Bob Paradise

Robert Paradise, the son-in-law of notable American hockey player Bob Dill, was a rough and tumble defenseman for nearly 400 NHL games.

Paradise was a natural athlete. In fact he once turned down a professional contract in the Boston Red Sox organization to complete his schooling. Besides, hockey would be his calling.

He starred in Minnesota, and caught the eye of a NHL scout named Fern Flaman. Flaman was a hard hitting star with the Boston Bruins in the day, and he probably saw a little of himself in Paradise.

After graduating from St. Mary's in 1966, Paradise joined the 1968 United States Olympic Team and later the 1969 National Team before turning pro with the Montreal Canadiens organization.

After two years in the minors and a brief stint with the North Stars, he was drafted by the Atlanta Flames in 1972 and then went on to a six-plus years career with the Flames, Pittsburgh and Washington.

Jock Callander

The status of hockey legend is not exclusively awarded to the NHL's greatest superstar. Jock Callander is very much a legend of hockey in his own right, despite playing only 109 NHL games. But his 18 year minor league career have made him a legend particularly in Muskegon and Cleveland.

Jock Callander was born on April 23, 1961 in Regina, Saskatchewan, a city he later would take by storm as a junior standout. In 1980/81 season Jock scored 67 goals along with 86 assists for a 153 points in 72 games. Jock's scoring exploits did not go unnoticed as he signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Blues on September 28, 1981. However after training camp it was determined that Jock needed more time to develop and was returned to junior for the 1981/82 season where he took his offensive dominance to a new level. He had 79 goals, 111 assists for 190 points leading the WHL in scoring.

Jock made the big jump to professional hockey in 1982-83 when he joined the Salt Lake City Golden Eagles, the St. Louis Blues farm club, of the Central Hockey League. In his rookie season of 68 games he scored 20 goals, 27 assists for 47 points.
The following season the St. Louis Blues moved their farm team to Montana. Jock became a member of the Montana Magic. In Jock's second pro season he continued his hard work. In 72 games he scored 27 goals, 32 assists for 59 points.

The CHL folded after the 1983-84 season so Jock moved on to the I.H.L where he would play parts of 15 seasons and would become one of the best players in the history of the International Hockey League Jock joined the Muskegon Lumberjacks for the 1984-85 season and he put up some great numbers.

In 82 games in 84-85 he scored 39 goals along with 68 assists for 107 points, second in team points. The next season (1985-86) Jock continued his great play and racked up another 39 goals and 72 assists for 111 points, leading the team in scoring. The Lumberjacks made the playoffs and Jock continued his torrid pace. In 14 playoff games he scored 12 goals, 11 assists for 23 points as the Lumberjacks was the Turner Cup Championship that they won that year. Jock was named as the playoffs most valuable performer.

In 1986/87, Jock took his game to yet another level. He led the entire IHL in scoring (tied with Jeff Pyle actually), registering 54 goals, 82 assists for 136 points. Jock and Pyle also were named co-winners of the James Gatschene Memorial Trophy as the I.H.L.'s MVP.

Jock's hard work finally paid off in terms of NHL opportunities. He signed as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Penguins July 31, 1987. During the 1987-88 season, Jock got his first chance to play in the N.H.L. The Penguins called Jock up and he split the season in Pittsburgh and Muskegon. In 41 N.H.L. games with the Penguins, he scored 11 goals with 16 assists for 27 points. Jock would split each of the next two seasons in similar fashion, playing 30 games in each season in the NHL. However Jock never was quite able to produce at the NHL level like he did in the IHL.

In late 1989, Jock was back with the Lumberjacks and aided them as they went on to win their second Turner Cup Championship. For the next two seasons, 1990-91 and 1991-92, Jock spent the regular season in Muskegon and never was recalled by the Pens. It looked as though Jock's days in Pittsburgh were over but Jock just continued to focus on being the best player he could be at the IHL level and he would be prepared for the next callup. You never no if or when that callup will come.

