How popular was Jeremy Roenick in the early 1990s?

[Sticks and Pucks]

I was too young to follow hockey back then but I was just wondering how popular Jeremy Roenick was in the early 1990s playing in a big hockey market and leading his team in scoring in the Stanley Cup finals as a 22 year old. Was he an icon for USA hockey? How popular was he in Chicago? Was he more popular than Chris Chelios?

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[tony d]

He was certainly well known. In my early hockey fandom days he was a guy I always liked.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

If he wasnt popular before NHL '94, he sure was after: https://thehockeywriters.com/an-ode-to-nhl-94-the-best-game-ever/

NSFW:

 

[JackSlater]

In the 1990s in Nova Scotia the fattest dog I've ever seen was named Roenick in honour of Jeremy Roenick... so take that for whatever it's worth.

 

[Iapyi]

I know I liked him early in his career until he became a caricature of himself.

 

[GlitchMarner]

I think he was big for a hockey player in the States when he played for CHI. Later on in his career he was still a big name in hockey. I think some may not realize how good he was with the Coyotes from '99-'01.

He's going to make it in the Hall this year. With Housley in there, there's no way he'll be kept out much longer.

 

[Plural]

I think he was big for a hockey player in the States when he played for CHI. Later on in his career he was still a big name in hockey. I think some may not realize how good he was with the Coyotes from '99-'01.

He's going to make it in the Hall this year. With Housley in there, there's no way he'll be kept out much longer.

Just curious about how you feel, you thinn he should be in the hall?

 

[GlitchMarner]

Just curious about how you feel, you thinn he should be in the hall?

With the standard being what it is, yes, I do think he should. Just off the top of my head, I can name at least several guys who have been inducted this decade that weren't better and didn't have better careers. With Andreychuk having been inducted last year, I don't see any way Roenick isn't inducted in the immediate future. People can say that just because some worse players are doesn't mean he should be, but I don't have any reason to believe the induction committee is suddenly going to decide to try to raise the bar.

I can live with Jeremy Roenick in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He really tore it up early on in his career. His play declined after the knee injury, but he had a good resurgence toward the end of his tenure with PHO and wasn't bad with the Flyers. He wasn't anything special at all after the 2004 lockout, though.

 

[sharkhawk]

Roenick was definitely huge in Chicago especially his first few years. He was one of the most recognizable athletes in the city

This was in the first few years if the Michael Jordan era, and until Jordan’s 3rd or 4 th year the hawks were a tougher ticket to get than the bulls. Roenick being traded probably had a bigger effect on the decade of darkness than Chelios did

 

[c1rcus]

I was born in '90. He wasn't front of mind for my friends and I but he was definitely a consideration when we were pretending to be players during road hockey.

 

[BenchBrawl]

He was popular because he was an exciting player, but the league had many mega-superstars back then, like Lemieux, Gretzky, Messier, etc, so Roenick was in their shadows to some extent.

 

[mouser]

Roenick was definitely huge in Chicago especially his first few years. He was one of the most recognizable athletes in the city

This was in the first few years if the Michael Jordan era, and until Jordan’s 3rd or 4 th year the hawks were a tougher ticket to get than the bulls. Roenick being traded probably had a bigger effect on the decade of darkness than Chelios did

Any thoughts on Alexei Zhamnov? Seemed like an above average #1c at the time of the trade, put up respectable numbers in Chicago but never really replaced Roenick.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

in my corner of the world (9-12 year olds in vancouver), '90-'94 roenick was universally beloved. and it's not hard to figure out why: stickhandled out of control when he rushed the puck, loved to shoot and scored a lot of goals, hit everything in sight.

and actually, i think roenick-mania was biggest before he even hit 50 goals or 100 points or went to the finals. his ceiling just seemed to sky high, first in that 1990 playoffs, then when he put up that 40 goal year after taking over the 1C spot from denis savard.

in retrospect, he ended up plateauing as "just" an all-star, but if you asked a bunch of fourth graders in 1991 who had more potential fedorov or roenick, it would probably be 50/50. and if you asked the same thing about roenick vs anyone else, sakic, modano, turgeon, sundin, it was roenick without blinking.

 

[FerrisRox]

Roenick was extremely popular and along with Brett Hull he was definitely part of a new wave of US hockey players. Previously American players that managed to be successful in the league were typically clean cut, shy quiet players, almost apologetic to be succeeding in Canada's game. Guys like Pat Lafontaine. But Roenick and Hull were big personalities and brought a bit of a rock star vibe to the game. Hockey didn't have a lot of personalities in the 1980's ... Players were cliched as polite aww shucks country boys, but Hull and JR had opinions, had swagger and were charismatic.

