Remarkable NHL Rookies from A to Z

Originally published in Rinkside in 2007

By Lucas Aykroyd

Is a youth movement always a good thing? In economics or art, that can be a matter of controversy. The young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who created the late 1990’s “dot-com bubble” looked pretty good–until that bubble burst. And if you want to accentuate the generation gap at your next family picnic, bring up Hollywood and argue the merits of Meryl Streep and Robert Redford versus Leonardo DiCaprio and Scarlett Johansson.

Happily, there’s no argument about the wealth of young talent that’s flooded into the NHL since its earliest days. Each season, there’s another budding star (or three, or five, or more) that dazzles us with a blend of pure skill, raw energy, and youthful enthusiasm. But there can only be one winner of the Calder Trophy as the League’s top rookie. For instance, Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin has established himself as this year’s front-runner in the minds of many voters. Yet L.A.’s Anze Kopitar, Colorado’s Paul Stastny, and other young guns could be considered worthy candidates as well. None should be overlooked.

So here’s a retrospective on some of the finest rookie performances over the decades in alphabetical order by surname. Whether these guys get a chapter or a small paragraph in the history books, their passion for the game will always be inscribed in the hearts and minds of fans that saw them play their first seasons.

Syl Apps: Not only was Apps the League’s first-ever Calder winner in 1937, but the Toronto center achieved this feat with skill and grace on and off the ice. The 22-year-old abstained from alcohol and tobacco, and volunteered as a children’s coach and guest speaker when he wasn’t playing. Some doubted Apps would excel in the NHL, since he’d focused on other sports before joining the Leafs: he played football at McMaster University and competed as a pole vaulter in the 1936 Olympics. However, the 6-0, 185-pounder demonstrated superb playmaking abilities as a rookie, racking up 16 goals and 29 assists in this 48-game season. He would captain Toronto to three Stanley Cups in the 1940’s, and passed away in 1998.

Ray Bourque: The 1979 NHL Entry Draft was perhaps the strongest in history, featuring such elite first-round picks as Mike Gartner (#4) and Michel Goulet (#20). But most observers would consider Bourque (#8) the best of the bunch, and the graduate of the QMJHL’s Verdun Black Hawks certainly started building his legend in his first year. He posted 17 goals and 65 points as a rookie defenseman with Boston, and became the first-ever non-goalie to win the Calder and crack the First All-Star Team as a freshman.

Sidney Crosby: Sid the Kid requires no introduction. The prodigious native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia is widely regarded as the NHL’s best hope for breaking Wayne Gretzky’s career scoring records, and he got off to an incredible start as an 18-year-old, becoming the youngest player ever to score 100 points in League history (finishing with 102). In any other year, the dynamic Pittsburgh Penguins center would surely have captured the Calder, but Alex Ovechkin earned the nod instead with his spectacular 106-point campaign.

Chris Drury: He led his Trumbull, Connecticut baseball team to victory as the pitcher in the 1989 Little League World Series versus Taiwan, but thankfully for hockey fans, Drury decided his future was on the ice. The 1998 Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey’s top star, this determined, ever-serious forward won the Calder the following year with 44 points for Colorado. Although his older brother Ted also had a solid pro career, that output was more than Ted ever managed in any single NHL season.

Tony Esposito: Nicknamed “Tony O,” the younger brother of Phil Esposito proved as adept at stopping pucks with Chicago as his sibling was at scoring with Boston. Ironically, he won his only Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1969 before his official rookie year, playing 13 games for the Habs. But when Chicago acquired Number 35 the following season, he dazzled with his butterfly style and quick glove hand. He was named Rookie of the Year after setting a modern-day record for shutouts with 15. The closest anyone has come to equaling Esposito’s mark was Dominik Hasek’s 1997-98 campaign with 13 goose eggs for Buffalo.

Peter Forsberg: Fans of the superstar Swedish center would be ecstatic nowadays if he could stay healthy enough to play in 98 percent of the games. That’s what he did as a rookie at age 22 with the Quebec Nordiques, tallying 50 points in 47 games in 1995 (in a lockout-shortened 48-game schedule). Come the NHL Awards, that was good enough to beat out Forsberg’s fellow Calder nominees, Anaheim’s Paul Kariya and Washington’s Jim Carey. It was a fine start to an NHL career for a player who had already immortalized himself internationally by scoring the winning shootout goal for Tre Kronor versus Canada at the 1994 Olympics.

