Calgary Flames 25 Days Until the Season Starts: #25 Joe Nieuwendyk
By Ramina Shlah
With only 25 days left until the regular season starts, let’s take a look at a former Calgary Flames player with that number.
Since the start of August, we’re counting down the number of days left until the regular season starts up again! Everyday until the start of the season, we’ll be talking about a Calgary Flames player whose number correlates with how many days there are left.
Last time, we talked about a player who’s been a rising star for the Flames this past season and is shaping up to be one of the best defensemen in the league. That was #27 Dougie Hamilton.
Today, with 25 days left, I almost talked about Dougie’s brother, Freddie Hamilton. But there’s another #25 in the Flames franchise history that may deserve to be here over Freddie. With 25 days left, let’s look at #25 Joe Nieuwendyk.
Related Story: 27 Days Until the Season Starts: #27 Dougie Hamilton
Who is Joe Nieuwendyk?
Name: Joe Nieuwendyk
Birth place: Oshawa, ON, Canada
Position: C
Shoots: Left
Birthdate: 1966-09-10 (Happy early birthday!)
Height: 6’2″ / 188 cm
Weight: 88 kg / 195 lbs
Drafted by: Calgary Flames, 27th Overall 1985
Stats with all NHL teams, regular season:
Joe Nieuwendyk was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 1985, but not without controversy. On a draft-day trade, the Flames traded one of the best forwards in the game, Kent Nilsson, to the Minnesota North Stars for a draft pick in the second round that resulted in Joe Nieuwendyk. Nilsson was with the Flames since before they even re-located from Atlanta and had two 100-point seasons with the club, but one was close with 99 points. In 1981-82, he played just 41 games but had 55 points, suggesting he would have hit that 100-point mark again if he played a full season.
The next day, headlines surrounding Calgary newspapers were “Joe Who?”
The Flames traded one of the best forwards in the game at the time for a draft pick who people didn’t really know that much about. They must be crazy. It’s funny, Google will tell you about these headlines, but I didn’t need Google for this. My dad was the one who initially told me this since he’s a hockey fan who was (and still is) living in Calgary when the trade happened.
Calgary Flames
Moving on, Nieuwendyk was playing with Cornell University when he was first drafted, and spent his first two years after being drafted still playing in the NCAA. In 1986-87 when his season ended, he joined the Calgary Flames in March and scored his first goal in that game too. In the nine regular season games he played that year, he had five goals and one assist. The Flames knew they needed him full-time.
So the following season for 1987-88, in his rookie year, he played close to a full season, playing 75 games. And how did he do? Well, in his rookie year, he scored 51 goals and 41 points in those 75 games. Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty good. Maybe that trade ended up working out in the end…
That season, he became close to breaking Mike Bossy‘s record of scoring 53 goals in his rookie year. He also became the second player ever (after Mike Bossy) to reach at least 50 goals in his first year.
In his rookie year, he won the Calder as the rookie of the year and was third in voting for the Lady Byng. That season, he finished fifth in goals among all skaters and led the team in that category.
The following season, it started off just as great. On October 10th 1988, Nieuwendyk got a goal, his second goal of the season, and became the fastest ever Flame in franchise history to reach 100 points – doing so in 87 games. He still stands as the franchise leader in that category. That season, he again reached the 51 goal mark, but had just 82 points. I like how saying “just 82 points” is somehow bad compared to his previous season.
When he reached the 100 goal mark, it was in his 144th NHL game. He became the third fastest player ever in NHL history to reach 100 goals, doing so in 144 games. The two ahead of him? Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy. Yeah, I’d say that’s some pretty elite company.
That season was quite exciting too, seeing how that’s the year the Flames won the cup. Nieuwendyk had 10 goals and 14 points in the playoffs. He also set up Lanny McDonald‘s goal in game 6 – the game the Calgary Flames won the cup. And that ended up being Lanny’s last ever goal in his NHL career since he retired right after.
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The following season, Nieuwendyk reached 95 points in 79 games, a new personal best. But unfortunately, that’s as high as it ever got because he never reached that mark again. He did suffer a knee injury in 1991 that could have potentially explained it.
But speaking of 1991, he became the 12th captain in Flames history.
In 1955, Nieuwendyk and the Flames couldn’t come to a contract agreement, and he was dealt to the Dallas Stars for Corey Millen and the Stars first round pick that year – Jarome Iginla. Iginla never played a game with the Stars since he was dealt to the Flames in December of that year.
My dad told me that people would basically say, “Jarome Who?” Exactly what happened with Nieuwendyk.
Nieuwendyk never quite had a 95-point season again, however he did rack up a good amount of goals. But he was sidelined quite a bit in multiple seasons due to different types of injuries. In 1998-99, the Dallas Stars made it to the playoffs and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. And something else exciting happened – the Stars won a Cup for the first time in franchise history and Nieuwendyk won his second Cup of his career. With 11 goals and 21 points in the playoffs, Nieuwendyk won the Conn Smythe as the MVP during the playoffs.
During the 2001-02 season, Nieuwendyk was traded to the New Jersey Devils. In 2003, the Devils won the Cup and defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the finals – but they’d have to do it without Nieuwendyk since he again suffered an injury during the playoffs. But this would now be the third Cup to add to his resume. And right now, he’s one of 11 players to win a Stanley Cup with three different teams.
Nieuwendyk played for a couple more teams after the fact, but in 2006, after suffering back-pain that put him on injured reserve, he decided to finally hang up his skates.
Joe’s played internationally a few times as well. One World Junior, one World Championship, and two Olympics. He won a silver at the World Juniors representing Canada and in one of the Olympics, it was the 2002 team – when Canada reached their first gold medal in 50 years.
Nieuwendyk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and while his #25 hasn’t been retired by the Flames yet, it’s been honored. And most recently just this past January, he was named part of NHL’s 100 Greatest Players list – a list of the 100 greatest NHL players in history. He’s currently tied in 22nd place for most NHL goals in NHL history. But he’s tied with Mats Sundin – a player who has played close to 100 games more than him.
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Nieuwendyk may not have had a lot of Calgarian fans when he was first drafted but one thing’s certain: nobody ever asked “Joe Who?” again.