Wendel Clark will be hanging around Kelvington, Sask., a lot more from now on, perhaps suspended from the roof of a rink.

Same for Borje Salming from somewhere above the small northern Swedish mining town of Kiruna, while Doug Gilmour dangles atop Kingston, Ont. All 18 Maple Leafs, living and deceased, who had a banner in the rafters at the Air Canada Centre are having those flags returned to their hometowns to be displayed as each locality see fit.

The banners, with each star’s number and picture, were lowered on Thursday. They were put up when the ACC opened on Feb. 20, 1999 and are to be replaced by new tapestry and Cup banners, unveiled on opening night of the club’s 2016-17 centennial season.

“It’s a great idea,” said Clark, who watched workmen ease his banner down. “The players get to be celebrated and it’s really spreading the Maple Leafs throughout the country and the world.”

The 18 include honoured players Syl Apps (No. 10, Paris, Ont.), Turk Broda (No. 1 Brandon, Man,), King Clancy (No. 7, Ottawa), Hap Day (No. 4 Owen Sound, Ont.), Frank Mahovlich (No. 27, Timmins, Ont.) and Mats Sundin, (No. 13, Bromma, Sweden). The two retired numbers are Bill Barilko (5, also from Timmins and Ace Bailey (6 from Bracebridge, Ont.).

While delivery times and details of what each town or city has planned for the banners are not fully complete, the Leafs have set aside Sept. 1 for Tim Horton’s No. 7 to be back in Cochrane, Ont., for a junior hockey tournament and possibly going into his museum.

“It would be great to hang mine off one of the old elevators,” said Clark, whose family had a grain farm in Kelvington. “But the elevators are all gone.

“It will probably have something to do around the rink or the curling rink. Come wintertime, that’s where our whole town congregates. We’ll see what people think.”

Clark, a former captain, missed the closing of the Gardens in ‘99 while playing for Tampa Bay and joked that a younger version of himself should appear at his new banner ceremony instead of the departing 1991 picture.

A Leaf official said the new banners are still in the creative stage, though it’s a good guess they’ll include the revised club logo. With the great Dave Keon agreeing to have a statue on Legends Row outside the ACC, he might eventually have his No. 14 join the banner boys in coming years.

LHornby@postmedia.com