Scott Gomez: It’s hard to imagine that Gomez will ever top what he accomplished in his inaugural campaign. As the first player of Hispanic heritage to reach the NHL, the Anchorage-born center was selected to appear in the NHL All-Star Game, won the Calder Trophy with 70 points for New Jersey, and best of all, tied for fourth in team scoring as the Devils won their second Stanley Cup in franchise history. “Wow, I’m just a little Mexican kid coming to New Jersey,” Gomez said with a smile in his Calder acceptance speech at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. The award was presented to him by the late Christopher Reeve, the actor best-known for portraying Superman.

Glenn Hall: With 30 wins and 12 shutouts in his 1955-56 rookie season with Detroit, Hall put himself on track to earn the nickname “Mr. Goalie.” It was particularly remarkable because he was replacing the legendary Terry Sawchuk, whom Wings GM Jack Adams had dealt to Boston. With those kinds of numbers, Hall could easily have added the Vezina to his hardware collection as well. But Jacques Plante kept an iron grip on that trophy during Montreal’s run of five straight Stanley Cups, and Hall would have to wait until 1963 before being so honored with Chicago.

Jarome Iginla: “Iggy” responded well under pressure in his 1996-97 debut with Calgary. Expectations were high after the Flames acquired his rights from Dallas in December 1995 in exchange for Joe Nieuwendyk. The big right wing from the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers managed 50 points in a full 82-game slate, and was voted the runner-up to Bryan Berard of the New York Islanders for the Calder. For Iginla, it was an early step toward establishing himself as arguably hockey’s premier power forward.

Barret Jackman: Hard-nosed, defensive-minded defensemen often get overlooked when it comes to Calder voting, but this native of Trail, British Columbia was the exception in 2003, when he beat out Columbus’s Rick Nash and Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg. He benefited from being paired with Al MacInnis in his rookie year. Although he subsequently struggled due to injuries, and, more recently, some difficulty adapting to the NHL obstruction crackdown, he’s now capably performing yeoman’s work for the St. Louis Blues.

Jari Kurri: The great Finnish forward gained fame in Edmonton as Wayne Gretzky’s right-hand man, and his career total of 1398 points was only surpassed among European-born players last March by Jaromir Jagr. But while his 32 goals and 75 points in his 1980-81 rookie season were impressive, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Kurri. The shy 20-year-old struggled to learn English from episodes of Happy Days. At one point in the season, the Oilers training staff discovered that he and roommate Paul Coffey were subsisting on pizza and cookies when they weren’t eating team meals on the road, which had understandably reduced their energy. The Calder Trophy went to Peter Stastny, then 24, Kurri’s main rival as the top European NHL forward of the 1980’s.

Henrik Lundqvist: “Giant steps are what you take walking on the moon,” the Police sang in one of their hit singles. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist similarly took some giant steps while performing on Broadway in his NHL debut. After starring at the IIHF World Championships and leading Frolunda to Swedish Elite League titles in 2003 and 2005, Lundqvist posted a stellar 2.24 GAA in 53 games with the New York Rangers last season. Not only was he nominated for the Vezina Trophy as a 24-year-old, but People Magazine also chose him as one of the World’s 100 Most Beautiful People, no doubt resulting in some ribbing from his teammates.

Frank Mahovlich: This talented left winger was sometimes criticized during his career for a lack of intensity, but he ultimately entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1981 and was appointed a Canadian Senator in 1998. And it all started 40 years earlier for “The Big M,” who racked up 20 goals in his Calder-winning rookie season with Toronto in 1958. His trophy was arguably the highlight for the Leafs that year, who finished in last place.

Evgeni Nabokov: Nabokov wears #20 like his Russian role model, Vladislav Tretiak, but when the Kazakhstan-born netminder first broke into the NHL, he wasn’t exactly heralded. His job was to back up Steve Shields in 1999-2000, and he only saw action in 11 games. But the next year at age 25, Nabokov’s career took off. He became the 12th goalie to win the Calder since 1934 with a 2.19 GAA and .914 save percentage in 66 games. “All I do every game is try to prove to myself that I can play in this league,” Nabokov told The Pro Hockey EuroReport. He certainly did that.

Alex Ovechkin: When fans look back on Ovechkin’s 2005-06 Calder-winning campaign, what they’ll probably remember best is the spectacular goal he tallied against the Phoenix Coyotes while sliding along the ice on January 16. Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said, “He’s the only guy I’ve ever coached against who scored a goal and blew me a kiss,” and Versus commentator Bill Clement called it “one of the greatest goals of all time.” Washington’s electrifying 20-year-old Russian lit the red light 51 other times that season, placing him behind only Teemu Selanne (76) and Mike Bossy (53) for the most goals ever scored as a rookie.

