Mark Pavelich won't sell Rangers connection but will sell Miracle Gold Medal

Stanley Foobrick

Clockwork Blue
Apr 2, 2007
14,044
0
Fooville, Ontario
Mark Pavelich sells his Miracle on Ice 1980 Gold Medal from more than $260,000. Considers sell other memorabilia but won't sell anything connected to the Rangers.

The 56-year old Pavelich said he had some other items from his hockey career that he was considering auctioning off in the future, but none would be from his five seasons with the New York Rangers.

Guess his time in New York was really special to him.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/n...-900-133320013.html?bcmt_s=m#ugccmt-container
 

eco's bones

Registered User
Jul 21, 2005
26,124
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Elmira NY
Loved him as a Ranger. Little guy. Played kind of like Zuccarello. More of a goal scorer though. He was a Herb Brooks guy.

When Ted Sator became the Rangers head coach he got rid of or drove away a lot of the better players on the team--Pavelich was one of them, Larouche was another target--Barry Beck, Reijo Ruostolainen.

Anyway I heard his wife was killed in an accident around their home in Minnesota a couple years ago--he lives way out in the sticks somewhere. From what I heard he was selling his Olympic stuff to help his daughter get through college. Nothing wrong with that.
 

Xref

Registered User
Oct 16, 2010
1,690
85
Great little player. ^ good analogy to Zucc, very similar players. He quit the game to go fishin. Weird, right?
 

eco's bones

Registered User
Jul 21, 2005
26,124
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Elmira NY
Great little player. ^ good analogy to Zucc, very similar players. He quit the game to go fishin. Weird, right?

It was mostly Sator. Pavelich was a quiet guy but he was also a free spirit. Sator was a rah-rah I'm the boss type and he had his favorites. Pavelich wasn't one of them. They clashed one time too many times and Mark just walked off the team. Barry Beck walked away from the NHL at the end of the same season. He couldn't get along either. He made a brief comeback several years later with the Kings and played maybe half of a season. Reijo Ruotsolainen (who was Pavelich's closest friend on the team) quit as well and went home to play in Finland. For several years after that he would join the Oilers at the end of his season in Finland and join them for the last couple weeks of the season and the playoffs. He won a couple Stanley Cups that way. Eventually the NHL made a rule stopping European players from joining NHL teams that way. Reijo was the main culprit in their eyes. He was a small d-man too but a really talented player. Wonderful skater--offensive talent.

Larouche was buried in the AHL--not even with the Rangers farm team--if I remember rightly they talked the Flyers AHL team into taking him. Towards the end of the same season--the Rangers were desperate for points in the standings and someone to score goals and they called him back up. Larouche put up something like 20 goals in 28 games and then had a big run in the playoffs.
 

THE BIG WHISTLE

Heave-Ho
Feb 16, 2012
1,524
279
By the beach
Loved him as a Ranger. Little guy. Played kind of like Zuccarello. More of a goal scorer though. He was a Herb Brooks guy.

When Ted Sator became the Rangers head coach he got rid of or drove away a lot of the better players on the team--Pavelich was one of them, Larouche was another target--Barry Beck, Reijo Ruostolainen.

Anyway I heard his wife was killed in an accident around their home in Minnesota a couple years ago--he lives way out in the sticks somewhere. From what I heard he was selling his Olympic stuff to help his daughter get through college. Nothing wrong with that.

Wow, did not know that. I loved watching him play, remember the nickname given to him "shark", for the way he played and because he kept his blade up at the bench
 

Xref

Registered User
Oct 16, 2010
1,690
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It was mostly Sator. Pavelich was a quiet guy but he was also a free spirit. Sator was a rah-rah I'm the boss type and he had his favorites. Pavelich wasn't one of them. They clashed one time too many times and Mark just walked off the team. Barry Beck walked away from the NHL at the end of the same season. He couldn't get along either. He made a brief comeback several years later with the Kings and played maybe half of a season. Reijo Ruotsolainen (who was Pavelich's closest friend on the team) quit as well and went home to play in Finland. For several years after that he would join the Oilers at the end of his season in Finland and join them for the last couple weeks of the season and the playoffs. He won a couple Stanley Cups that way. Eventually the NHL made a rule stopping European players from joining NHL teams that way. Reijo was the main culprit in their eyes. He was a small d-man too but a really talented player. Wonderful skater--offensive talent.

Larouche was buried in the AHL--not even with the Rangers farm team--if I remember rightly they talked the Flyers AHL team into taking him. Towards the end of the same season--the Rangers were desperate for points in the standings and someone to score goals and they called him back up. Larouche put up something like 20 goals in 28 games and then had a big run in the playoffs.

