NHL Player believes in his right to wear sweater as tribute

Bobby Clarke said there are other ways to honor a player than by wearing his sweater.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- So Allen Iverson dons a Celtics jersey in honor of Bill Russell and causes a small uprising in Philadelphia.
Jeremy Roenick is the closest thing to Iverson on the Flyers. He has been known to cause an uproar with his outlandish wardrobe over his 15 years in the NHL. Why, just this Halloween, he dressed for warm-ups against Phoenix with a Bobby Clarke sweater, a red, curly wig and blacked-out teeth.
Would Roenick, who grew up loving Bobby Orr, ever don a Bruins sweater with Orr's number on it?
And what if he did? Would the Flyers dismiss it as easily as the Sixers did Iverson's tribute to Russell?
"There are better and more appropriate ways to be honoring ex-players," said Clarke, the Flyers' general manager. "I am not sure you are honoring them by wearing their sweater, but if that particular player feels he is honoring another player, he has the right to do that. There is no point getting upset about it."
In an Orr sweater
And if Roenick showed up after a game in an Orr sweater?
"Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky are the greatest 1-2 guys who ever played," Clarke said. "So if you wear their sweater at a press conference, I don't think you are honoring [their teams], you are honoring that player.
"I'd be more upset if Roenick wore a Joe Thornton sweater," he said, referring to a current Bruins star.
For the record, Roenick says that he wouldn't do that.
"Never," he said. "Now, I would wear a Bruins hat. Not for the fact I want them to win, because I want to beat them every game. But I'd do it because I grew up as a kid idolizing the Bruins.
"Yeah, I would do that. I think I have proven over my career that when I am on the ice, there are no friends. I don't see anything wrong with it. But I would never wear a Bruins sweater."
The poll
Sixteen of 30 NHL general managers responded in a poll in the Toronto Globe and Mail, all anonymously. Only one picked the Flyers to win the Stanley Cup. Nine picked Dallas, and six chose Detroit.
Ten GMs said that the hurry-up face-off rule has had a more positive impact on the game than the so-called crackdown on obstruction that lasted six weeks. Ten also said that they had no confidence that the league and the players association would reach a new collective-bargaining agreement before September 2004 -- in other words, in time to avert a lockout or strike.
Eight GMs voted for ex-Flyer Eric Lindros, now with the New York Rangers, as the most overrated player in the NHL, while five voted for Washington's Jaromir Jagr.
Asked who they would most want to sign if all players were free agents, the most GMs -- five -- chose Thornton, while four chose Colorado's Peter Forsberg.