The list of great players to have a statue outside Crypto.com Arena is a who’s who of all-time greats to have played in Los Angeles. The list includes Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Oscar De La Hoya. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Kings announced that Dustin Brown’s number 23 would be retired, and a statue would be unveiled to join those Los Angeles stars.
The Kings will retire Brown’s number and unveil the statue on February 11 at Crypto.com Arena. Brown’s “23” will be the seventh number sent to the rafters in franchise history, joining Gretzky, Robitaille, Rob Blake, Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor, and Rogie Vachon. The former winger will be the third King to have a statue outside the arena, along with Gretzky and Robitaille.
Brown retired after the Kings were eliminated from the playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers on May 14, a culmination of an 18-year career with Los Angeles, Brown’s only team. The Ithaca, New York native was drafted 13th in the 2003 NHL Draft and played 1,296 regular season games for the Kings. Brown would register 325-387-712 in his career and 19-30-49 in 92 playoff games while winning two Stanley Cups.
Brown won the Messier Award in 2013-14, given to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team on and off the ice. The 6’0”, 210-pound winger also served as the team’s captain from 2008-09 to 2015-16. Brown was best known for his physical style of play totaling 3,185 hits in the regular season and 437 hits in the postseason. His best postseason performance was in the Kings’ Cup run in 2011-12, when he scored eight goals and added 12 assists and a plus-16 rating in 20 games.