In 1991-92, Jock scored 42 goals, 70 assists for 112 points. Jock again was awarded a First Team All-star selection. The Lumberjacks made the playoffs and advanced to the final round of the Turner Cup Championship against the favorite Kansas City Blades. During this time the Pittsburgh Penguins were in the Stanley Cup playoffs defending their 1991 Stanley Cup title. The Pens suffered a number
of injuries and called up replacement players from Muskegon. Jock returned to the NHL along with Mike Michayluk and Mike Needham. The trio first appeared in the Patrick Division finals against the New York Rangers. Jock, Dave Michayluk, and Mike Needham formed a solid and surprisingly effective 4th line for the Pens. The trio earned the nickname "The Muskegon Line". The Pens advanced past the Rangers and swept the Chicago Blackhawks in the Finals. Jock's long tenure of riding minor league busses finally was rewarded when he fulfilled his dream of hoisting the Stanley Cup.

The N.H.L. expanded in 1992 and Jock was signed as a free agent of the expansion team Tampa Bay Lightning on July 29, 1992. Jock had hoped that his playoff performance from the prior season and his long minor league scoring exploits would mean a good chance to play in the new NHL city. However he only appeared in 8 games with the Lightning and spent most of the season with Tampa Bay's farm team - the Atlanta Knights.

After one season in Tampa-Atlanta, Jock found himself back in a Lumberjacks uniform in 1993-94. However the Lumberjacks moved from Muskegon to Cleveland. Jock went on to spend the next 6 seasons with the Lumberjacks.

Nelson Debenedet

This is Nelson Debenedet. He only played in 46 career NHL games (31 with Pittsburgh and 15 with Detroit, scoring 10 goals and 14 points) but by doing so he became the unlikely answer to a pretty neat trivia question.

Who was the first Italian born player in National Hockey League history.

While Nelson Flavio Debenedet may have been born in the small agricultural town of Cordeno, Italy, he moved to western Canada as a youth. Soon enough he fell in love with the Canadian game.

Hockey took Debenedet far, but he also wanted to pursue the world of academics. So in 1966 the 6'1" 195lb left winger enrolled at Michigan State where he played hockey with the Spartans and hit the classroom studying urban forestry (how the heck does that work!). He later switched to the University of Toronto.

Detroit signed Debenedet in 1971. He apprenticed in the minor leagues for three seasons, finally getting into 15 games with Detroit in that third campaign. But then he was traded to Pittsburgh by Detroit for Hank Nowak and Pittsburgh's 3rd round choice (Dan Mandryk) in 1974 Amateur Draft

The move worked out well enough for Debenedet as he spent half a season Pittsburgh in the 1974-75 season. But he had had enough once he was returned to the minor leagues. He toiled with Hershey in the 1975-76 season, hanging up the blades once his contract expired at season's end.

Mike Bullard

Mike broke into the NHL after a very impressive three-year junior career with Brantford of the OHA. He collected an impressive 356 points in 174 games which led to his first round selection in the 1980 Entry Draft (9th overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Bullard made his NHL debut with Pittsburgh at the end of the 1980-81 season and he played parts of seven seasons with the Penguins. Over that period, Mike recorded four 30-goal campaigns, including a career-high 51 goal season in 1983-84. He also played in the NHL All-Star Game in 1984 and he represented Canada at the 1986 World Championships.

Bullard was traded to Calgary midway through the 1986-87 season in exchange for Dan Quinn. He played parts of two seasons with the Flames, including the 1987-88 season when he recorded career-highs in assists (55) and points (103) during the 1987-88 season.

Disappointingly for Mike, Calgary traded the slick scoring center to St. Louis prior to the beginning of the 1988-89 season. Bullard, Craig Coxe and Tim Corkey were traded in exchange for Doug Gilmour, Mark Hunter, Michael Dark and Steve Bozek. It was unfortunate for Mike because the Flames went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1989. Bullard would be traded to Philadelphia after just 20 games in St. Louis.

Bullard playing one more full season in Philly in 1989-90 before going over to Europe to play the 1990-91 season in Switzerland.

His NHL absence was short lived though, as "Bully" returned to the NHL for the 1991-92 campaign with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He scored 14 goals and 28 points in what proved to be his final NHL season. In total Mike played 11 seasons in the NHL. He play in 727 regular season games, totalling 329 goals, 345 assists and 674 points. He added another 44 points in 40 playoff contests.

