Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  GENERAL MANAGER: Jack Ferreira

  FIRST GAME: October 8, 1993 —

  7–2 loss vs. Detroit Red Wings

  FIRST GOAL: October 8, 1993 by Sean Hill

  MIGHTY DUCKS OF

  ANAHEIM

  The genesis of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim will forever irk hockey purists, as it came from a 1992 Disney movie called The Mighty Ducks. A story about a misfit group of kids coached by a ne’er-do-well attorney with a hockey background, it was a surprise hit that spawned some sequels, but it also gave the entertainment giant an opportunity to get on the NHL expansion bandwagon and extend its brand recognition.

  Granted a franchise that was to begin play in 1993–94, the Anaheim club was the subject of many snickers and snorts of derision from hockey fans for their name, but they built a solid management team with general manager Jack Ferreira, who had a strong scouting background. Behind the bench, the Mighty Ducks were lucky enough to have Ron Wilson as coach, and it was to be his first time leading a team.

  Set to play out of the newly constructed Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, much of the team’s initial lineup came from the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft. Their picks were an interesting mix of unproven young talent, tough guys, veteran leaders and blueliners who looked like they might not win a lot of games but had the potential to give a good effort every night. When it came to drafting junior players, they built for the future by taking Paul Kariya with their first selection, but he was not yet ready for NHL action. In the weeks and months leading up to their opening game, they barely dipped into the free agent market and kept trades to a minimum.

  The Mighty Ducks made their NHL debut on October 8, 1993, and were trounced by the visiting Detroit Red Wings. Over their next four outings, the team looked much better as they managed one win and three ties. A tough six-game losing streak followed soon after, but they had four straight wins in November that showed they were not going to be pushovers for the established clubs. In the end, they exceeded the expectations of many by finishing the year with 71 points and even finished ahead of Edmonton and Los Angeles in the Pacific Division standings.

  Once they got their expansion year out of the way with minimal problems, they endured their worst season in franchise history in 1994–95, but by 1996–97 they were on their way to playoff contention. The main reasons for this surge were the arrival of Kariya as a superstar and the acquisition of Teemu Selanne from the Winnipeg Jets, backed by a supporting cast that was determined to win. The early 2000s were a rough stretch for the team, but they made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2002–03 and took the New Jersey Devils to a full seven games.

  Disney sold the team to Henry and Susan Samueli in 2005 and they, after consulting their fan base and considering some of the Disney-owned trademarks, changed the name of the team to the Anaheim Ducks starting with the 2006–07 season. That year proved the greatest to date for the franchise as they defeated the Ottawa Senators for their first Stanley Cup — which was also the first time the legendary trophy was won by a California-based team.

  Randy Ladouceur

  Terry Yake

  Over his first four pro seasons, Yake was a rising prospect in the Hartford Whalers organization, but he could not stick around the NHL for long before being sent back down to the minors. The 1992–93 campaign initially looked much of the same for him, but after he put up 22 points in 16 games with the AHL’s Springfield Indians, he finally earned a long-term promotion and racked up 53 points over the rest of the schedule. Strangely, the Whalers declined to protect the centreman for the expansion draft, and Anaheim gave him a new rink to call home.

  Yake had four points over the first three games for the Ducks and made history when he scored the team’s first hat trick and added an assist in a 4–3 triumph over the New York Rangers on October 19, 1993. He also had a strong outing against the Winnipeg Jets on December 20, scoring twice, one of those tallies the game-winner.

  The speedy forward put up most of his offence before the All-Star break, but he earned two goals and an assist in a road win against Edmonton on February 13, 1994. He also had a three-game point streak in March.

  Terry Yake

  Bob Corkum

  In 1992–93, Corkum caught on as a regular with Buffalo and produced 10 points over 68 games with the club. He did not get a ton of ice time, but the Sabres felt as if they had waited long enough for him to develop and they cast him aside when they put out their list of protected players for the expansion draft.

