What SINGLE player made you become a fan of a particular team?

[Ducks in a row]

Favorite team is the Ducks and it had nothing to do with a player.
2nd favorite team is the Panthers also had nothing to do with a player.

 

[GlitchMarner]

I cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs because they're the local team. Lucky me.

 

[Kamaya Painters]

When the Penguins were at their highest heights in the early 90s around 1991–1992 and defending Cup champions I was 10–11 or so and a TV channel here in my home country, Kanal 5 (Channel 5, a rubbish TV channel by the way), had just begun broadcasting some games (live I think, in the middle of the night). Problem was though they only/exclusively showed Pittsburgh Penguins games

If you go back and search for NHL-games in SMDB's database you'll actually be able to see how Kanal5 Nordic put a "starring"-tag at Kjell Samuelsson and Ulf Samuelsson. An example: Svensk mediedatabas (SMDB)

The host broadcaster in the US or Canada sent VHS-tapes by aerial transport once a week. If a game was played on a Wednesday in the US/Canada, it'd be broadcasted the following Saturday in Sweden. The commentary was done from a basement location in Stockholm and later sent out for viewing.

 

[Kamaya Painters]

Hockey cards were an important factor as my generation wasn't really able to see many games on TV.

The first I got hold of was Shawn McEachern in 1993 (Upper Deck). Nobody liked the Parkhurst cards for some reason. Everyone wanted Wayne Gretzky's cards but I was never really interested. I liked to explore. But..I hated when I got a Hartford Whaler for some reason. I often thought the combination of colors on their jerseys were horrible.

Then in 1993 NBC's European channel started showing a weekly programme which you never knew when it was airing. You were constantly on the look out for it. It was called NHL International Weekly. It was only then when I discovered the Detroit Red Wings and realized they had a good team.

I liked Dino Ciccarelli because of his name. I had heard about Sergei Fedorov. I always wanted to have Nicklas Lidström's card but never actually got it.

And then I saw a game on Kanal5 Nordic where a Russian called Vladimir Konstantinov played. A few days afterwards I happened to get his card. He was huge and threw massive hits. I liked him so the Red Wings became my team.

 

[cupcrazyman]

Darryl Sittler- Leafs
Guy Lafleur-Habs
Wayne Gretzky-Oilers

 

[pbgoalie]

so, I'm an old guy. Due to my dad's work, and my family's interest in hockey, I grew up not only following the Rangers in the late 60's and 70's but our family got to know and spend time with a lot of the Rangers players of that time. So I've been a Rangers fan my whole life.
But living in Southern CA since the 90's it was hard to keep up with the Rangers and when the Ducks were born, and I lived nearby, I started watching them.
My work allowed me some different opportunities to go to a lot of games with clients, and at work, got to know, and spend time with a few players on the Cup team. Those friendships pushed me towards really following the Ducks far more closely and being a fan, but if there ever was a Ducks/Rangers final, I'd be pretty well happy with either team, though a little more for the Rangers still!

 

[Jets4Life]

Anaheim (Selanne)
Calgary (Iginla)
Washington (Ovechkin)
Pittsburgh (Lemieux)

 

[FrozenJagrt]

Roy made me a fan of the Avs.

I always sort of liked the Caps because of Kolzig, but never actively cheered for them until Ovechkin came along.

 

[JustJokinenAround]

always had a weird appreciation for phaneuf so i would say the leafs then matthews scored the 4 in his debut and that got me in on the leafs.

 

[adsfan]

As a 5 year old, Orr.....

Robert Gordon Orr; #4 Bobby Orr!

 

[BobbyAwe]

First watched hockey in 1968 and immediately became a Bruin's fan. I'm not 100% certain it was only because of Bobby Orr, but MAINLY because of him compared to any other individual player on the team, certainly. I'm sure there were other reasons too, but it was a long time ago

 

[Tarantula]

The jerseys didn't hurt either.

 

[Oldsie]

Senators because of Yashin and Avs because of Sakic and Forsberg.

 

[danincanada]

I was a kid in the late 80's and Mario and Yzerman got me into their teams. Loved watching Mario win in '91 and '92 but became primarily a Wings fan after that with Fedorov becoming my favourite player.