Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League between 1967 and 1993. In the fall of 1993, the franchise moved to Dallas, Texas, where it is now known as the Dallas Stars. The team's colors (for most of their history) were kelly green, gold and white.

In the 1967-1968 season the NHL expanded from its long-time base of six teams (that is commonly referred to as the Original 6 era) to twelve teams.  Minnesota was a well-known hockey hotbed and was a natural site for a franchise.  The Minnesota North Stars played their home games in the new Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.  The first NHL game in Minnesota was played on Saturday Oct. 21st 1967 against the California Seals.  Behind a skilled management team, the North Stars had respectable success in the early years, prospering behind goaltending duo Lorne "Gump" Worsley and Cesare Maniago. Defenseman Ted Harris was the North Stars captain.  The first Stars team also included high-scoring winger Bill Goldsworthy and other quality players such as Barry Gibbs, Jude Drouin, J.P. Parise, Danny Grant and Dennis Hextall.

Early in their first season the North Stars suffered a terrible tragedy. On January 13, 1968, forward Bill Masterton suffered a fatal hit during a game against the Oakland Seals.  After getting hit by Seals forward Ron Harris, Masterton (who was not wearing a helmet) fell backwards, hitting the back of his head on the ice.  He never regained consciousness and died on January 15, 1968, at the age of 29, two days after the accident.  To date, this remains the first and only death in NHL history resulting from an on-ice injury.  The North Stars retired his jersey, and later that year hockey writers established the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy which would be given annually to a player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

By the mid-1970s, with Worsley and Harris retired, the North Stars had fallen on hard times, perennially attaining poor records and usually finishing out of the playoffs.  However, in 1978, the struggling team was bought by Gordon and George Gund, the owners of the Cleveland Barons franchise, who were permitted to merge the two teams in an unprecedented arrangement.  A few skilled players – notably goaltender Gilles Meloche and forwards Al MacAdam and Mike Fidler – bolstered the Minnesota lineup. Furthermore, Minnesota had drafted Bobby Smith, who would go on to win the Calder Trophy that year.  With the additions of fine new players such as Minnesota native and ex-1980 Olympian Neal Broten and sniper Dino Ciccarelli, the North Stars had five straight winning seasons starting in 1979-80 and reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1980-81.

Before the move to Dallas and thereafter, success again eluded the North Stars.  After 1984 the franchise would only have one more winning season in Minnesota before the move to Dallas.  While the late 1980s saw the franchise draft what would turn out to be their greatest player – forward Mike Modano – chronic attendance problems spurred the owners to threaten to move the club to the San Francisco Bay Area, against the league's wishes.

A compromise was implemented for the 1990-91 season whereby the Gund brothers were awarded an expansion team in the Bay Area, the San Jose Sharks, that would receive players via a dispersal draft with the North Stars.  A group previously petitioning for an NHL team in the Bay Area led by Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg bought the North Stars as part of the deal.  Baldwin and Belzberg purchased the team from the Gund brothers for approximately $38.1 million (including $1 million in liabilities as well as giving the Gunds their share of the fees from the next three expansion teams, expected to be $7.14 million).  Norman Green, a last-minute newcomer to Baldwin and Belzberg's group, purchased 51% controlling interest in the North Stars from them, with Baldwin and Belzberg sharing the remaining 49% stake in the team.  Green agreed to purchase Baldwin's 24.5% share, giving him more than 75% control of the team, shortly after a dispute with Baldwin arose.  Belzberg maintained his share of the rest of the team's stock until October 1990, when Green became the sole owner by buying Belzberg's shares.

In that 1991 season, despite a losing record in the regular season, the North Stars made it to the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals.  They knocked off the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues (the top two teams in the NHL during the regular season) in six games each and the defending Stanley Cup Champion Edmonton Oilers in five games.  The team fought hard against the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins, led by Mario Lemieux.  They won two out of the first three contests before being obliterated 8-0 in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series.  It was the most one-sided defeat in a deciding game of the Stanley Cup Finals since the Ottawa Silver Seven defeated the Dawson City Nuggets 23-2 in 1905.

The shocking loss seemed to let the air out of the franchise for good.  Green's mercurial personality and mounting financial and legal problems also began to grate on the area's fan base, and local support for the franchise rapidly dwindled.  Finally, with his northern mall empire threatening to fall into receivership and a sexual harassment lawsuit against him working its way through the Minnesota court system, Green demanded concessions for his team that the area and state were unwilling to give, so he moved the team to Dallas, Texas, in the fall of 1993.