  It was a move they must have ended up regretting, at least during the 1993–94 campaign, when he produced career numbers. Corkum led the Mighty Ducks with 23 goals, and 17 of those came in even-strength situations. His first of three shorthanded goals came against Chicago on January 6, 1994, a night when he notched an impressive four points. That month was one of the best of his career, as he racked up 17 points over 14 games. On March 11, he lit up the Blackhawks for two more goals, but Anaheim lost by a 3–2 margin.

  Bill Houlder

  Before he went to the Mighty Ducks through the expansion draft, Houlder spent the previous six seasons bouncing between the NHL and the minors in the Washington and Buffalo organizations. Anaheim was certainly glad to get him under contract as he came off an All-Star season with the San Diego Gulls of the IHL, and he responded with his best year at the NHL level in 1993–94.

  Offensively speaking, his best stretch came in November 1993, when he scored four times and contributed six assists over 13 games. He had only six career goals to his credit from his days before the Ducks and surpassed that total on January 6, 1994, when they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks. Two nights later, he popped in a couple more in another triumph — this time against St. Louis. By the end of the season, Houlder was Anaheim’s leading scorer among blueliners, but he was traded away before the beginning of their sophomore campaign.

  Alexei Kasatonov

  Kasatonov was the first defenceman chosen by the Mighty Ducks during the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft, and his vast experience was exactly what the first-year club needed. The New Jersey Devils had left him available after a disappointing season in 1992–93, but a small comeback was in the works.

  Kasatonov’s second goal of the season was his biggest with Anaheim, as it secured a victory over the Calgary Flames on November 22, 1993. It was the team’s third victory in a row and he continued to produce over the next few months. While playing against the Chicago Blackhawks on January 6, 1994, he put up three assists in a 6–2 victory. Just 16 days later, he had the honour of being the first member of the Mighty Ducks to skate in an NHL All-Star Game.

  Despite all of the positive contributions Kasatonov made to the developing club, he was considered expendable later in the year when the St. Louis Blues gave up highly touted prospect Maxim Bets and a draft pick for him.

  Troy Loney

  Loney was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins for 10 seasons between 1983–84 and 1992–93. While he was part of two Stanley Cup championship clubs, he also was the franchise’s all-time leader in penalty minutes by the time he left for Anaheim through the expansion draft.

  Loney was named the first captain in the history of the Mighty Ducks. He scored on the power play during the season opener against Detroit on October 8, 1993, and his first four tallies of the year came with the man advantage. On October 28, he suffered a bruised knee during a game with San Jose and, although he came back a little more than a week later, he re-aggravated it soon after and needed arthroscopic surgery.

  After Christmas, Loney was back in action and most of his offensive production came after the All-Star break. While facing the Vancouver Canucks on January 16, 1994, he scored during the close 4–3 loss and followed that up two days later with a pair of goals against Toronto that gave the Ducks a brief 3–0 lead later erased by the Maple Leafs.

  Todd Ewen

  Ewen was regarded as one of hockey’s toughest customers in the early 1990s. His time with the Montreal Canadiens was interrupted by a series of serious injuries, but he
managed to be a part of their Stanley Cup–winning squad in 1992–93, even though he only played in a single postseason game.

  Taken by Anaheim in the expansion draft, Ewen was named an alternate captain before the start of the 1993–94 campaign. He missed just a single game after breaking his nose in a battle with the New York Rangers on October 19, 1993.

  On December 5, Ewen had a pair of assists in a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but his most significant statistic came from the whopping 24 fights he got into during the inaugural season for the Mighty Ducks — two of which came against Dean Kennedy of the Winnipeg Jets when the two teams met on January 26, 1994. As the end of the season approached, he injured his shoulder during a matchup with Toronto, but he still finished eighth in the NHL in penalty minutes.

  Todd Ewen

  Guy Hebert

  Hebert got into 24 games as a backup for Curtis Joseph with the St. Louis Blues in 1992–93. The Mighty Ducks made him their first pick in the expansion draft in the hope that he would be their number one goaltender in the long run.