Dion Phaneuf: The name Dion didn’t exactly become synonymous with a hard-hitting approach in the wake of Dion’s “Runaround Sue” and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” but the body-slamming prowess of Dion Phaneuf had Calgary Flames fans singing for joy in 2005-06. The 6-2, 200-pound Edmonton native also outpaced the first-year production of his boyhood idol, Scott Stevens, with a remarkable 20 goals and 29 assists (compared to Stevens’s 25 points for Washington in 1982-83).

Johnny Quilty: He had the kind of name you just don’t see in the League anymore, and his was a tale of potential cut tragically short. Quilty debuted at 19 with Montreal, and the center’s team-best 18 goals and 34 points (ahead of Toe Blake and Elmer Lach) earned him the Calder in 1941. Two years later, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, and although he made sergeant, he never made it big in the NHL again. A nasty leg fracture in 1947-48 ultimately forced him to retire, and he died suddenly at age 48 in his native Ottawa.

Luc Robitaille: They called him “Lucky,” but Los Angeles fans were really the ones who were lucky to witness this 1984 ninth-round pick of the Kings surprising everyone with his 45 goals en route to the 1987 Calder Trophy. They also questioned back then who was better, Robitaille or fellow newcomer, Jimmy Carson, but Robitaille would go on to answer that question convincingly both through his longevity (19 seasons) and production (1,394 career points).

Sergei Samsonov: Remember when Sergei Samsonov was booming and Joe Thornton was a bust? We’re talking about 1997-98, when both Boston first-rounders made their NHL debut. The diminutive Russian left wing dazzled his way to 47 points and Rookie of the Year honors, while Thornton had a paltry seven points. Nowadays, that situation has virtually been reversed, but the youthful flash and dash of “Sammy” is still fondly remembered by Beantown supporters.

Bryan Trottier: The great center of the New York Islanders is best remembered for his partnership with Clark Gillies and Mike Bossy, but in his rookie season of 1975-76, his right winger was Billy Harris. The latter, though no Bossy, was still a strong fourth-year NHLer, and Trottier was able to rack up then-rookie records of 63 points and 95 points. The Calder Trophy went to this 19-year-old future winner of six Stanley Cups from Val Marie, Saskatchewan.

Garry Unger: You could argue that this Calgary-born center’s most notable NHL feat began before his rookie season officially did. When Toronto called him up from the minors to play on a line with George Armstrong and Mike Walton on February 24, 1968, it marked the start of a 914-game ironman streak that lasted until he was benched on December 22, 1979 while playing for the Atlanta Flames. Traded to Detroit in 1968, Unger’s official rookie campaign featured a very respectable 24 goals and 44 points.

Steve Vickers: If making a great first impression is all it’s cracked up to be, it’s no wonder Vickers was such a popular member of the Broadway Blueshirts in the 1970’s. The savvy winger scored a goal in his first NHL game versus Detroit on October 7, 1972. The next month, “Sarge” did what no other NHLer had ever done by notching back-to-back hat tricks (versus Los Angeles and Philadelphia). His 30 goals gave him the ’73 Calder.

Lorne “Gump” Worsley: Although Worsley sadly passed away this year at age 77, the memory of his freshman accomplishments will live on. At age 24, the portly netminder was named 1953’s top rookie with a beleaguered New York Rangers squad after he took over from the injured Chuck Rayner, despite posting a record of 13 wins, 29 losses, and eight ties. After many other exploits, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980.

The X Factor: Regrettably, no player surnamed Xerxes or Xavier has ever debuted in the NHL. So instead, let’s ponder: who will be the best of the new rookies coming in next season? Boston goalie prospect Tuukka Rask? St. Louis defenseman Erik Johnson? Washington forward Nicklas Backstrom? The X Factor is huge in the Calder race of 2008…

Alexei Yashin: Once, Ottawa loved Alexei Yashin. The #2 overall pick of the Senators in 1992, he tallied 30 goals and 79 points as a freshman and played in the 1994 NHL All-Star Game. But a nasty contract dispute at the start of the new millennium forever alienated him from Canada’s capital city. The big center has, however, recovered some of his youthful vigor under Ted Nolan with the Islanders this year.

Zarley Zalapski: This is one of the most memorable names in NHL history, and Zalapski can cherish the memory of playing his 1988-89 rookie season in Pittsburgh when Mario Lemieux achieved a career-best 199 points. This former Canadian Olympic team blueliner was able to tally 45 points himself, plus nine more in the playoffs. That put him on the NHL’s All-Rookie Team.