After his 11 seasons of pro hockey in North America, Bullard continued his hockey career in Europe. He played one season in Switzerland moving to Germany for a number of seasons.

Randy Cunneyworth

Randy Cunneyworth's career began and ended with the Buffalo Sabres and Rochester Americans. But for the longest time it appeared that Randy Cunneyworth would never have an NHL career. But once leaving the Buffalo organization the hustling winger was able to enjoy an 866 NHL game career.

Randy was a late draft pick in 1980 out of the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario major junior league. But it was the following season that he erupted with the 67's, scoring 54 goals and 128 points while picking up 240 hard earned penalty minutes in 67 games. He ended the season with a 1 game appearance with both the Sabres and AHL Amerks.

It was hardly a surprise when Cunneyworth began his career in the minor leagues in 1981-82. He scored 12 goals and 27 points in 57 games, but it was trademark hustle and enthusiasm that earned him a 20 game tryout with the Sabres. He scored twice and picked up 6 points.

That would be it for Randy in Buffalo though. Until 1985 the Sabres depth on left wing buried the scrappy winger in the AHL. It wasn't until training camp trade in 1985 to Pittsburgh that he was able to get another shot in the NHL.

Cunneyworth transformed his shot into a great NHL career. He combined his strong physical game and good wheels to become a very solid contributor with a Pittsburgh team that featured a maturing Mario Lemieux. Randy would sometimes play on Mario's left side, and made full advantage of that. After a 15 goal and 45 point rookie season in 1985-86, Randy would record at least 25 goals three years in a row. His best season came in 1987-88 when he rode on Mario's coattails en route to a 35 goal, 74 point season.

In 1989, Randy was traded to Winnipeg, where he played in just 28 games before being shipped to Hartford. Randy would enjoy three seasons in Hartford, although was never much of a scoring threat without Mario Lemieux. It didn't really matter as Randy carved out a nice niche as a energetic role player who prided himself in his defensive and physical play.

Cunneyworth had a short appearance in Chicago to end the 1993-94 season before returning to the city where he enjoyed his fine junior career. Randy would be an instrumental figure with the Ottawa Senators from 1994 through 1998, serving as team captain and an inspiring leader who helped get that franchise out of the expansion doldrums.

Randy's career appeared to be all but over in 1998 when he opted to return to the Sabres organization. Aside from a 14 game stint with the Sabres, he spent the whole year back down on the farm in Rochester. He was an essential member of the Amerks team that made it all the way to the Calder Cup finals.

Following the completion of the AHL season, Randy was recalled to Buffalo where the Sabres were going deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Randy was injected into 3 Stanley Cup finals games against the Dallas Stars. Briefly Randy was the talk of the hockey world. He had made a career out of simply outworking everyone on the ice, and that hard work now paid off with his only shot at a Stanley Cup. His spirited play sparked the Sabres to a 7th game before bowing out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Randy returned to Rochester in 1999-2000, this time serving both as a player and an assistant coach. However his season was cut short due to a knee injury. At that point Randy opted to focus all of his attentions towards coaching. He would become a high quality minor league coach and, just before Christmas 2011, he was hired as the interim head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

Cunneyworth retired with 189 goals and 414 points in his 866 NHL games. He also picked up 1280 minutes in penalties.

Dr. Francis "Duke" McCurry

The city of Pittsburgh has had it’s fair share of hockey legends – Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby. Dr. Francis “Duke” McCurry does not quite fit that list, but there was a time when the good doctor was very much a hockey legend in Pittsburgh.

Toronto-born McCurry was a multi-sport star, excelling at canoeing, baseball and football. He was even the Canadian amateur welterweight boxing champion in 1916 and he was an all star at lacrosse.

But it was hockey that he pursued the furthest, although that may have been partly out of convenience. McCurry was as bright in the classroom as he was spectacular on the sporting field. He moved to Pittsburgh to study dentistry, passing his spare time by playing with the local minor league team, the Yellowjackets.

Somewhat inadvertently McCurry’s hockey career became more serious in 1925. The Yellowjackets were essentially disbanded in order to make room for a new team in town. The Pittsburgh Pirates would play in a league still in it’s infancy. That league was called the National Hockey League.

