Jeremy Roenick
Jeremy Shaffer Roenick is an American former professional ice hockey player who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League. He was drafted 8th overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, for whom he played from 1988 to 1996. Roenick subsequently played for the Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks over the course of his twenty-season career in the league. He also represented Team USA in several international tournaments. On November 10, 2007, he became the third American-born player to score 500 goals. He is one of 46 players to have scored 500 goals. After retiring in 2009, Roenick joined NBC Sports as a hockey analyst from 2010 to 2020. Roenick was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024.
Playing career
Amateur career
Roenick began playing hockey at age four when the parents of a playmate persuaded Roenick's parents to put Jeremy in a hockey program so that their child would be with someone he knew. The son of a Mobil oil district coordinator, Jeremy constantly moved around the Northeastern United States, joining new hockey teams with each stop. As a youth, Roenick played in the 1982 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Middlesex County, Connecticut, and in the 1983 tournament with the Washington Capitals minor ice hockey team.Roenick then moved to Fairfax, Virginia, where he traveled to play for the bantam-level New Jersey Rockets, who had won back-to-back national championships in 1984–85 and 1985–86. At age 14, Roenick was required to take a flight from Dulles Airport to Newark, New Jersey, on a weekly basis to make the Rockets' games. Roenick helped the Rockets to a state championship, registering 300 points in only 75 games. After one year of traveling for hockey, the Roenick family would move back to Massachusetts, where Jeremy enrolled at Thayer Academy. Roenick played on the same line as future NHL line-mate Tony Amonte; the two went on to win two League Championships.
Roenick was so impressive during his time at Thayer Academy he was drafted straight out of high school, going eighth overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks. He was also taken to breakfast by Wayne Gretzky in an attempt to convince Roenick to play for the Hull Olympiques, a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team Gretzky owned. Roenick played for the Olympiques during the 1988–89 season scoring 70 points in 28 games, before going on to represent the United States at the 1989 World Junior Championship. In his second World Junior Championship, Roenick led the tournament in scoring and was named a Tournament All-Star. Roenick's line, which included future NHL players Mike Modano and John LeClair, totaled 41 points, the most ever by a Team USA line and sixth most in tournament history. Despite his scoring success, the United States finished the tournament in fifth place. During the tournament, Roenick become the all-time leading American scorer, totaling 25 points. Roenick's record stood for 21 years before being broken by Jordan Schroeder in 2010. However, it took Schroeder three tournaments to pass Roenick, who set the record in just two events. Following Roenick's successful World Junior performance, the Blackhawks called him up during the 1988–89 season.
Chicago Blackhawks (1988–1996)
Roenick made his NHL debut on October 6, 1988, against the New York Rangers and then scored his first goal on February 14, 1989, against the Minnesota North Stars. In 20 games at the NHL level, Roenick scored 18 points. In the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, he helped the Blackhawks reach the Conference Finals. During the playoffs, Roenick gave the Chicago fans a glimpse of what kind of player he would become. In a game against the St. Louis Blues, Roenick got into an altercation with Blues' defenseman Glen Featherstone. Featherstone crosschecked Roenick in the mouth and broke his front teeth; Featherstone would be given a five-minute major penalty, while Roenick received a minor penalty. Roenick remained in the game and once his penalty expired, he took a shift on the power play and scored a goal.In the 1989–90 season, Roenick joined the Blackhawks full-time and helped the team improve by 22 points to win the Norris Division title; he scored 26 goals and 66 points in the regular season. During the 1990 playoffs, Roenick helped the Blackhawks reach the Campbell Conference Finals before losing to the Edmonton Oilers. He scored 18 points in 20 games. The Blackhawks' confidence in Roenick's abilities allowed them to trade star forward Denis Savard for defenseman Chris Chelios in June 1990.
In 1990–91, Roenick paced the team with ten game-winning goals as the Blackhawks improved another 18 points to win the Presidents' Trophy. Roenick finished second on the team with 41 goals, 53 assists and 94 points and played in his first NHL All-Star Game. In six playoff games, he scored eight points. The following year, Roenick led the team with 53 goals, 50 assists and 103 points and played in his second All-Star Game. While the team dropped to second in the Norris Division during the regular season, they marched all the way to the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals in the playoffs. Roenick scored 22 points in 18 games as the team captured the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl over Edmonton before getting swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the final round.
In 1992–93, Roenick led the Blackhawks with 50 goals, 107 points and 22 power-play goals as the team improved 19 points to win their third Norris Division title in four years. During the season, Roenick played in his third All-Star Game. In the playoffs, he scored three points in four games as the Blackhawks were swept by the St. Louis Blues.
