CambieKev
Scout. Future Considerations, Dobber Prospects.
- Aug 26, 2019
- 189
- 695
This is Episode Three of my Legends series, which features the individual performances of historical NHL players to showcase their styles of play.
Today's episode: Paul Kariya.
This presentation features Kariya’s playoff performance against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 2 of the 1997 Western Conference Semifinals.
He was one of the game’s quickest players, zipping across great distances as though he had been shot out of a cannon, his legs moving practically twice as fast as anybody else’s. Speed, agility, skill and vision defined his game. He could rifle the puck past the goaltender with a booming slap shot or generate a high-quality scoring chance by swerving a few times through the neutral zone with the puck before delivering it to a teammate.
Kariya commonly deferred the puck to his teammates in the neutral zone and then darted up the ice at full speed for a return feed. Give-and-go opportunities became the norm for Kariya, especially on his usual line alongside the speedy Selanne and centerman Steve Rucchin.
Scouts initially compared him to Wayne Gretzky, a testament to his vision and his tendency to loop around the neutral zone with the puck. While those sentiments soon dwindled, he became the first breakout star of the 1993 NHL Draft class and, like Gretzky, was an ambassador for hockey in California.
Not long after debuting in the NHL in 1995, Kariya became a household name in the hockey world. Few could more appropriately represent Disney’s Mighty Ducks of Anaheim than the studious, gentlemanly Paul Kariya — he won the Lady Byng Trophy twice in his first three seasons and was a popular candidate throughout his career.
He was also one of the most prolific scorers of the late-1990s, ranking sixth in total points and fourth in points per game after only Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and Eric Lindros between 1995-96 and 1999-00. At the age of 22, he became the Hart Trophy runner-up, ranking ahead of Lemieux and only behind Dominik Hasek in terms of votes.
Foot injuries slowed him down and concussions decimated his quality of play. Gary Suter and Scott Stevens, two former NHL defencemen, are both highly responsible for Kariya’s decline.
”The thing is, this foot is so messed up now... I sprained my right ankle my first year, and it’s never recovered. This is basically just spraining my ankle again, because I can’t use it... You keep immobilizing it, and it just keeps stiffening up... It’ll never get back to the way it should be.” - Paul Kariya, December 2000 (“Kariya’s Foot,” Calgary Herald, 24 Dec 2000).
In spite of this, he tallied 402 goals and 989 points in 989 career NHL games. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017 and his #9 was retired by the Anaheim Ducks in 2018 -- two long-overdue honors.
