BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
TORONTO, CANADA – Six more names have been selected to enter the esteemed NHL Hall of Fame on Yonge Street in Toronto on November 18th.
Ex-New York Ranger, Sergei Zubov, as well as Guy Carbonneau, Hayley Wickenheiser, and Vaclav Nedomansky enter in the player’s category while Jim Rutherford and Jerry York the longtime BC head coach, enter in the builder’s category.
One of the inductees played a major part of hockey history from the mid-to-late 20th century.
Nedomansky, who was considered to be the best player in the world at the time, was the first Eastern European hockey player to flee the grip of communism and head to the West to showcase his talents.
“When I made that decision in 1974 to follow my dream, I jumped right in,” the 75-year-old Nedomansky, a soft-spoken man, said. “I’m so happy I did that.”
An original New England Whaler, Tim Sheehy, saw his pro career intertwined with Nedomansky’s in several ways having played with, and against, Big Ned.
“I was on the US amateur team in 1969 with Larry Pleau (ex-New England Whaler great and Whalers head coach several times). We went over for the World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden. At the time, the Soviet tanks were still in the streets of Czechoslovakia after they crushed the Prague Spring in 1968. Tensions were very high at that time, and Czechoslovakia was supposed to host the event, but they declined because of the Warsaw Pact invasion. It was the first time I experienced a mixture of athletics and politics. It was pure drama.
“It took us 36 hours to get there. Our bus hit a car. It was a crazy trip, and our first game was against Czechoslovakia. We lost 13-0. (Nedomansky) cruised all around us. Then we played the Soviets, probably their greatest team ever. We lose 17-2 and then the Soviets were scheduled to play Czechoslovakia.
“For Czechoslovakia, it was the Gold Medal game, Stanley Cup, and Super Bowl, all rolled into one. It was one of the most intense games of hockey I have ever seen…Period. Ned was a force in that game, and his teammates were determined to beat the Soviets and they shut them out, 2-0,” Sheehy stated. The Czechoslovakian squad won the second meeting, 4-3, but lost both games to Sweden and finished with a Bronze Medal.
A few years later Sheehy was on the 1972 US Olympic team in Sapporo, Japan and again, Big Ned was on the ice, but this time, the US got even beating the Nedomansky led Czechoslovakian team, 5-1 in the other “Miracle On Ice”. Then the Soviets beat the Czechs avenging for 1969. It allowed the US to vault into second place and the team edged out the Czechoslovakian squad for the Silver Medal.
In 1974, Nedomansky made his decision to defect to the West and Canada after securing a two-week vacation visa to Switzerland. Big Ned landed in Toronto to play for the WHA Toros leaving behind the claustrophobic gray world of communism.
Nedomansky didn’t disappoint scoring 41 goals and logging 81 points in his first season and improving to 56 goals and 98 points in his second year with the Toros, who played in Maple Leaf Gardens after successfully suing for the right to play there.
In his third season, Nedomansky’s team was relocated to Birmingham, Alabama and became the Birmingham Bulls.
Sheehy was traded from the New England Whalers and found himself playing with Nedomansky, as well as the Canadiens’ great, “The Big M” Frank Mahovlich.
“They made it easy for me to get 41 goals. To be able to have played with and among the best the game has ever seen, was very special. Ned’s vision was so good. He saw plays develop before you realized it. He was a big man for a center in that era at 6’3. He was very strong with the puck very hard to knock him off the play.”
Sheehy and Nedomansky then became a part of hockey history. The Bulls, like so many WHA teams, were deep in financial red tape, and they made the first inter-league NHL-WHA trade moving Nedomansky and Sheehy to the Detroit Red Wings, for Dave Hanson!
Yes, the Dave Hanson of Slapshot fame. Birmingham also brought in the late Steve “Madman” Durbano, and Frank “Never” Beaton, which Sheehy quipped, “We gave up nearly 100 goals (97 to be exact) for 800 penalty minutes (804 to be exact).”
Because Nedomansky had played in the WHA and in Czechoslovakia at the time, the NHL didn’t recognize his playing time so he was classified as a rookie… at age 33.
“Years later, our Birmingham GM Gilles Leger told me we were traded really for a $100,000 because it allowed the team to make payroll, but the team folded at the end of the year anyhow.”
Nedomansky played three years in Detroit and toward the end of his playing days ended in an unusual fashion.
He was signed as a free agent by the Rangers on September 30, 1982, but had to be placed on waivers then on October 6th and was claimed by St. Louis where he played 22 games for the Blues. His roommate with the Blues was an NHL rookie named Bob Crawford, the ex-Whaler, Ranger and Nighthawk now a long-time Connecticut resident and owner of three Connecticut hockey rinks.