Departure to Dallas

When the Dallas Stars won the 1999 Stanley Cup, their official video "Nothing Else Matters" not only included their past seasons' disappointments, but also paid tribute to the North Stars' 1991 run to the final, of which star Mike Modano, team captain Derian Hatcher, and general manager Bob Gainey had been part.  In the next wave of NHL expansion the Twin Cities were granted a new franchise, the Minnesota Wild, which began play in the 2000-01 season.

G.F. (Goals For)
G.A. (Goals Against)
P.M. (Penalty Minutes)

Note: This list does not include Dallas Stars, California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons captains

Bob Woytowich 1967-68 
Elmer Vasko 1968-69 
Claude Larose 1969-70 
Ted Harris 1970-74 
Bill Goldsworthy 1974-76 
Bill Hogaboam 1976-77 
Nick Beverley 1977-78
Gary Sargent 1978-79 
J.P. Parise 1978-79 
Paul Shmyr 1979-81 
Tim Young 1981-82 
Craig Hartsburg 1982-89 
Brian Bellows 1983-84 (interim) 
Curt Fraser 1988-89
Bob Rouse 1988-89
Curt Giles 1989-91 
Neal Broten 1991 S.C.F.
Mark Tinordi 1991-93

This is a list of players who have played at least one game for the Minnesota North Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). This list does not include players for the Dallas Stars, Oakland Seals, California (Golden) Seals, and Cleveland Barons, which are teams that previously held this franchise.

A
Keith Acton, Chris Ahrens, Kent-Erik Andersson, Mike Antonovich, Dave Archibald, Jim Archibald, Chuck Arnason, Brent Ashton,

B
Warren Babe, John Baby, Helmut Balderis, Dave Balon, Don Barber, Bob Barlow, Doug Barrault, Fred Barrett, John Barrett, Garry Bauman, Norm Beaudin, Don Beaupre, Brian Bellows, Harvey Bennett, Perry Berezan, Mike Berger, Bob Bergloff, Bo Berglund, Gary Bergman, Brad Berry, Daniel Berthiaume, Nick Beverley, Dwight Bialowas, Don Biggs, Scott Bjugstad, James Black, Don Blackburn, Rick Boh, Leo Boivin, Jim Boo, Henry Boucha, Andre Boudrias, Paul Boutilier, Per-Olov Brasar, Ken Broderick, Bob Brooke, Aaron Broten, Neal Broten, Murray Brumwell, Marc Bureau, Charlie Burns, Bill Butters, Jerry Byers,

C
Terry Caffery, Craig Cameron, Jack Carlson, Jon Casey, Jay Caufield, Shawn Chambers, Bob Charlebois, Mike Chernoff, Dan Chicoine, Rick Chinnick, Colin Chisholm, Steve Christoff, Shane Churla, Dino Ciccarelli, Enrico Ciccone, Tom Colley, Bill Collins, Wayne Connelly, Joe Contini, Bob Cook, Tim Coulis, Russ Courtnall, Jim Craig, Mike Craig, Dave Cressman, Ray Cullen,

D
Ulf Dahlen, Chris Dahlquist, Larry DePalma, Gary Dineen, Gord Dineen,  Jim Dobson, Clark Donatelli, Jordy Douglas, Jude Drouin, Gaetan Duchesne, Ken Duggan, Blake Dunlop,

E
Mike Eaves, Gary Edwards, Todd Elik, Jerry Engele, Grant Erickson,  Roland Eriksson, Kevin Evans,

F
Bill Fairbairn, Tony Featherstone, George Ferguson, Mike Fidler, Alex "Sandy" Fitzpatrick, John Flesch, Rob Flockhart, Jon Fontas, Curt Fraser, Ron Friest,

G
Link Gaetz, Dave Gagner, Jamie Gallimore, Gary Gambucci, Mike Gartner, Stewart Gavin, Gary Geldart, Barry Gibbs, Gilles Gilbert, Brent Gilchrist, Curt Giles, Brian Glynn, Pete Goegan, Bill Goldsworthy, Steve Gotaas, Dirk Graham, Danny Grant, Norm Gratton, Jari Gronstrand,

H
Marc Habscheid, Anders Hakansson, Murray Hall, Mats Hallin, Ted Hampson, Dave Hanson, Mark Hardy, George "Duke" Harris, Ted Harris, Paul Harrison, Craig Hartsburg, Fred "Buster" Harvey, Derian Hatcher, Peter Hayek, Brian Hayward, Bill Heindl, Raimo Helminen, Archie Henderson, Bryan Hextall Jr, Dennis Hextall, Ernie Hicke, Doug Hicks, Larry Hillman, Wayne Hillman, Tom Hirsch, Ken Hodge, Jr., Bill Hogaboam, Terry Holbrook, Paul Holmgren, Bronco Horvath, Ed Hospodar, Paul Houck,

