Patrick Kane will have his No. 88 retired by his OHL team, the London Knights, in a pregame ceremony Jan. 17 at Budweiser Gardens, reports to Ryan Pyette of The London Free Press.
Kane will be the ninth player in London franchise history to have his number retired and the first after playing only one season. He scored 62 goals and 145 points in 58 regular-season games then added 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists) in 16 playoff games during the 2006-07 season. For his efforts, he won the Emms Family Award as OHL rookie of the year and was runner-up to John Tavares for the Red Tilson Trophy as league MVP.
London selected Kane with the 88th overall pick in the fifth round of the 2004 OHL Midget Draft, but he elected to play for the United States National Team Development Program for two seasons prior to joining the Knights. He has said his birth year, 1988, is the reason he wears No. 88.
Kane will be the second Blackhawks player to have his number retired by London, joining Dave Bolland whose No. 91 hangs in the Budweiser Gardens rafters. The duo were teammates in Chicago from 2007-13 and won two Stanley Cup championships together. Kane and Bolland scored the Cup-clinching goal in 2010 and 2013, respectively.
Kane, who has won three Stanley Cup titles since being selected first overall by the Blackhawks in the 2007 NHL draft, is expected to attend the ceremony. The Blackhawks play Jan. 15 in Montreal and Jan. 18 in Toronto.
London Knights retired numbers
5 — Rob Ramage (1975-78)
8 — Dino Ciccarelli (1976-80)
9 — Darryl Sittler (1967-70)
19 — Brendan Shanahan (1985-87)
22 — Brad Marsh (1973-78)
61 — Rick Nash (2000-02)
91 — Dave Bolland (2002-06)
94 — Corey Perry (2001-04)