Messier retires after 25 seasons, 6 Stanley Cups
Mark Messier was 30 and already a five-time Stanley Cup champion when it was time to leave the hometown Edmonton Oilers.
That was the summer of 1991, three years after Wayne Gretzky’s stunning trade to Los Angeles and a year removed from the Oilers’ fifth title in seven years. The dynasty was over and Messier was the latest big star about to be shipped out.
Glen Sather, the man who built the team and ran it from the bench during the glory years, asked Messier where he wanted to go. The answer was the New York Rangers, a team that hadn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1940.
Monday, the stone-jawed captain said goodbye, announcing his retirement after a 25-year career and six championships – including the one in 1994 that ended the Rangers’ drought. He is second only to Gretzky on the NHL’s career scoring list.
It took only three seasons for Messier to deliver with the Rangers and cement himself as one of the greatest leaders in team sports.
“I knew all the past history of the teams in New York … but I don’t think anything can really prepare you for going to play in New York until you get there,” Messier said during a conference call. “I felt that I was fairly confident in what it took to win a Stanley Cup.”
Messier embraced the challenge, and when it appeared another chance was going to slip away he pulled a page out of the Joe Namath handbook and guaranteed a victory.
With the Rangers trailing New Jersey 3-2 in the 1994 Eastern Conference finals, Messier promised New York would force a seventh game. He made good on his word by posting his fourth and final playoff hat trick in a 4-2 victory.
New York won Game 7 in double overtime to advance to the finals, which ended with a seventh-game victory over Vancouver.
“He had the biggest influence on my career by far of any player that I played with,” said Boston defenseman Brian Leetch, a Rangers’ player from 1988-04. “I wish everyone could have had an opportunity to be in the locker room with him and see his dedication to his teammates and to winning.”
Messier became a star in Edmonton in the 1980s and a headliner on Broadway in the ‘90s. But the end of his career couldn’t come close to matching the early part. His final seven seasons all finished without a postseason appearance – three in Vancouver after his first departure from New York and four more in his second stint with the Rangers.
“That is something that is always going to be a disappointment for me, but I think there are so many good things that happened in the playoffs previous to that that it will diminish those feelings,” Messier said.
Sather, now the Rangers’ GM, left room for Messier to come back but talks never got that far.
On Jan. 12, exactly 37 years after Namath fulfilled his promise and lifted the Jets in the Super Bowl over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, the Rangers will retire Messier’s No. 11 before a game against the Oilers. It will join Rod Gilbert’s No. 7, Ed Giacomin’s No. 1 and teammate Mike Richter’s No. 35.
XM Satellite Radio joins NHL
The NHL announced a 10-year, $100 million deal with XM Satellite Radio that begins this season and will make XM the league’s exclusive satellite radio broadcast partner beginning with the 2007-08 season.
XM will broadcast more than 1,000 games a season – beginning with the Oct. 5 opening this year – as well as the All-Star game, the Stanley Cup playoffs and the finals.
Around the league
Los Angeles Kings right wing Trent Klatt announced his retirement after 14 seasons in the NHL. Klatt, 34, played in 782 career games for the Kings, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers and Dallas Stars-Minnesota North Stars. … Philadelphia Flyers center Peter Forsberg had an infected bursa sac removed from his right ankle and will miss at least two weeks. … Boston Bruins goalie Andrew Raycroft and defenseman Nick Boynton held out in contract disputes at the opening of training camp.