Well-Known Hockey People Who Barely Played in the NHL
- Thread starter The Panther
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Peter Laviolette, New York Rangers 1988 (12 games played, 0+0=0)
Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
Jim Craig - goaltender of "Miracle" fame - played 30 NHL games across three teams in 1980, 1981, and 1984.
JianYang
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Claude Julien played 14 games for the Quebec Noridiques, and has one career point to his name.
The Panther
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By chance, one of Ken Holland's four career games was against Jim Craig in one of his 30 career games. ; )
JianYang
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Alain vigneault played 42 games for the blues but he's been a head coach in each of the 90s, 00's, 10's, and 20's.
WarriorofTime
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Terrier
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Bruce Cassidy played 36 NHL games, all for Chicago, over a six year period.
Bruce Cassidy Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com
Statistics and Records of Bruce Cassidy, a hockey player and coach from Ottawa, ONT born May 20 1965 who was active from 1981 to 1997.
www.hockeydb.com
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JianYang
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Peter Laviolette, New York Rangers 1988 (12 games played, 0+0=0)
Few players will be handed jersey number 39, and be able to tell their grandkids about their lengthy nhl career.
Skrudland and Gilmour are the only ones that come to my mind.
It's like that old Seinfeld joke where your future is pretty much mapped out for you if your parents name you jeeves.
McGarnagle
Yes.
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Willie O'Ree barely played 45 games across two years but is considered a trailblazer and legend.
Jack Capuano
Kevin Cheveldayoff and David Quinn were both 1st round picks who never played an NHL game and then resurfaced in coaching/managerial roles.
Jack Capuano Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com
Statistics and Records of Jack Capuano, a hockey player and coach from Cranston, RI born Jul 7 1966 who was active from 1985 to 1992.
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Kevin Cheveldayoff and David Quinn were both 1st round picks who never played an NHL game and then resurfaced in coaching/managerial roles.
seventieslord
Student Of The Game
I guess this would be a good time to post this strange, possibly interesting, possibly insignificant tidbit:
My mom turned 60 a few weeks back. I was in charge of going through old photos to make a montage. I became obsessed with this one photo I found, from about 1992, with my 9-years younger half-brother brother at the house of a member of his 'other' family, with a TV in the background, where a game-opening faceoff was taking place. (I deduced 1992 based on the apparent age of my brother, born August 1990).
For some reason, when I see things like this I end up obsessively trying to determine the exact date of the photo or video (old silent home movies of me at age 5 feature a ladies' golf tournament on TV in the background and I was able to determine the date of the video using the names that came on screen).
Anyway, if it wasn't for Skrudland being one of the few significant players wearing #39 this one would have been too difficult to figure out. The player on the left appears to be #21, and I went through the rosters of every team looking for a #21 at center during the 1991-92 season. There was a handful of them. A few I could eliminate based on the jersey, but I also didn't see enough color to conclude which team it was.
Spoiler in case you want to guess who/when this was:
It turns out that #21 on the left is Andrew Cassels. He's on the Whalers. The Habs are in white, so they're the home team. Which means that if this is from their 1992 opening round playoff series, it's game 1, 2, 5 or 7. Further investigation revealed that this series in fact opened on Easter Sunday, April 15th, 1992. This would have been why my brother was at a family member's house and why the cameras were out. And completely by chance, what is very likely the opening faceoff of this epic series was captured in the background of this otherwise inconsequential photo. With my camera on full zoom I was able to catch the 9 on Skrudland's arm. With one's bare eyes you can only make out the 3, and that the player on the right is probably a Hab.
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Even St. Louis rookie Gilmour got #18 at first before being able to shift to his preferred #9. Maybe it then became #39 in Calgary because #9, #19, and #29 were all taken there.
But Laviolette isn't in too bad company here because directly after him it was young rookie Doug Weight that got the #39 in New York.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
Jason Spezza was #39.
He switched to his preferred #19 two seasons later when Hasek arrived.
He actually also wore #44 in development camp and pre-season.
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Dissonance Jr
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Probably not super well-known, but Todd Richards (former Wild coach, now with Nashville) put up 4 assists in just 2 regular season NHL games with Hartford back in 1990-91, his first stint in the league.
He then followed up with 6 pointless games the next season and a decent first round playoff series and that was it for his NHL career.
He then followed up with 6 pointless games the next season and a decent first round playoff series and that was it for his NHL career.
Johnny Engine
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Terry Ryan is an author, a cast member on Shoresy, and a more or less constant presence in the media here in Newfoundland. He played in 8 NHL games.
JianYang
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And fast forward close to top decades later.... laviolette is celebrating a Stanley cup as a young coach and one of his players is a grizzled veteran Doug weight.
Hippasus
1,9,45,165,495,1287,
Bruce Boudreau played 150 NHL games mostly for the Maple Leafs and in the late 70s but had a fairly robust AHL career after that. Had about 0.5 points per game in the big league, but yet is known for being a run-and-gun coach.
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Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
MarkusKetterer
Shoulda got one game in
Minnesota North Stars vs. Detroit Red Wings Box Score: January 20, 1984 | Hockey-Reference.com
Get the latest box score updates on the Minnesota North Stars vs. Detroit Red Wings game played on January 20, 1984 on Hockey-Reference.com
www.hockey-reference.com
A mid-winter Norris division game between a good Northstars squad, and a terrible Wings squad.
3 fights, none of them really involving notable heavyweights.
Minnesota somehow chased Holland in the first five minutes but he also managed to play over 30 minutes total (Stefan was even worse so they put Holland back in?)
Yzerman scored but was still minus 3?
Cant really tell but it seems like Craig started but was pulled while leading the game comfortably.
The Panther
Registered User
Yeah, I looked at the summary but I couldn't figure out the goalie situation either!Minnesota North Stars vs. Detroit Red Wings Box Score: January 20, 1984 | Hockey-Reference.com
Get the latest box score updates on the Minnesota North Stars vs. Detroit Red Wings game played on January 20, 1984 on Hockey-Reference.com
A mid-winter Norris division game between a good Northstars squad, and a terrible Wings squad.
3 fights, none of them really involving notable heavyweights.
Minnesota somehow chased Holland in the first five minutes but he also managed to play over 30 minutes total (Stefan was even worse so they put Holland back in?)
Yzerman scored but was still minus 3?
Cant really tell but it seems like Craig started but was pulled while leading the game comfortably.