Yup. "Plexi Rexi"....I remember him well. Great fluid skater, but he redefined the term 'high and wide'. LOL.
 

eco's bones

Registered User
Jul 21, 2005
26,124
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Elmira NY
Yup. "Plexi Rexi"....I remember him well. Great fluid skater, but he redefined the term 'high and wide'. LOL.

He scored a lot of goals though for a defenseman. Remember the Rangers pairing him with Willie Huber. Huber was like 6'6 and Reijo was like 5'8.
 

Stanley Foobrick

Clockwork Blue
Apr 2, 2007
14,044
0
Fooville, Ontario
It was mostly Sator. Pavelich was a quiet guy but he was also a free spirit. Sator was a rah-rah I'm the boss type and he had his favorites. Pavelich wasn't one of them. They clashed one time too many times and Mark just walked off the team. Barry Beck walked away from the NHL at the end of the same season. He couldn't get along either. He made a brief comeback several years later with the Kings and played maybe half of a season. Reijo Ruotsolainen (who was Pavelich's closest friend on the team) quit as well and went home to play in Finland. For several years after that he would join the Oilers at the end of his season in Finland and join them for the last couple weeks of the season and the playoffs. He won a couple Stanley Cups that way. Eventually the NHL made a rule stopping European players from joining NHL teams that way. Reijo was the main culprit in their eyes. He was a small d-man too but a really talented player. Wonderful skater--offensive talent.

Larouche was buried in the AHL--not even with the Rangers farm team--if I remember rightly they talked the Flyers AHL team into taking him. Towards the end of the same season--the Rangers were desperate for points in the standings and someone to score goals and they called him back up. Larouche put up something like 20 goals in 28 games and then had a big run in the playoffs.

Seems like he didn't leave the Rangers on good terms, seems strange that that's the stuff he won't let go then.
 

Xref

Registered User
Oct 16, 2010
1,690
85
He scored a lot of goals though for a defenseman. Remember the Rangers pairing him with Willie Huber. Huber was like 6'6 and Reijo was like 5'8.

Yep. Willie Huber.....just when I thought I forgot about that slug. 6'-6" but played like he was 4'-6". He came out of every corner with a raw egg in his pocket, intact. :shakehead
 

Fitzy

Very Stable Genius
Jan 29, 2009
35,083
21,823
The actual "awards" in physical form mean a lot to some people and very little to others... especially after 34 years.

He'll always be Mark Pavelich, gold medal winner, miracle on ice player. If the 260k is worth more to his family's well being than the gold, that's a very selfless decision IMO.
 

Brooklyn Ranger

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
9,462
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Brooklyn, of course
I would never have sold the Gold.

Why not? It's just a thing (and something Pavelich couldn't even keep out in the open--due to fears it would be stolen) and the money will be used for a good cause. And regardless of where it ended up, Pavelich will always know he was the one who earned it.

“The only thing is you’re limited to what you can do with these things,†he said. “You keep it in a vault in the bank somewhere and you take it out once in a while and you look at it and you put it back in. You can’t put them in a house because it could burn or get stolen and it’s just gone and useless. It’s just an impractical thing.

“You can’t say that you never did win a medal just because you don’t have it anymore. You always can say that you got it.â€

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/puck...is--miracle-on-ice--gold-medal-143836901.html
 

AHB*

Guest
I would never have sold the Gold.

These guys didn't make the kind of money players do now. They're not set up for life.

Not to mention, Pavelich, from what I've read, seems to be the kind of guy who couldn't care less about a material item. What matters is he knows he's a champion and so do the American people.
 

Miamipuck

Al Swearengen
Dec 29, 2009
7,411
2,693
Take a Wild Guess
I probably would have never sold it, but it's his choice. He was a very talented player and an odd duck.

I can easily see retiring to fish, that would be the ****, but not on some freaking cold Minnesota lake. My fishing dreams involve a lot of out of the way Caribbean Islands, women in bikini's and lots of drinks with little umbrella's. lol
 

nikonsniper*

Guest
Thats about two college degrees at a good school for his kids. Good deal.
 

pld459666

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
25,854
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Danbury, CT
It was mostly Sator. Pavelich was a quiet guy but he was also a free spirit. Sator was a rah-rah I'm the boss type and he had his favorites. Pavelich wasn't one of them. They clashed one time too many times and Mark just walked off the team. Barry Beck walked away from the NHL at the end of the same season. He couldn't get along either. He made a brief comeback several years later with the Kings and played maybe half of a season. Reijo Ruotsolainen (who was Pavelich's closest friend on the team) quit as well and went home to play in Finland. For several years after that he would join the Oilers at the end of his season in Finland and join them for the last couple weeks of the season and the playoffs. He won a couple Stanley Cups that way. Eventually the NHL made a rule stopping European players from joining NHL teams that way. Reijo was the main culprit in their eyes. He was a small d-man too but a really talented player. Wonderful skater--offensive talent.

