the Predators raise Rinne’s No. 35 to the rafters before the Thursday night game against Dallas Stars. The 2018 Vezina Trophy winner as the league’s best goalie, Pekka was 369-213-75 in his career. 

“A huge honour,” Rinne said. “It is. I consider myself very fortunate. There’s been a lot of great players in this organization over the years, but also I realized that I was lucky enough to play for a long time for this organization and that’s obviously a big thank you to [general manager] David [Poile] as well.

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“He believed in me and gave me an opportunity and I was able to have a long career here. Obviously, that creates a connection to this organization and to this city. I think that’s obviously a big reason why I’m sitting here today.”

“Started setting goals and dreams”

Pekka Rinne
Pekka Rinne

Rinne was selected by Nashville with pick No. 258 in the 2004 NHL draft and everything changed afterwards. 

“After that, I started setting goals and dreams and started dreaming about the NHL way more,” Rinne said. “Then good things started happening. Early on, I wasn’t the most talented player growing up. After that, it’s like a positive cycle start and a lot of good things happen.”

Rinne announced his retirement in July 2021 after capping his career till May 10 in Nashville’s regular-season finale, a 5-0 win over Carolina Hurricanes, marking his 369th victory.

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