J
Don Jackson, Steve Janaszak, Mark Janssens, Pierre Jarry, Wes Jarvis, David H. Jensen, Steve Jensen, Paul Jerrard, Don Johns, Jim Johnson, Mark Johnson, Joey Johnston, Marshall Johnston,

K
Kevin Kaminski, Dan Keczmer, Udo Kiessling, Trent Klatt, Dean Kolstad,

L
Gord Labossiere, Rob Laird, Dave Langevin, Alain Langlais, Peter Lappin, Claude Larose, Reed Larson, Danny Lawson, Brian Lawton, Ken Leiter, Louis Levasseur, Craig Levie, Lars Lindgren, Pete LoPresti, Craig Ludwig, Len Lunde,

M
Al MacAdam, Parker MacDonald, Kim MacDougall, Barry MacKenzie, David Mackey, Brian MacLellan, Pat MacLeod, Dean Magee, Steve Maltais, Dan Mandich, Kris Manery, Cesare Maniago, Moe Mantha, Jr., Milan Marcetta, John Markell, Terry Martin, Tom Martin, Don Martineau, Steve Martinson, Dennis Maruk, Bill Masterton, Markus Mattsson, Richard Matvichuk, Brad Maxwell, Bryan Maxwell, Kevin Maxwell, Tom McCarthy, Ted McCaskill, Bob McCord, Jim McElmury, Mike McHugh, Bruce McIntosh, Walt McKechnie, Tony McKegney, Jim McKenny, Mike McMahon, Mike McPhee, Basil McRae, Ron Meighan, Barrie Meissner, Roland Melanson, Roger Melin, Gilles Meloche, Mitch Messier, Pat Micheletti, Lindsay Middlebrook, Kip Miller, John Miszuk, Roy Mitchell, Mike Modano, Doug Mohns, Jayson More, Wayne Muloin, Larry Murphy, Frank Musil, Jarmo Myllys,

N
Lou Nanne, Rich Nantais, Mark Napier, Bob Nevin, Kent Nilsson, Rod Norrish, Bill Nyrop,

O
Dennis O'Brien, Danny O'Shea, Murray Oliver, Bill Orban, Mark Osiecki,

P
Brad Palmer, Bob Paradise, J.P. Parise, Dusan Pasek, Mark Pavelich, Steve Payne, Allen Pedersen, Alex Pirus, Bill Plager, Willi Plett, Tom Polanic, Mike Polich, Jean Potvin, Dan Poulin, Dean Prentice, Pat Price, Andre Pronovost, Brian Propp, Chris Pryor,

Q
Dan Quinn

R
Rob Ramage, Dick Redmond, Tom Reid, Dave Richter, Fern Rivard, Gordie Roberts, Jim Roberts, Scott Robinson, John Rogers, Doug Rombough, Bob Rouse, Bobby Rousseau, Stephane Roy, Duane Rupp, Terry Ruskowski,

S
Scott Sandelin, Mike Sands, Gary Sargent, Glen Sather, Wally Schreiber, Danny Seguin, George Servinis, Glen Sharpley, David Shaw, Gord Sherven, Paul Shmyr, Reid Simpson, Ilkka Sinisalo, Ville Siren, Tommy Sjodin, Darryl Sly, Doug Smail, Bobby Smith, Brian Smith, Derrick Smith, Gary Smith, Gary Smith, Randy Smith, Harold Snepsts, Ken Solheim, George Standing, Fred Stanfield, Bill Stewart,

T
Peter Taglianetti, Kari Takko, Dean Talafous, Jean-Guy Talbot, Ted Taylor, Bill Terry, Leo Thiffault, Mario Thyer, Mark Tinordi, Kirk Tomlinson, Sean Toomey, Tim Trimper, Al Tuer,

V
Elmer Vasko, Randy Velischek, Emanuel Viveiros,

W
Darcy Wakaluk, Carl Wetzel, Tony White, Bob Whitlock, Neil Wilkinson, Tom Williams, Ron Wilson, Lorne "Gump" Worsley, Bob Woytowich,

Y
Tim Young, Warren Young, Tom Younghans,

Z
Ron Zanussi, Richard Zemlak, Rob Zettler