Dude! What are you doing in that uniform? Part III

[MarkusKetterer]

What's funny too is that every single year during the preseason you'll see stuff on social where a handful of Red Wings fans will say something about how they hate the "new jerseys"



IIRC, the Wings signed King and a whole bunch of other vets after they secured their affiliation with the Grand Rapids Griffins as they didn't have a ton of veteran depth guys in the system after sharing the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks with Anaheim for 3 years.

King would play for them in the preseason (likely where the photo was taken) but would stay in GR for two years as he had some kind of player/coach role.

Yea I checked his stats after and saw he never actually played for the Wings. But shared affiliates was always weird to me.

I’m glad the Griffins have their own design instead of copying the Red Wings. Although I wish they’d change their name to the proper spelling

 

[ShelbyZ]

Yea I checked his stats after and saw he never actually played for the Wings. But shared affiliates was always weird to me.

I’m glad the Griffins have their own design instead of copying the Red Wings. Although I wish they’d change their name to the proper spelling

In trying to make sure my memory was correct on the whole Griffins affiliation and King signing happening in the same offseason, I ended up finding out why it was that the Wings shared an affiliate prior to that.

I guess they had some plan to move the Adirondack Red Wings to the Toledo area starting with the 00-01 season. They would initially announce that Adirondack would play a final season in 99-00, but then did the handful of fans there dirty by changing their mind and deciding to suspend the clubs operations a couple weeks after they got eliminated from the 1999 playoffs. Then by late 1999 the project ran into funding issues and work was halted after it was 20% complete. Then in late 2000 the whole project was scrapped.

Interestingly, the Wings longtime affiliation with Toledo of the ECHL took a one year break in 99-00. The failed plan for the AHL team arena/ampitheater (which was supposed to be 15 minutes south of the ECHL team's downtown Toledo location) was supposed to not only house an AHL team, but have the entire venue run by Illitch's Olympia Entertainment. I'm guessing perhaps whoever ran the ECHL team/venue wasn't thrilled with what would've been a huge blow to their revenue from hockey and other attractions. They would be an affiliate for the Lightning for that one season before hitching back with the Wings when the AHL project was pretty much all but officially dead.

 

[ted2019]

Bernard Marcel Parent.

 

[ted2019]

Reggie Leach.

 

[Davenport]

A lot of players ended their NHL careers with a relatively short stay in New York City. Here are a few of them:

Dallas Smith - the Blueshirt on our left - spent 16 seasons in the NHL, the first 15 in Boston, the last one in New York.

Pat LaFontaine played 15 seasons in the NHL: eight with the New York Islanders, six with the Buffalo Sabres, and his last one with the New York Rangers.

Bernie Geoffrion came out of retirement - having already earned himself induction in the Hockey Hall of Fame with his play as a Montreal Canadien for 14 seasons - to play two seasons with the Blueshirts.

 

[Ricelund]

Brad May, another oft-forgotten Red Wing:

 

[frontsfan2005]

Tom Barrasso: Ottawa (1999-2000) 7 GP, 3-4-0, 3.16 GAA; Playoffs: 6 GP, 2-4-0, 2.58 GAA

Rob Ray: Ottawa (2002-2004) - 11 GP, 1 G, 0 A, 1 PTS

Marian Gaborik: Ottawa (2017-18) - 16 GP, 4 G, 3 A, 7 PTS

Jonathan Cheechoo: Ottawa (2009-10) - 61 GP, 5 G, 9 A, 14 PTS

Jason Smith: Ottawa (2008-09) - 63 GP, 1 G, 0 A, 1 PTS

 

[DJ Man]

A lot of players ended their NHL careers with a relatively short stay in New York City. Here are a few of them:View attachment 449952Dallas Smith - the Blueshirt on our left - spent 16 seasons in the NHL, the first 15 in Boston, the last one in New York.View attachment 449954Pat LaFontaine played 15 seasons in the NHL: eight with the New York Islanders, six with the Buffalo Sabres, and his last one with the New York Rangers.View attachment 449957Bernie Geoffrion came out of retirement - having already earned himself induction in the Hockey Hall of Fame with his play as a Montreal Canadien for 14 seasons - to play two seasons with the Blueshirts.

Geoff never gave up. When he was an exec with Atlanta he still said he might suit up just to help on power plays.

