Coventry Blaze will honour one of their greatest-ever players with the retirement of his number 25 jersey.
Canadian Adam Calder joined Coventry in 2004 and in a glittering six-season career with Blaze he played 384 games, scoring 257 goals with 277 assists. He remains the all-time leading goalscorer in Coventry colours.
He was a key member of all four of the club’s Elite League title successes and added a further two Challenge Cups, one Knockout Cup and one Elite League play-off championship to his trophy cabinet.
Calder was named Elite League and Ice Hockey Journalists’ Elite League player of the season in 2007/08 and was an Elite League First Team All-Star on three occasions.
Forming a formidable partnership with American forward Dan Carlson, Calder rewrote Coventry’s record books and set standards that will be exceptionally difficult to emulate.
He holds the club’s all-time records for powerplay goals (82), game-winning goals (38) and hat-tricks (17).
Calder, who retired from the sport during the 2013/14 season following a serious injury, also holds a clutch of club season records including most points (133), most goals (63) and most powerplay goals (25) – all set during the 2007/2008 double-winning campaign.
He is one of only two Coventry players to have recorded more than 100 points in a season twice and is the only player to have accumulated more than 40 goals in a campaign five times.
He is also one of only two players to have netted five hat-tricks in a single season and the only player to have bagged a hat-trick of powerplay goals on two separate occasions.
Calder, 39, has further records to his name as the club’s all-time leading EIHL competition goalscorer (229), powerplay goalscorer (70), game-winning goalscorer (35) and hat-trick scorer (3).
He holds the club and the Elite League records for most points in an EIHL competition season with 125.
Just for good measure, Calder is the only player to have recorded a ‘perfect hat-trick’ of even-handed, powerplay and short-handed goals in the same game on two occasions.
Calder’s final game for the club was in the Elite League play-off semi-final against Cardiff Devils in Nottingham in April 2010.
Director of Hockey James Pease, a former teammate of Calder’s, said: “Adam simply terrorised the opposition and there have been few better clutch players.
“His achievements are pretty much unmatched at both club and league level and we are delighted to be honouring a player so influential in our history.
“He was a fantastic player, a fantastic team-mate and a fantastic ambassador for this club. It was a privilege for us to have Adam as part of our team for six years and it’s an equal privilege for us to be retiring his number 25 jersey.”
Calder’s jersey retirement ceremony will take place before face-off when Coventry take on Cardiff Devils at the Skydome on Saturday, December 12.
Everyone at the game will receive a special commemorative Adam Calder player card and Adam will be signing autographs at the end of the game.
For ticket information please click here.