“He was the man growing up in Canada. We all know about who he was at the time, besides Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe, who were both actively playing then. He was considered to be among the best in the world. I was a little upset at first as they gave him my jersey number (14). (Nedomansky) wore the number his entire career. He was a gracious and humble guy; no pretense about him. He was at the end of his career, but he had those flashes of what he was, it was very impressive.
“It was a great way to start a hockey career, to have a guy like that to chat with when you’re just starting out. His induction is long, long overdue,” Crawford stated.
The relationship was short lived between the two as Nedomansky closed out his NHL career when the Blues traded him back to the Rangers with goalie Glen Hanlon for a present-day Connecticut resident defenseman, Andre Dore back on January 4, 1983.
Nedomansky’s career numbers were about a point a game average. He had 122 goals and 278 points in 421 games. In the WHA, he had 253 points with 135 goals in 252 games. His Czechoslavakian numbers with HC Slovan Bratislava were 320 games played and he accounted for 354 goals, 156 assists for 440 points. In World championship competition, he played in 80 games contributing 65 goals and 92 points. Over the course of two Olympiads, he played in 17 games adding 13 goals and 18 points.
Sadly, some stats were incomplete during the communist era, such as his international competition. The only stats they kept were just games played and goals scored. Those numbers are 163 goals in 220 games. His Slovan Bratislava first season, there are no stats. The same holds true from his two junior years in his hometown team HK Hodonin, a town near the Slovak and Czech border.
Big Ned then became a Head Coach in Germany for three years. He coached with ERC Schwenniger (DEL) and one season with HC Innsbruck in Austria. He was then was a European scout for Los Angeles for 14 years, a Nashville pro-scout for six years, and he’s presently a pro scout with the Vegas Golden Knights through their first three NHL seasons.
Sheehy was ecstatic to hear his old linemate had been selected for the Hall of Fame.
“I couldn’t be happier to hear that he was selected. Ned is a wonderful person and endured so much to come here and showed his skills, he belongs there.”
It completes things for Nedomansky who was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997.
Sheehy’s was involved with two other selections from the 2019 Hall of Fame class.
Jerry York, the all-time winningest college hockey coach, is still operating as the head coach for the Boston College Eagles (HE). He played for BC in the late 1960s and Sheehy got an up-close look himself when he was a BC freshman.
“He was among top scorers on our team, and he was the captain, and he and the late John Cunniff (New England Whalers) were part of our big line and did so well. Jerry just caught the playing part of the game at the wrong time. While the NHL had expanded to 12 teams in 1967, at a time when not many Americans played pro hockey in the NHL, it was mostly Canadians players. The WHA was several years away. I didn’t get a chance to play with him because he was a senior then and I was a freshman. At that time freshmen were not allowed to play varsity sports.”
York’s record speaks for itself. A number of players he has coached from his first stint at Clarkson went on to successful careers. His first recruit at Clarkson turned out to be Dave Taylor, who went on to have a long NHL career with LA. Then at Bowling Green, he won his first NCAA title with players like Rob Blake and Hobey Baker winner and now a current Vegas Golden Knights President and GM, George McPhee. At BC, York has won four more NCAA titles having players like Johnny Gaudreau, Brian Gionta, and the just-retired Brooks Orpik, all among the many that skated for him at Conte Forum, cementing his legacy.
“I almost didn’t answer the call,” York remarked in his usual professorial manner. “I thought John Davidson was trying to trade for one of my players. When he told me I was going to be inducted, I had to sit down.”
While in Detroit, Sheeny befriended the team’s goalie, Jimmy Rutherford.
“At the time our two goalies was this guy, Eddie Giacomin, and Ron Low. The late Ted Lindsay was our GM. Jimmy and I became quick friends. Our birthdays are very close and one of the funnier moments we had was in the Montreal Forum and I asked Rutherford, who is this player, Guy Lafleur?
“Next shift, Lafluer goes through all five guys, and fires one top shelf.”
70-year-old, Jim Rutherford was inducted in the builder’s category. One of his last seasons as a player before retiring was in New Haven with the Nighthawks. He was a part of the Hartford Whalers last three seasons in the Nutmeg State as its GM before the team left for North Carolina.
“This is something you don’t think a lot about, but you sometimes pause to dream about. I’ve traveled lots of miles in hockey and met so many great people along the way. I started my career in Beeton, 50 miles north of the Hall of Fame, never dreaming that I would once be in it.”
He won two Cups with Pittsburgh, but the first one with Carolina was special.
