The Erie Otters will retire Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat’s No. 12 on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2027, before Erie’s home game against the Owen Sound Attack, the OHL club announced this week. The ceremony is part of a 2017 Championship Weekend marking the Otters’ OHL title team, and Dylan Strome’s No. 19 will be retired the night before, also against Owen Sound.
DeBrincat’s number will hang alongside those of Brad Boyes (No. 16), Vince Scott (No. 18), and Connor McDavid (No. 97). Otters general manager Dave Brown tied the honors to the championship run, saying the two players “became the fabric of what the organization strives for.”
DeBrincat joined Erie as a free agent before the 2014-15 season and scored at least 50 goals in each of his three OHL seasons. He had 51 goals and 104 points as a rookie to win the Emms Family Award as the league’s top first-year player, then added 51 goals and 101 points the next year before the Chicago Blackhawks drafted him in the second round in 2016. In 2016-17 he scored 65 goals and 127 points, winning the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the OHL’s scoring champion and the Red Tilson Trophy as its most outstanding player, and helped Erie win the league title. He is the franchise’s all-time leading goal scorer.
The 28-year-old is in the final season of a four-year, $31.5 million contract with Detroit and can become an unrestricted free agent next summer. He has two goals and four points through Detroit’s first three games, with both goals coming in Tuesday’s 5-3 win over Ottawa after coach Todd McLellan moved him off the top line.
The first 2,000 fans at each game of the celebration weekend will receive a player bobblehead, with DeBrincat’s on Feb. 7. The Otters will wear their yellow script jerseys from the 2017 playoffs both nights and auction them after DeBrincat’s game. Single-game tickets go on sale Tuesday, Oct. 13.
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