Marcel Dionne
[edit] BiographyMarcel Elphege "Little Beaver" Dionne (born August 3 1951, in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers. Dionne was drafted in the 1st Round, 2nd overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft. He played his junior hockey with the St. Catharines Black Hawks and his 1971 team was involved in one of the most infamous events in Canadian junior hockey. The Black Hawks and Remparts series was intense on many levels. Besides the strong rivalry between Anglophone and Francophone hockey teams and Canadian citizens in general, there was unfinished business between Marcel Dionne and the Remparts coach Maurice Filion. Dionne had been coached by Filion in 1968 as a member of the Drummondville Rangers of the Quebec Junior Hockey League. When the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League formed in 1969, Dionne departed to play in the OHA, which was seen as a higher-calibre level of competition, to hone his skills. Filion vowed revenge against his OHA team. This rivalry was further fueled by the desire of Francophone nationalists to have a Canadian champion from a Quebec team in a Quebec-based league. [1] The series that featured future NHL stars Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne, never lived up to the potential on ice brilliance that could have been. Disputes off the ice and erupting violence abruped the series before it was finished. The Eastern Canadian championship of 1971 would be the last Eastern Canadian championship to be played before the Memorial Cup tournament began in 1972. With St. Catharines forefeiting the series due to the threats of violence, the Eastern Canadian championship did not end to the fans satisfaction. After the series, Lafleur went first overall to the Montreal Canadiens in the 1971 NHL Entry Draft and was part of a Stanley Cup contender. Dionne played his first four seasons with the Red Wings, where he was one of the few stars on an otherwize stagnant team that failed to make the playoffs. Despite having legendary teammates such as Alex Delvecchio and Mickey Redmond, Dionne's frustrations with losing were evident. His agent, Alan Eagleson pushed for more money and found it in an unlikely place. The owner of the Los Angeles Kings, Jack Kent Cooke offered Dionne $300,000 per year. A deal was struck with the Red Wings for compensation, and Dionne signed with the Kings and became its franchise player. At the time, it was the richest deal in hockey history. [2] During his time with the Los Angeles Kings, he played 11 and a half seasons and formed the famed "Triple Crown Line", centering Charlie Simmer and Dave Taylor. Despite his high scoring production during the regular season he was frustrated with the Kings' lack of playoff success; they made the postseason from 1976-82 but only advanced to the second round three times for a total of 43 playoff games. During the 1986-87 season, Dionne would mentor the rookies of the Kings the way people like Mickey Redmond mentored him as a rookie in Detroit. He took eventual Calder Trophy winner Luc Robitaille, Jimmy Carson and Steve Duchesne under his wing. Despite the strong rapport with the rookies, there was also a falling out with coach Pat Quinn. With the Kings on track to miss the playoffs, he demanded a trade. Dionne had hoped that his threat would get General Manager Rogie Vachon to make some major moves to rejuvenate the stagnating team, and he was surprised and disappointed when Vachon actually traded him to the New York Rangers. He played his remaining two and a half seasons there, where the Rangers lost in the first round of the playoffs and missed the next two, retiring in 1989.[3] One consolation was that he would finally have Guy Lafleur as his teammate to mark the beginning of the 1988-89 NHL season. In January 2004, Dionne was featured on a Canadian postage stamp. As part of the NHL All-Stars Collection, Dionne was immortalized along with five other All-Stars. [4] During his first season for Detroit in the 1971-72 NHL season, he set an NHL record for scoring by rookies with 77 points to win the Calder Trophy. This record has since been surpassed by several players, including Peter Stastny for the 1980-81 Quebec Nordiques (109 points), Teemu Selanne for the 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets (132 points), and Sidney Crosby for the 2005-2006 Pittsburgh Penguins (102 points). His best season was 1979-80 when he had 137 points. That season, he was tied for the league lead in points with Wayne Gretzky. Though Gretzky played in one less game than Dionne, Dionne was awarded the Art Ross Trophy for scoring two more goals than Gretzky. (Interestingly, from 1969 to 2001, Dionne and Bryan Trottier were the only single-time winners of the scoring title, while Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Guy LaFleur, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Jaromir Jagr had won it on multiple occasions.) Dionne also won the Lester B. Pearson Award in 1979 and 1980, and the Lady Byng Trophy in 1975 and 1977. Dionne was the third of six men to reach the 700-goal plateau, and currently ranks fourth among all-time goal scorers, with 731. He is ranked fifth in points, with 1771. He is 9th in career assists with 1,040. He was second in assists, goals, and points when he retired in 1989, behind Gordie Howe in all categories, by 70 goals, 9 assists, and 79 points. He was also the last active player in the NHL that participated in the 1972 Summit Series. Despite not playing in the 1972 Summit Series, he did play for Team Canada in the 1976 Canada Cup and the 1981 Canada Cup. For the 1976 Canada Cup, his linesmates were Bobby Hull and Phil Esposito. He was also on a line with Lanny McDonald and Darryl Sittler and they were on the ice when the tournament winning goal was scored. While on the 1981 team, he was on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur. [5] Marcel Dionne was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992. In 1998, he was ranked number 38 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, the highest-ranking player not to have played on a Stanley Cup winner. Dionne had never even came close, having never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs. When the Los Angeles Kings finally reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1993, having also advanced to their first conference finals and won as well, Dionne gave Dave Taylor a congratulatory call. The former Centre Civique arena in Drummondville was renamed Centre Marcel Dionne in his honour after his retirement. Dionne's younger brother Gilbert also played in the NHL and won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1992-93. Gilbert is Marcel's junior by nineteen years. Dionne currently resides in the suburban Buffalo, New York area, despite never playing, or living there as a player. He is an occasional member of the Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team. [edit] Statistics
[edit] International play
[edit] Achievements[edit] OHA
[edit] NHL
[edit] Trade History
[edit] ReferencesMarcel Dionne's Official Homepage
[edit] See also
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[edit] Related Articles[edit] Recent Marcel Dionne ArmchairGM Stories
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