Bruins to retire Middleton's No. 16

Rick Middleton will have his No. 16 retired by the Boston Bruins before a game against the New York Islanders at TD Garden on Nov. 29, news he said that hit him like a sledgehammer.
"It's something that obviously you think about, especially over the last four or five years when nobody has worn the No. 16 and you think, 'Well, maybe it will happen,'" Middleton, 64, said on a conference call Tuesday.

Middleton admitted to being in a state of shock after speaking with Bruins president Cam Neely, a conversation that began with small talk and turned to the tribute the Bruins have planned.
"You never know for sure. I'm getting up there in age a little bit, and especially in the month of July it's not really the type of call that you think you're going to get," Middleton said. "When Cam called me -- every once in a while we talk about different alumni stuff -- he just caught me so off guard with it. I actually got emotional when he said it. It was just a dream come true."
Middleton will be the 11th player to have his number retired by the Bruins, joining Lionel Hitchman, No. 3, retired in 1934; Aubrey "Dit" Clapper, No. 5, 1947; Eddie Shore, No. 2, 1949; Milt Schmidt, No. 15, 1957; Bobby Orr, No. 4, 1979; Johnny Bucyk, No. 9, 1980; Phil Esposito, No. 7, 1987; Ray Bourque, No. 77, 2001, Terry O'Reilly, No. 24, 2002; and Neely, No. 8, 2004.
Middleton, a native of Toronto, was selected in the first round (No. 14) by the New York Rangers in the 1973 NHL Draft. He played two seasons for the Rangers and was traded to the Bruins for forward Ken Hodge on May 26, 1976.
Bruins coach Don Cherry redesigned the forward's game, shaping him into a solid two-way player who would play a key role for 12 seasons.

"[Middleton] would become so good, we'd be up 3-2 late and I'd put him on in our end," Cherry told NHL.com. "When he first came to us, I wouldn't put him on for anything but to score goals. But he learned, and with nearly 500 goals, he should be in the Hall of Fame."
Middleton, who led the Bruins in scoring from 1978-82 and was their top goal-scorer from 1978-84, finished his 1,005-game NHL career with 988 points (448 goals, 540 assists). He also had 100 points (45 goals, 55 assists) in 114 Stanley Cup Playoff games and won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1982.
On Tuesday, Middleton said he owes his success to former Rangers general manager Emile Francis for drafting him, to Bruins coaches Cherry, Gerry Cheevers and O'Reilly, and to his minor-hockey coaches in Toronto "who made hockey fun for me growing up."
For the past decade, Middleton has been president of the Bruins alumni association, following in the footsteps of founder Bucyk and then Bob Sweeney, taking the team's wildly popular former players into the Boston area and throughout New England and beyond to raise thousands of dollars for myriad charitable causes.
From a ninth-floor suite at TD Garden on game nights, entertaining guests and hanging out with fellow alumni, Middleton sees 10 banners at eye level, a celebration of Bruins legends whose numbers have been retired to the arena rafters.
This fall, the man nicknamed "Nifty" will stand below those banners at center ice and watch his own No. 16 pulled high overhead to make it a party of 11.
"It's a special, special honor to be included with the other 10 people that are up there, a very special group of hockey players that date back to the beginning of the Boston Bruins," Middleton said. "To be included on that list, I can't even explain what kind of an honor it is."