In 1993–94, Roenick again led his team with 46 goals, a career-high 61 assists, 107 points, a career-high 24 power-play goals, five shorthanded goals and a +21 plus-minus rating as the Blackhawks fell back 19 points in the standings. He also played in his fourth mid-season All-Star Game. In the post-season, he scored seven points in six playoff games. He also won the Chicago Sports Profiles Humanitarian of the Year Award.
In the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season, Roenick scored 34 points in 33 games. He missed 15 games with a bruised tibia. He played eight games in the 1995 playoffs as the Blackhawks reached the Western Conference Final, where they fell to the Detroit Red Wings. In 1995–96, Roenick scored 67 points in 66 games before missing the last 11 games with a sprained ankle. At year's end, he was the team's leader with 32 goals.
Phoenix Coyotes (1996–2001)
On August 16, 1996, Roenick was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Alexei Zhamnov, Craig Mills and a first-round draft pick. As the number 27 he wore in Chicago was already worn by Teppo Numminen, Roenick chose number 97, becoming the first player in NHL history to wear number 97. In his first season with his new team, Roenick scored 29 goals and 69 points. In 1997–98, he finished second on the team with 56 points. In 1998–99, he led the Coyotes with 72 points and played in his fifth All-Star Game while also knocking 154 hits. In 1999–2000, Roenick again led the Coyotes in scoring, this time racking up 34 goals and 44 assists for 78 points. He tallied 125 hits on the season and played in his sixth All-Star Game. In 2000–01, Roenick led the Coyotes with 30 goals and 76 points. He played 80 games and registered 133 hits.Philadelphia Flyers (2001–2005)
On July 2, 2001, Roenick signed a five-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers. In his first season with the Flyers, he won both the Bobby Clarke Trophy and Yanick Dupre Memorial team awards. He led the team with 46 assists, 67 points and a +32 plus-minus rating as the Flyers won the Atlantic Division title. On January 30, he scored his 1,000th NHL point in a game against the Ottawa Senators. Three nights later, he played in the mid-season All-Star Game. In the 2002 playoffs, Roenick played five games in an opening-round loss to the Senators.In 2002–03, Roenick led the Flyers with 27 goals and 59 points as the team won 45 games and finished second in the Atlantic Division. He also co-led the Flyers with 32 assists and eight power-play goals. On November 16, Roenick played in his 1,000th NHL game. In February, he played in the mid-season All-Star Game. In the 2003 playoffs, he scored eight points in 13 games as the Flyers reached the second round before again losing to the Ottawa Senators.
On February 12, 2004, during a game against the New York Rangers, Roenick was hit in the face by an errant slapshot from the Rangers' defenseman Boris Mironov. The force of the shot broke Roenick's jaw in 19 places and knocked him unconscious for several minutes as he lay on the ice in a pool of blood. Roenick suffered his ninth concussion on the play, and there was concern that he had suffered damage to his brain's circulatory system, in addition to the broken jaw, leading him to consider retirement. However, further testing revealed no circulatory damage and Roenick returned ahead of schedule, after missing more than a month of hockey due to the concussion and broken jaw, with less than two weeks left in the season. In 2003–04, Roenick was limited to 62 games, but still scored 47 points as the Flyers won their third division title in five years. He finished second on the team with a.76 points-per-game average. In the 2004 playoffs, Roenick helped the Flyers reach the Eastern Conference Finals, scoring four goals and 13 points, including the series-clinching overtime goal in game six of the second round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Flyers, however, lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Los Angeles Kings (2005–2006)
Following the NHL Lockout, the Flyers surprised everyone by signing Peter Forsberg on August 3, 2005. In order to clear salary cap space for Forsberg's contract, Roenick was traded the next day to the Los Angeles Kings.Roenick's 2005–06 season with the Kings was greatly disappointing, both for Roenick and for the team. He managed just 22 points in 58 games, his lowest total since he scored 18 points in 20 games in his rookie season. It was a trying season for Roenick, who missed time due to a broken finger suffered while blocking a shot during a penalty kill, played games late in the season after suffering a chip fracture in his right ankle and, the concussion suffered from the slapshot had changed Roenick's game making him a tentative player. Roenick was displeased with his performances stating in an almost apologetic way: "I went to LA to finish off the last year of my contract and had a year off playing and it was a really difficult year for me, it was hard mentally. A lot of people don't realize that for six months I had a lot of problems with the concussions and battling the jaw injury…"
Becoming a free agent at the end of his first season in Los Angeles, he expressed strong interest in joining a Canadian team. "It was a nightmare season from hell last year," Roenick said, "I've always said I would like to play in Canada before my career is over."