 

[frontsfan2005]

Pavol Demitra: Ottawa (1993-96) - 59 GP, 12 G, 14 A, 26 PTS

Martin Straka: Ottawa (1994-96) - 49 GP, 10 G, 17 A, 27 PTS

Johnny Oduya: Ottawa (2017-18) - 51 GP, 4 G, 4 A, 8 PTS

Ales Hemsky: Ottawa (2013-14) - 20 GP, 4 G, 13 A, 17 PTS

Scott Gomez: Ottawa (2015-16) - 13 GP, 0 G, 1 A, 1 PTS

 

[SealsFan]

The last-year Atlanta Flames (79-80) had a bunch of guys that qualify:

Garry Unger, one season in Atlanta...

Jean Pronovost, 2 seasons in the red/white/yellow...

Paul Henderson, ended his NHL career with 30 games in Atlanta...

Ivan Boldirev's only full season with the club after arriving in a trade from Chicago near the end of 77-78...

Don Lever, only 28 games before another season and a half in Calgary...

 

[Soundgarden]

Wow, don't remember Gomez playing for Ottawa at all.

 

[frontsfan2005]

Wade Redden: Boston (2012-13) - 6 GP, 1 G, 1 A, 2 PTS

Anton Volchenkov: Nashville (2014-15) 44 GP, 0 G, 7 A, 7 PTS

Milan Michalek: Toronto (2015-17) - 18 GP, 2 G, 6 A, 8 PTS

Patrick Lalime: St. Louis (2005-06) 31 GP, 4-18-8, 3.64 GAA, .881 save percentage

Dany Heatley: Anaheim (2014-15) - 6 GP, 0 G, 0 A, 0 PTS

Chris Kelly: Anaheim (2017-18) - 12 GP, 0 G, 2 A, 2 PTS

Ron Tugnutt: Pittsburgh (1999-2000) - 7 GP, 4-2-0, 2.41 GAA, .924 save percentage - Playoffs: 11 GP, 6-5, 1.76 GAA, .945 save percentage

 

[kaiser matias]

The last-year Atlanta Flames (79-80) had a bunch of guys that qualify:


Paul Henderson, ended his NHL career with 30 games in Atlanta...

That helmet/mask combo is quite the sight, especially for that era.

 

[Ricelund]

Lecavalier in LA, 2015-16:

 

[SealsFan]

Reggie Leach.

Well he did have two good seasons and a partial with the Seals before coming to Philly in the big trade so not that unusual... a better choice is his final year with the Wings, who remembers that?

 

[hacksaw7]

Ric Seiling as a Detroit Red Wing during his final NHL season 1986-87

 

[kaiser matias]

Corey Hirsch spent his first 4 NHL games with the Rangers in 1992-93:

 

[Albatros]

Tommy Salo

 

[MarkusKetterer]

A double dip of Manny Legace

 

[kaiser matias]

A double dip of Manny Legace

And not Legace's first stint in a Canucks uniform while not playing for them. He was on the roster for about two weeks in 1999, and even sat on the bench for a few games, after being placed on waivers, and subsequently reclaimed, by Detroit.

Can't find any photo of him from then though.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

And not Legace's first stint in a Canucks uniform while not playing for them. He was on the roster for about two weeks in 1999, and even sat on the bench for a few games, after being placed on waivers, and subsequently reclaimed, by Detroit.

Can't find any photo of him from then though.

Haha yea. I mean he’s probably in a bench shot or something, but that was more diving than I wanted to do

 

[kaiser matias]

Haha yea. I mean he’s probably in a bench shot or something, but that was more diving than I wanted to do

Same. I'll put in effort, especially for ridiculous things like that, but that would involve scouring things like Getty images and/or trying to find if Youtube has a video of one of those few games. I do have limits here.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Same. I'll put in effort, especially for ridiculous things like that, but that would involve scouring things like Getty images and/or trying to find if Youtube has a video of one of those few games. I do have limits here.

Looking for Legace in that two week window he was on the Canucks was what I was doing. I had no idea he actually had a tryout with them years later. And without knowing exact dates, I can’t add that to my searches.

And the Getty Images search function is terrible. It makes the Sabres look competent!

 

[Davenport]

On his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame, Andy Bathgate spent two seasons in Vancouver with the Canucks of the WHL.

 

[Davenport]

Remember Guy Lapointe in St. Louis...

or in Boston?