Larouche was buried in the AHL--not even with the Rangers farm team--if I remember rightly they talked the Flyers AHL team into taking him. Towards the end of the same season--the Rangers were desperate for points in the standings and someone to score goals and they called him back up. Larouche put up something like 20 goals in 28 games and then had a big run in the playoffs.

finding it odd that Larouche would have spent ANY time in the minors by the time he joined the Rangers, I checked to see of you were mistaken. You were not.

The question I have, is What the crud was Larouche doing in the minors?

the 2 previous seasons he posted 81 points in 77 games and 60 points in 65 games.

Was he re-habbing an injury?
 

eco's bones

Registered User
Jul 21, 2005
26,124
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Elmira NY
finding it odd that Larouche would have spent ANY time in the minors by the time he joined the Rangers, I checked to see of you were mistaken. You were not.

The question I have, is What the crud was Larouche doing in the minors?

the 2 previous seasons he posted 81 points in 77 games and 60 points in 65 games.

Was he re-habbing an injury?

Sator didn't like him. He cut him in training camp. Sator had been an assistant coach with the Flyers (?) before getting hired by the Rangers as coach. He came in with a my way or the highway approach. Larouche was a fun loving guy. I think that was part of the problem. Sator didn't want to hear how things were or used to be--he was a control freak. He wanted his players to do exactly what he told them--no argument. Pavelich liked his time away from the rink. I don't know if you ever saw Pavelich but for a little guy--he played with grit--he was all business in games but apart from that he could turn the switch off. Basically it came down to the new sherif in town wanting to change the entire culture of the team. To me it was just insane.

Rangers have had a lot of **** coaches through the years--Sator had some success but IMO he was the worst.
 

Bluenote13

Believe In Henke
Feb 28, 2002
26,703
848
BKLYN, NYC
Loved him..

Loved him as a Ranger. Little guy. Played kind of like Zuccarello. More of a goal scorer though. He was a Herb Brooks guy.

When Ted Sator became the Rangers head coach he got rid of or drove away a lot of the better players on the team--Pavelich was one of them, Larouche was another target--Barry Beck, Reijo Ruostolainen.

Anyway I heard his wife was killed in an accident around their home in Minnesota a couple years ago--he lives way out in the sticks somewhere. From what I heard he was selling his Olympic stuff to help his daughter get through college. Nothing wrong with that.

Ditto. Gritty for a little guy and he could finish, Zucc is not a bad modern day comparison.

He won that medal and no one will forget.


Sator didn't like him. He cut him in training camp. Sator had been an assistant coach with the Flyers (?) before getting hired by the Rangers as coach. He came in with a my way or the highway approach. Larouche was a fun loving guy. I think that was part of the problem. Sator didn't want to hear how things were or used to be--he was a control freak. He wanted his players to do exactly what he told them--no argument. Pavelich liked his time away from the rink. I don't know if you ever saw Pavelich but for a little guy--he played with grit--he was all business in games but apart from that he could turn the switch off. Basically it came down to the new sherif in town wanting to change the entire culture of the team. To me it was just insane.

Rangers have had a lot of **** coaches through the years--Sator had some success but IMO he was the worst.

Larouche had a great first game back when he was recalled. The '86 team upset the #1 & #2 teams in the conference, we went in heavy underdogs against both. Even though I'm glad he was gone soon after, that was a very nice run.
 

NYRKindms

Registered User
Dec 16, 2009
989
188
NEVER.

Edit: Maybe I would have sold everything else from my career to pay for my daughters college, but I'd do everything possible to keep that medal.

ill give you 260,000 reasons

If he could have it out to be appreciated etc I could maybe see him keeping it. But with all the nostalgia surrounding the miracle on Ice I owuld imagine it was a huge burden to keep around as he says

It isn't like it was a gold medal from some event no one remembers. It would be THE gold medal to have if you are an American. Maybe only Thorpe or Owens medals would be harder to come by.
 

bernmeister

Registered User
Jun 11, 2010
27,765
3,759
Da Big Apple
These guys didn't make the kind of money players do now. They're not set up for life.

Not to mention, Pavelich, from what I've read, seems to be the kind of guy who couldn't care less about a material item. What matters is he knows he's a champion and so do the American people.

Well said.
 

surf

Wheres the Reggae?
Oct 2, 2002
2,179
13
sea bright nj
I cant wait for the Medal to show up on Pawn Stars and Rick offers only $2500 because its scratched and he has to send it out to get rated..That all costs money Rick says...They finally agree at $2800
 

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