“We were still working off our move from Hartford, but the first one is special because we really didn’t expect it. We had a great run with the play of Rob Brind’Amour (now the team’s head coach) and goalie Cam Ward. I liked the ones in Pittsburgh too, but the first one is always special.”
Hayley Wickenheiser, 40, retired standing atop the women’s hockey mountain with records that are Gretzkyian and frankly, Ruthian in scope.
She is tied for the record of most gold medals by any Canadian Olympian with teammates Caroline Ouellette and fellow NHL Hall of Famer, Jayna Hefford, a fellow Canadian.
In Wickenheiser’s 23 seasons with Team Canada, she rewrote the national team record book for goals (168), assists (211) and games played (276). She also won a title at every level she played in including three Olympic gold medals and a silver, seven World championship golds, a CWHL Isobel Cup with the Calgary Inferno, and she became the first women to play in a men’s league in Finland with HC Salamat and won the Division-2 championship.
She won a Canadian college title with the University of Calgary Dinosaurs and the WWHL title with the Calgary Oval X-Treme.
Wickenheiser is currently the Assistant Director of Player Development for the Toronto Maple Leafs where she broke another barrier becoming the first women in the history of the game to coach NHL players in an on-ice capacity.
“The Renaissance Woman couldn’t even answer the phone to learn of her selection,” said Hall-of-Fame Committee Chairman, Lanny McDonald. “She was taking her medical exam at the University of Calgary. To have answered the phone during the exam would have led to a failing grade.”
Incredibly, she’ll likely soon walk away from the position to pursue her career as a doctor.
Sergei Zubov won two Stanley Cups. His first came with the Rangers in 1994 ending the 54-year Curse of futility. He then won it again in 1999 with the Dallas Stars. He was one of the most reliable defensemen in the league over a long stretch of his career.
Zubov had a solid 16-year NHL career tallying 771 points (152 goals, 619 assists) and played in 1,068 games. His post season stats were equally impressive. He registered 117 points in 164 Stanley Cup playoff games.
He started playing on the last Soviet-era Army CSKA Moscow squad. The first game under the Russian flag before starting out in Binghamton before ascending to New York and beginning his NHL career.
“It was good to play in Binghamton. It was a tough start with the (language). I did well (36 points in 30 games) and there was an injury and I get called up and it worked out,” said Zubov.
When he hits the Hall-of-Fame in November, it will be his second trip. The first was as an eight-year-old visitor coming to Toronto for a tournament. Now, 40 years later, he will be entering as a member of those enshrined within its walls.
“I was eight years old when I traveled to Canada with the national team. We had a tournament in Canada and I walked into the Hall of Fame. Back then (under the communist system), I couldn’t even think of or (even) dream that one day, I would have a chance to be part of it.”
His wife would mention it from time to time, but his work as a coach a head coach for HC Sochi (Russia-KHL) has kept him occupied mentally.
“She would say something about it, but you have so much to do as a coach. I don’t have the time to think about that. The players like Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, and my first defense partner, Kevin Lowe, helped me so much (early on). In Dallas, Bob Gainey, Ken Hitchcock, and Ron Wilson were so very good. Wilson really helped me look at the game very differently than I had before,” Zubrov, who tallied 50 or more assists in seven years and was an assistant captain in Dallas for 10 of his 12 years with Stars, said.
Guy Carbonneau, 59, was a part of three teams that played in the post-season for 17 of his 18 NHL seasons. He doesn’t have the stats of a Hall-of-Fame player – just 260 goals and 630 points – but he was the embodiment of the defensive player’s contribution to a championship before it was the mantra that is today’s NHL.
He was the captain of the last Montreal Stanley Cup winner, his third with the bleu, blanc, and rouge. It was the last Canadian-based team to hoist Lord Stanley. He then went to Dallas, which was run by the forerunner of the defensive player. His captain early in his career and later Dallas GM, Bob Gainey.
He won another Cup this time with Zubov in 1999 in the next to last season of his 1,318 game career, He started the career by reinventing himself after being a prodigious junior scorer with the Chicoutimi (QMJHL) and two solid AHL seasons with Nova Scotia Voyageurs.
“I wasn’t playing a lot of minutes and (Head Coach) Jacques (Demers) approached me about it, and that I had to sacrifice some points and I went from five minutes to 20 minutes of play.
“I think I deserve it. After your career, you kind of look back at what you’ve done and you look at who’s in the Hall-of-Fame and I thought maybe I would have a chance at one point, but it’s not something that I was disappointed about every year because I was not named. It was always fun, I guess, to think about it. Now its happened, so I don’t have to think about it anymore, and I can get prepared for my speech,” Carbonneau, one of the most reliable faceoff players in the history of the game, said.
