MINNESOTA NORTH STARS

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 green, gold and white.

Contents

History

Departure to Dallas

Season-by-season record

Notable players

Team captains

Retired Numbers (in Minnesota)

First round draft picks

See also

History

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. 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.
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 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 Senators 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 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.
As of the 2006-07 season, Modano, Hatcher, and Richard Matvichuk are the last former North Stars still active in the NHL. Modano is the only remaining North Star still with the franchise in Dallas, and currently serves as an assistant captain. Jere Lehtinen, though drafted by the North Stars in 1992 and still active with the team, would never play an NHL game until the 1995-96 season, by which time the franchise had relocated to Dallas.
Other former North Stars continue to play overseas or in the minor leagues. Mike Craig and Todd Elik both play in the Austrian Hockey League, Craig for the Vienna Capitals and Elik for Innsbruck EV. Tommy Sjödin is with Brynas IF in the Swedish Elitserien. Finally, Kip Miller plays for the Grand Rapids Griffins, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings.

Season-by-season record

'''Note:' GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes''^[1]

Season	GP	W-L-T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
1967-68	74	27-32-15	69	191	226	738	4th West
1968-69	76	18-43-15	51	189	270	862	6th West
1969-70	76	19-35-22	60	224	257	1008	3rd West
1970-71	78	28-34-16	72	191	223	898	4th West
1971-72	78	37-29-12	86	212	191	853	2nd West
1972-73	78	37-30-11	85	254	230	881	3rd West
1973-74	78	23-38-17	63	235	275	821	7th West
1974-75	80	23-50-7	53	221	341	1106	4th Smythe
1975-76	80	20-53-7	47	195	303	1191	4th Smythe
1976-77	80	23-39-18	64	240	310	774	2nd Smythe
1977-78	80	18-53-9	45	218	325	1096	5th Smythe
1978-79	80	28-40-12	68	257	289	1102	4th Adams
1979-80	80	36-28-16	88	311	253	1064	3rd Adams
1980-81	80	35-28-17	87	291	263	1624	3rd Adams
1981-82	80	37-23-20	94	346	288	1358	1st Norris
1982-83	80	40-24-16	96	321	290	1520	2nd Norris
1983-84	80	39-31-10	88	345	344	1696	1st Norris
1984-85	80	25-43-12	62	268	321	1735	4th Norris
1985-86	80	38-33-9	85	327	305	1672	2nd Norris
1986-87	80	30-40-10	70	296	314	1936	5th Norris
1987-88	80	19-48-13	51	242	349	2313	5th Norris
1988-89	80	27-37-16	70	258	278	1972	3rd Norris
1989-90	80	36-40-4	76	284	291	2041	4th Norris
1990-91	80	27-39-14	68	256	266	1964	4th Norris
1991-92	80	32-42-6	70	246	278	2169	4th Norris
1992-93	84	36-38-10	82	272	293	1885	5th Norris
'TOTALS'	'2062'	'758-970-334'	'1850'	'6690'	'7373'	'36279'

Notable players

=== Hall of Famers ===

★ Leo Boivin, D, 1969-70, inducted 1986

★ Mike Gartner, RW, 1989-90, inducted 2001

★ Larry Murphy, D, 1989-90, inducted 2004

★ Gump Worsley, G, 1969-74, inducted 1980

Team captains

''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


★ J.P. Parise 1978-79

★ Paul Shmyr 1979-81

★ Tim Young 1981-82

★ Craig Hartsburg 1982-89

★ Brian Bellows 1984 (interim)

★ Curt Giles 1989-91

★ Mark Tinordi 1991-93

Retired Numbers (in Minnesota)

★ 8 Bill Goldsworthy, RW, 1967-77

★ 19 Bill Masterton, C, 1967-68
After the move, the Dallas Stars retired the number 7 of Minnesota native, University of Minnesota graduate and 1980 Olympic hero Neal Broten, C, 1981-93.

First round draft picks

★ 1967: Wayne Cheeseman (4th overall)

★ 1968: Jim Benzelock (5th overall)

★ 1969: Dick Redmond (5th overall)

★ 1970: none

★ 1971: none

★ 1972: Jerry Byers (12th overall)

★ 1973: none

★ 1974: Doug Hicks (6th overall)

★ 1975: Bryan Maxwell (4th overall)

★ 1976: Glen Sharpley (3rd overall)

★ 1977: Brad Maxwell (7th overall)

★ 1978: Bobby Smith (1st overall)

★ 1979: Craig Hartsburg (6th overall) and Tom McCarthy (10th overall)

★ 1980: Brad Palmer (16th overall)

★ 1981: Ron Meighan (13th overall)

★ 1982: Brian Bellows (2nd overall)

★ 1983: Brian Lawton (1st overall)

★ 1984: David Quinn (13th overall)

★ 1985: none

★ 1986: Warren Babe (12th overall)

★ 1987: Dave Archibald (6th overall)

★ 1988: Mike Modano (1st overall)

★ 1989: Doug Zmolek (7th overall)

★ 1990: Derian Hatcher (8th overall)

★ 1991: Richard Matvichuk (8th overall)

★ 1992: none

See also

★ List of Minnesota North Stars players

★ Head Coaches of the Minnesota North Stars

★ Dallas Stars

★ Minnesota Wild

★ California Seals

★ Cleveland Barons

★ List of defunct NHL teams

★ 1967 NHL Expansion