  After getting rocked in the season opener against Detroit, Hebert earned a tie with Calgary during his second appearance on October 17, 1993. He earned a victory at Madison Square Garden two days later in a battle with the New York Rangers. Over the first two months of the campaign, victories were scarce for him, but in mid-December, he won four straight, which included a 38-save shutout against Toronto. On February 4, 1994, he earned his second whitewash of the year in a 3–0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. By then, Hebert had asserted himself as the team’s top man in net — a position he held for several years afterward.

  Guy Hebert

  EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 28–47–7

  (63 points — fourth in Central Division)

  COACH: Barry Trotz

  GENERAL MANAGER: David Poile

  FIRST GAME: October 10, 1998 —

  1–0 loss vs. Florida Panthers

  FIRST GOAL: October 13, 1998 by Andrew Brunette

  NASHVILLE

  PREDATORS

  It may surprise some hockey fans, but the city of Nashville has a strong hockey tradition that goes back to the the 1960s and the days of the Dixie Flyers club. The success of East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) and CHL teams in the 1990s paved the way for the NHL to come in to town. In 1995, rumours spread that the New Jersey Devils would end up relocating to Tennessee because of the potential for a new building to play in and a lucrative $20 million relocation bonus, but after restructuring the lease on their own arena they ended up staying in the Meadowlands.

  As a result of such a serious attempt to get an NHL club, however, the league at least considered the city in its planned expansion. Craig Leipold made a formal presentation to them in January 1997 and was granted a conditional franchise a few months later. The league would allow the team to start play in 1998–99 if they could reach the sales target of 12,000 season tickets and a finished arena before the three other potential teams did.

  Soon after they reached their goals, the unnamed club hired former Washington Capitals general manager David Poile to undertake a similar role for them, and he then brought on Barry Trotz as coach on August 6. Both have remained with the club to this day.

  Even before the team chose its nickname, they unveiled a sabre-toothed cat as their logo, which paid tribute to the fact that a partial Smilodon skeleton had been found in downtown Nashville back in 1971. A public vote was held to determine the club’s name, and Predators won out over Ice Tigers, Fury and Attack.

  While the Predators geared up for their first season, it was reported in the press that there was a possibility the Edmonton Oilers would move to Nashville and the expansion franchise would be moved to Houston, Texas. Leipold shot down this idea quickly, and the team began signing free agents before getting a chance to poach opposing rosters through the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft. Their selections proved quite decent and they acquired some scoring punch with Andrew Brunette and Greg Johnson to go along with decent defenders such as Bob Boughner and the well-travelled J.J. Daigneault.

  The player who was perhaps their best pick seems almost to have been an afterthought — Tomas Vokoun, who was a prospect with the Montreal Canadiens at the time. He eventually proved their franchise player during the early years and helped them become a playoff contender. They also made some trades that had a positive impact on their first-year roster, acquiring talent such as Darren Turcotte, Sebastien Bordeleau, Sergei Krivokrasov and Kimmo Timonen. During the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, the Predators had the second overall selection and took David Legwand from the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). He was the last player from the 1998–99 season to remain with Nashville until he was traded to Detroit in 2014.

  Before they were ready to officially hit the ice, the team added a few more players through trades and free agency. The signing of Tom Fitzgerald gave the Preds their first captain. On October 10, 1998, they opened the regular season at home and lost to the Florida Panthers in a tight 1–0 game, but three nights later they won against Carolina. Overall, their start was respectable for an expansion team, and they were 8–11–1 over the first 20 games of the year. Picking up veteran Cliff Ronning from the Phoenix Coyotes was a smart move, but as the year wore on, their inability to score or keep the puck out of the net caught up with them, and they finished at the bottom of the Central Division with a 28–47–7 record.