Roenick, for me, will be forever remembered for his invincibility in EA Sports' NHL series for Sega Genesis. Pure legend and forever immortalized in the movie Swingers.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i wouldn't mind having roenick in my hall of fame. he's pretty high up on the list of american-born and trained players i'd put in:

chelios
brimsek
leetch
kane
modano
howe
langway (i think being born on a u.s. army base counts for our purposes here)
mullen
then roenick

by my count that puts him above at least two american players in the actual hall of fame.

 

[sharkhawk]

Any thoughts on Alexei Zhamnov? Seemed like an above average #1c at the time of the trade, put up respectable numbers in Chicago but never really replaced Roenick.

Zhamnov was a good player who got a raw deal. I think he would have been a fan favorite, if he wasn’t the return for Roenick. Guy was dead to a lot of hawks fans from the start

 

[sharkhawk]

One reason hawks fans loved him was in the playoffs his rookie year he got a high stick and lost some teeth. He skated over to the refs and showed them the chickletsad got a major. I remember tat being played up on the news

 

[Howie Hodge]

His dance moves also made him immensely popular....

 

[The Panther]

I remember a class poll in 6th grade. I was voted most popular in my class. And yet I was a nerd.

 

[Thenameless]

I've been a hockey card collector since the mid 70's. When Upper Deck's inaugural hockey set came out in 90-91, I'm pretty sure the Roenick rookie card was the most valuable. Once the Upper Deck "high" set came out later that season, then people were going crazy over the Fedorov and Bure rookie cards. I remember the Upper Deck French version of Fedorov's rookie card peaking at around $200 at one point.

 

[ICM1970]

I know that this might be a bit of a controversial topic to bring up, but I also recall Roenick wanting to play the 1994 All Star game without the lid like Brett Hull did the year before, plus do a few regular, non-rivalry (as in not playing St. Louis or Detroit) games helmetless as well. Apparently, his coach, Darryl Sutter, very much objected to that idea and I believe that Doug Wilson talked him out of doing the All Star game helmetless as well.

We can certainly say in retrospect that the 1992 to 1994 optional helmets policy might have been that poorly constructed (as I recall reading a comment from Doug on another occasion about how the players really were not consulted with by then league head Gil Stein and the owners when they changed the rule in 1992) in terms of how the helmets were certainly that kind of fact of life (for better or for worse) in terms of how the game was played and coached and it's public optic (particularly with youngsters). However, it would have been that interesting thing had J.R. been able to have tried something like that, given his persona (and that IMHO that there really would not have been that immediate risk of serious injury with how he wanted to take advantage of the rule at the time).

 

[Big Phil]

Roenick was very popular in the NHL in the 1990s. Especially the earlier part of the 1990s. He had a flair that few had even then, and especially today. He was hard to hate, even if he was on your rival team. I mean, you hated him because he burned you and did it with flair but man, you would want him on your team.

When Ovechkin broke in I can't remember who on here mentioned that Ovechkin's flair (the way he scored goals, his colourful personality) reminded them of Roenick. I think he sort of got laughed at about that because by then Roenick was a shadow of his former self but I got it for sure, and he was right. Ovechkin did remind me a bit of Roenick that way.

 

[Staniowski]

What year was this Nike commercial?

 

[sr edler]

I remember a young Roenick fan in my neighborhood at the time who said his name as if one word: Jeremyroenick.

If you look at Roenick's and Bure's careers in the early 90s they're pretty similar stats wise. Both had back to back 50+ goals/100+ points seasons and one impressive run to the SCFs each, and then both had injuries around or after the first lockout and became somewhat irrelevant for a couple of 2–3 years. Roenick in his second season in Phoenix had 56 points, and Bure had 55 in 63 games the year before.

I think what separates them, and the reason one of them is in the HHOF and the other one is currently on the fence, is the talent that made Bure a relevant top tier player in Florida in the late 90s for as long as his knees held up (about 2 seasons). Roenick just never had any spike seasons past Chi and was frequently outscored by Tkachuk (in the regular season) in Phoenix. He didn't seem to have the fullest ability to change or adapt his playing style to work optimally in the DPE.

 

[feffan]

When Ovechkin broke in I can't remember who on here mentioned that Ovechkin's flair (the way he scored goals, his colourful personality) reminded them of Roenick. I think he sort of got laughed at about that because by then Roenick was a shadow of his former self but I got it for sure, and he was right. Ovechkin did remind me a bit of Roenick that way.

I wasn´t writing here yet, only reading back then. But that comparison is as close as one gonna get to Roenick and as a Blackhawk fan i made the same comparison. Both at their peak where favourite players to watch. Ovechkin of course the superior talent and player. But after Roneicks 3 straight 100 points seasons it´s quite funny that the next player to do that was Ovechkin. And none since Roenick had that stick handling, speed, flair and willingness to hit combo at such a talent level. Ovechkins body sure handled it better.