Another Raider legend will be honored in the rafters of the Art Hauser Centre this coming season.
Dan Hodgson’s number 16 will be retired by the Raiders on Nov. 25, prior to a game against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
“I know all the great players that went through there and a couple of them were already up in the rafters there, so I’m honored to be joining them,” Hodgson says. “It’s an individual award or ceremony, but I look at it differently. Without all the great players I played with and my coaches in Prince Albert, this wouldn’t be happening. I’m grateful for the time I had in Prince Albert. Those are very special years.”
Hodgson played three seasons in Prince Albert, including serving as the captain for the 1984-1985 Memorial Cup champion team. Including playoff and Memorial Cup statistics, Hodgson appeared in 225 games in a Raider uniform recording 204 goals and 347 assists.
When Hodgson arrived in Prince Albert, he chose to wear number 16 in tribute to another hockey great.
Long-time Philadelphia Flyers captain Bobby Clarke was someone Hodgson looked up to because of the challenges he overcame in his personal life to find success in the NHL.
“Being a young boy growing up in Fort McMurray, I read about this Bobby Clarke guy.” Hodgson says. “He was the captain of the Flyers. I knew that he broke the records for Flin Flon in the Western League, and I heard that he was a diabetic. I always thought if a diabetic from Flin Flon, Manitoba can make it to the NHL and have such an impact the way he did, it was almost like a barrier, or a wall being broken down for me where I didn’t have any excuses, why I couldn’t either?”
Hodgson was drafted in the fifth round of the 1983 draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs. After his time in Hockeytown North, Hodgson went on to play in the NHL, AHL, and overseas until he retired from professional hockey following the 2004-05 season.
“We were taught in Prince Albert (that) no one’s bigger than a team and you wouldn’t be anywhere if you didn’t have great teammates and great coaches,” he says. “I was blessed to have that in Prince Albert, both of them. When I’m going up there and I want to make it very clear and I’m sure I’ll have opportunity to make it clear when I am in Prince Albert, that all my teammates, I hope they should be honored too. They all touched me or moved me in some way. It was all positive, how I was treated there in Prince Albert and what I learned from these guys not only on off the ice, but on the ice as well. They were a bunch of great players we had there and great human beings.”
Although it was only three short years spent in a Raider uniform, Hodgson says he took a unique lesson out of each individual season.
“When I do think back about my time in Prince Albert, it’s really mashed together all three years blend in together because there was something valuable I took out of every one of those years. The first year where we got beaten so badly and we really had to learn because we were so young. How we learned the second year and what we took out of that year which led to my last year there in ’85 capping off at the Memorial Cup.”
Hodgson’s number 16 will be the third number retired by the Prince Albert Raiders, joining Dave Manson’s number 4 and Mike Modano’s number 9.
The last Raider to wear number 16 was Cole Peardon during the 2022-23 season.
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