That’s right. The NHL first came to Pittsburgh in 1925. It was a short lived venture, only 4 seasons. McCurry, a Memorial Cup champion, was already established as quite the local hockey attraction, so he joined the Pirates for four seasons.

The Pirates traded McCurry to the Montreal Maroons in 1929. But McCurry had no intention of leaving Pittsburgh. He refused to report and sat out the whole hockey season. As a dentist I’m sure he found other ways to occupy his time.

McCurry did return to hockey for the 1930-31 season, as the Yellowjackets were reincarnated in the IHL.

Later in the 1930s McCurry returned to Toronto to establish his dental practice. He died in Toronto on November 8th, 1965. He was 65 years old.

Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux is without doubt one of the greatest players ever to play the game of hockey. He ranks on most people's "Top 5" list, and many people's top 3 list. Based on pure talent, it is hard to argue that he is not number 1.

Notwithstanding his many awards and championships, and his impressive statistics, perhaps the most amazing thing about Mario is he did this while battling a chronic back and hip injuries and Hodgkin's Disease.

He was the complete package. He was a pure scorer and the ultimate playmaker fused into the body of giant. Often compared to Jean Beliveau, Lemieux was big and strong but rarely had to rely on brute strength to fend off defenders. Instead he left them baffled with an incredible series of fakes and dekes. With a few long strides he was seemingly untouchable in effortless end to end rushes. Rarely has a sport's dominant player made the game look so easy and natural.

Mario played in only 889 games as he missed many games due to his health problems. In fact, he retired three times due to injury. Despite this he has one of the most impressive résumés in history of sport:

* 6 Art Ross Trophies
* 3 Hart Trophies
* Two Conn Smythe Trophies
* Two Stanley Cups
* 8 All-Star games (3 MVP's)

Mario Lemieux was drafted in 1984 by the Pittsburgh Penguins, 1st overall. Mario Had just come of an amazing Junior year, scoring 133 goals and 149 assists, giving him the highest point total in Quebec Junior hockey ever, bettering his boyhood idol Guy Lafleur's legendary goal record.

The Pittsburgh Penguins were the worst team in the league. An awful product on the ice led to empty seats in the Igloo, and serious concerns if the franchise could survive much longer in the city of Pittsburgh. Mario was seen as their savior. Little did we know then that Mario would save the franchise twice.

In his first game, on his first shift, Mario put the puck behind the goalie. He would go on to win the Calder trophy that season after becoming just the third rookie to post 100 points in a season.

The following two years Mario ranked among the NHL scoring leaders but it wasn't until the 1987 Canada Cup that Mario took his game to the superstar level. Playing with and learning from Wayne Gretzky, Mario had an incredible tournament, scoring a tournament record 11 goals in 9 games. His 18 points were only bettered by Gretzky's 21. Four of his goals were game winners, including the dramatic series clincher. In a scene that unthinkably rivaled the heroics of Paul Henderson in 1972, Mario took a drop pass from Gretzky and fired a shot past Soviet goalie Sergei Mylnikov at 18:34 of the third period in the final game of the tournament.

"Speaking specifically of the Canada Cup in 1987," Lemieux pondered with HHOF.com, "I learned so much about how the great players work and conduct themselves. Remember, I was only 21 years old at the time. To be around guys like Wayne and Mark Messier and Paul Coffey, guys who'd already had so much success and had won Stanley Cups, was a tremendous learning experience."



Mario never looked back after that tournament. Not only had he arrived in a hockey stratosphere occupied only by names like Gretzky, Orr, Howe and a very few others, but he made a serious challenge to push the stratosphere even higher.

Following the tournament he had the first unbelievable season of what would become unbelievable season after unbelievable season. He wrestled away the NHL scoring championship from Gretzky, with 70 goals and 98 points for 168 points. He also won the Hart Trophy as league MVP, a trophy that was annually given to Gretzky by default.

"The Canada Cup was very intense, but it was a great springboard for the NHL season," he admitted. "I was fortunate enough to win my first scoring title that season [with 168 points]. The learning experience and the momentum of the Canada Cup were definitely factors in that," Lemieux said.