  The Predators made all the right moves over the next few years and the patience of management allowed them to build into a playoff contender. They made it to the postseason for the first time in 2003–04 and have missed the playoffs only twice since then. The 2005–06 campaign saw them reach the 100-point plateau for the first time, but they were looking at potential relocation when they were purchased by Jim Balsillie, who intended to place them in southern Ontario. There was later another potential sale to a venture capitalist named William “Boots” Del Biaggio III that could have sent them to Kansas City, Missouri.

  In short time, the team garnered the local support it needed and the group ended up including Del Biaggio. The next year, however, he ran into legal trouble, which resulted in a 97-month prison term that embarrassed the league, as they had not done their due diligence, much like when John Spano controlled the New York Islanders in the late 1990s.

  Despite the uncertainty of the team’s ownership situation, the Predators have been a dependable Western Conference force in recent years. In 2010–11, they finally won a playoff series but then narrowly lost out to the Vancouver Canucks. The success of the management team, combined with a hard-rock defence and sparkling goaltending, keeps the fans coming in and the catfish flying onto the ice. Perhaps in time, they can rise to even greater heights.

  Cliff Ronning

  Ronning started the 1998–99 season with the Phoenix Coyotes, and all the diminutive playmaker and a prospect named Richard Lintner cost the Predators was some future considerations. His veteran experience made him an asset to the team, as did his abilities as a power-play specialist.

  After going scoreless in his first three games with Nashville, Ronning registered points in his next six, including a pair of assists in a win over Los Angeles on November 12, 1998. Just five days later, he hit a personal milestone by scoring his 200th career goal against Mark Fitzpatrick of the Chicago Blackhawks. He earned his 600th point with an assist on Sergei Krivokrasov’s game-winner when the team defeated the New York Islanders in a road game on February 12, 1999.

  A frequent shooter, Ronning had 10 two-point outings with the Predators during their first year and led the club in assists and points.

  Greg Johnson

  After nearly four seasons in the Motor City, Johnson narrowly missed out on consecutive Stanley Cup championships with the Detroit Red Wings in the late 1990s and toiled for Pittsburgh and Chicago instead. Although he had a respectable 69-game stint with the Blackhawks, the team made the difficult choice to make him available in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft.

  He responded to
his new surroundings with what proved his best offensive season but had some mixed emotions heading into the 1998–99 campaign.

  “I was obviously excited on one hand but nervous on the other,” he said. “It was an opportunity. I think everybody was excited about it. We wanted to go out and prove over 82 games that we belonged.”

  Johnson earned an assist on the first goal in franchise history on October 13, 1998, and also had another helper that night on J.J. Daigneault’s winning goal to help put away the Carolina Hurricanes. Just eight days later, he scored his first goal in a Predators uniform against his old Detroit teammates and ended up with a team-best three shorthanded tallies on the year. That goal kicked off a six-game point streak, but he had a seven-game one as well from January 26 to February 9, 1999, which included goals in five straight contests.

  Had he not missed nine games due to injury, it is likely that Johnson would have led Nashville in scoring, but he finished three points behind Cliff Ronning on the season.

  “I had a good year. It was a good step forward and I felt my career was heading in the right direction,” he said.

  Greg Johnson

  Tom Fitzgerald

  With 10 NHL seasons under his belt, Fitzgerald had played for the first-year Florida Panthers in 1993–94 and signed with Nashville as a free agent. He was named the club’s first captain, and his experience was going to be a definite asset for the Predators. His dependability became obvious, as he was the only skater to appear in at least 80 games in 1998–99.

  “Tom was a great captain and a good leader from the start,” said teammate Greg Johnson. “He was a hard-working guy and held everybody accountable.”

  Fitzgerald’s first goal of the season came against the Vancouver Canucks on October 27 and he registered an assist while taking on Colorado in the next game four days later. When the Preds were deadlocked at three goals with the Calgary Flames, he potted an even-strength goal, which gave them the edge they needed for victory on November 25. His best month during the season came in March 1999, when he scored three goals and added six assists over 14 games.