1988-89 was Lemieux's finest offensive season. He scored 85 goals and 114 assists for 199 points! He fell just one point shy of joining Gretzky as the only player to score 200 points in a single season. Perhaps his greatest individual performance was on New Year's Eve, 1988. In that game against the New Jersey Devils, Lemieux scored five goals five different ways. He score an even-strength goal, a power play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot goal, and an empty net goal. No one had ever done this before, and no one has done it since.

The first of several seasons shortened by his degenerative back problems was 1989-90. Despite this set back, he returned late in the 1990-91 season to lead the Penguins to its first Stanley Cup championship. You can bet Mario's back felt a whole lot better as he drank champagne from that Cup. In fact it helped so much the doctor's prescribed the same medicine the next year. So Mario made it two in a row in 1992.

1992-93 proved to be a damning year. He was the League's most dominant player, the crown jewel. But hockey took a back seat in Lemieux's life as Lemieux made it publicly known that he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer. Lemieux had to take time off as he underwent radiation treatment from February through early March. Then, in one of the greatest feats in all of sports, Lemieux immediately returned the NHL and went on late season scoring rampage to capture the Art Ross Trophy. He was also named as the MVP.

Due to the many injuries and the Cancer, Mario took the 1994-95 lock-out shortened season off. He returned in 95-96, winning yet again the Art Ross and Hart Trophies. He repeated the Art Ross win in 96-97 as well.

There is little doubt that Mario is the greatest one on one player is there? He was unstoppable. "Oh Oh! It's Mario!" was a common call when he was in the open on a breakaway. He scored more often than not on those breakaways. The only way many opponents could stop "Super Mario" was to literally tackle him, and even that didn't stop him from scoring. Lemieux could almost score goals at will.

Fed up with the constant physical abuse and the chronic back injuries, Lemieux opted to retire following the 1997 playoffs. But a couple of years after his retirement the Penguins were in financial ruins. Bad management had the team on the verge of bankruptcy and once again the future of NHL hockey was in serious trouble. So who came to the rescue? Mario! Mario, who stood to lose millions if the team had gone bankrupt, gathered together an ownership group and purchased the Pens, keeping them in Pittsburgh. It also marked the first time in modern history that a player became the owner of a team.

Already elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, Lemieux made even bigger waves when he announced he would come out of retirement for the 2000-01 season. On December 27, 2000, Lemieux returned to the ice as if he never missed a step. He scored one goal and added two assists in that first game back, against the Toronto Maple leafs. Lemieux continued his scoring exploits, finishing the season with 43 games played, 35 goals and 76 points. He led the Pens far in to the playoffs, playing 18 games before bowing out.

"I learned how much I loved this game," he said. "Sometimes you don't appreciate something fully until you're away from it."

The fragility that ruined Mario's career returned in 2002. Able to play in only 24 games, Lemieux scored just 6 goals but managed 31 point. In spite of his injury woes, Lemieux was named captain of Canada's Winter Olympic entry for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. His poise and production led Canada to Olympic Gold. Unfortunately the rigors of the Olympic schedule ended Lemieux's 2001-02 NHL season.

He returned in 2002-03 and held a clear lead in points by the mid-way mark of the season. Once again injuries curtailed his games played and mobility. To make matters worse, Lemieux was forced to trade away his high-priced teammates, and any chance of winning the Art Ross Trophy, to preserve the financial stability of Pittsburgh Penguin hockey.

With injuries plaguing his once-brilliant career, and with the burden of the Penguins' financial woes preying on his mind, and newly discovered heart ailment known as atrial fibrillation, Lemieux was mid-way through the 2005-06 season when he decided to retire on January 24, 2006. Mario had played 26 games, scoring 7 times and assisting on 15 more at the time of his retirement.

There always has been and likely always will be constant debate as to who is better: Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux. Here's my view on it. Who cares? We should just consider ourselves extremely lucky to watch perhaps the greatest and second greatest players of all time, no matter who you rank ahead of the other.

If you were to break down each of their games, you would have to give Mario a huge edge in terms of god given physical talents. Mario was bigger and stronger, with a heavier shot. He was perhaps the best one-on-one player ever. He could do things that Gretzky could never dream of. The only other player who could be mentioned in the same talent level as Mario would be Bobby Orr.