The 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets Rookie Goal Scoring Records - 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets Teemu Selanne Jerseys

The Winnipeg Jets finished the 1991-92 season in fourth place in the Smythe Division with a record of 33-32-15, good for 81 points while scoring 251 goals for and allowing 244, third best in the NHL.

The team was led in scoring by defenseman Phil Housley, who had 23 goals and 63 assists for 86 points, 21 more than their highest scoring forward, Ed Olczyk, who led the team with 32 goals on his way to 65 points.

The Jets were paired with the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the playoffs. The Jets won the opening game on the road 3-2, but then lost the next one in Vancouver by the same 3-2 score. The Jets then put the Canucks on the brink of elimination by taking Games 3 and 4 back at home, 4-2 and 3-1. Vancouver stayed alive by hammering Winnipeg 8-2 back at home and then forced a Game 7 with another thrashing of the Jets 8-2 in Game 6. Demoralized, the Jets went out with a whimper when the Canucks whitewashed them 5-0 in Game 7 in British Columbia.

One of the first moves the Jets made for the 1992-93 season was to trade their 12th and 36th overall picks in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks for Chicago's 17th and 27th overall selections. With the 17th pick, the Jets took Russian Sergei Bautin, a defenseman from Dynamo Moscow, fresh of three consecutive Soviet championships.

The Jets 1992 first round draft pick, Sergei Bautin

With their 27th pick, third in Round Two, the Jets took another Russian fellow defenseman Boris Mironov from the CSKA Red Army club. In the true spirit of a sleeper pick, with the 204th selection in Round Nine, Winnipeg found a gem in goaltender, and yet another Russian, Nikolai Khabibulin, also from CSKA Moscow. Khabibulin would be the latest selection in the 1992 draft to go on to be an NHL All-Star, 87 picks later than the next closest future All-Star. In all, the Jets took seven Russians, an American, a Canadian, a Ukrainian, a Kazakh and a Finn.

An Olympic gold medalist, Bautin would make the Jets roster out of training camp and play in 71 games during the 1992-93 season.

Also joining the Jets for the 1992-93 season was Russian forward Alexei Zhamnov, who was coming off of four seasons as Bautin's teammate at Dynamo Moscow and a fellow gold medalist at the 1992 Albertville Olympics.

Zhamnov came to the Jets from Dynamo Moscow

The one name who would go on to have easily the most impact on the Jets 1992-93 season was 1988 draft pick, Teemu Selanne of Finland's Jokerit Helsinki. Selanne had caught the eyes of the Jets scouts with a 43 goal, 66 point season in 33 games of Jokerit's Junior A program, which concluded with a championship. Winnipeg's organizational philosophy was to allow their European draft picks to develop in their native countries, and by 1991 were working to bring him to North America.

Teemu Selanne at the 1991 Canada Cup

As Selanne had not yet signed a contract with the Jets, he was considered a restricted free agent, which led to the Calgary Flames signing him to a three year, $2.7 million offer sheet, $1.5 million more than the Jets had offered the Finn. Worried about paying such a high salary to a rookie, Winnipeg nevertheless exercised their right to match Calgary's offer and Selanne made his NHL debut with a pair of assists on October 6, 1992, scoring his first goal two nights later.

In addition to Selanne, Zhamnov and Bautin, other members of the Jets eligible for the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year were 1988 draft pick Evgeny Davydov, another Russian from CSKA Moscow and 1990 selection, American Keith Tkachuk of Boston University. Both Davydov and Tkachuk had played with the Jets the prior season, but were both under the 25 game limit which maintained their rookie status for 1992-93. Tkachuk had seen action in 17 games, while Davydov played in 12.

Evgeny Davydov was a member of the powerful Red Army club

American Keith Tkachuk while at Boston University

Selanne, coming off a 39 goal season with Jokerit in 44 games, wasted little time making his presence known in the NHL, scored his first career hat-trick in his fifth game and produced 11 goals in his first 12. Selanne hit the 20 goal mark in December 11th in style during 8-6 loss to the Washington Capitals and added his 21st goal a little over five minutes later and completed his hat trick just 40 seconds into the second period.

Selanne reached the 30 goal plateau on January 2nd when he scored his second goal of the night at the 14:50 mark of the third period against the New Jersey Devils Chris Terreri.

Davydov was the next to reach the 20 goal mark on January 22nd with an assist from Stu Barnes on when he beat Calgary's Mike Vernon at 10:52 of the third period during a 4-4 tie.

Davydov was the second Jets rookie to 20 goals

By the end of January the Finn Selanne was the talk of hockey world as he reached the 40 goal mark on January 30th in a 6-3 win over the Hartford Whalers.

On the final day of February, Selanne put on a spectacular display when he scored goals 48, 49, 50 and 51 in a four goal romp against the Minnesota North Stars and goaltender Darcy Wakuluk in a 7-6 Jets win.

During Winnipeg's next game on March 2nd, it was Tkachuk's turn to make it to the 20 goal level when he beat the Quebec Nordiques Stephane Fiset on a power play 1:26 into the third period with assists from Housely and Barnes.

Tkacuk's 20th goal was overshadowed by Selanne's record breaking hat trick

Tkachuk's accomplishment was completely overshadowed that night by the spectacular Selanne though, as the Finnish Flash recorded a second consecutive hat trick with goals 52, 53 and 54 to surpass Mike Bossy's NHL rookie goal scoring record of 53.

Selanne surpassed 60 goals on March 14th versus the Tampa Bay Lighting with two first period goals against Pat Jablonski to put him at 61. On March 23rd, the Finn netted goals 66 and 67 plus an assist of Zhamnov's 18th goal of the season to give him 110 points, breaking Peter Stastny's NHL rookie points record.

Selanne set rookie records for goals and points in 1992-93

During the Jets next game, Zhamnov scored his 19th goal against the St. Louis Blues and then, on this date in 1993, Zhamnov got his 20th goal of the season, beating the Los Angeles Kings Robb Stauber with just five seconds left in regulation from Selanne and Tkachuk to tie the game at 3-3.

Zhamnov scored his 20th goal on this date in 1993

Zhamnov's 20th goal, joining Selanne, Davydov and Tkachuk with at least 20 goals each, made the Winnipeg Jets the first team in NHL history with four 20-goal rookie scorers.

Selanne would finish with a league leading 76 goals while leading the Jets in scoring with 132 points, both rookie records which stand to this day, and was awarded a much deserved Calder Trophy as the NHL Rookie of the Year. Zhamnov was third on the team in points behind Housley's 97, scoring 25 goals and 47 assists for 72 points while Tkachuk and Davydov had 28 goals apiece, with Tkachuk finishing with 51 points and Davydov 49.

Of note, veterans Thomas Steen with 22 goals and Darrin Shannon at 20 would join the spectacular rookie quartet with 20 or more goals for Winnipeg that season.

The Jets would score 322 goals that season, 71 more than the previous season thanks in no small part to Selanne's exploits. Unfortunately, their goals against would rise by 76 and the Jets would once again be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, bowing to the Canucks again, this time in six games.

Zhamnov would play four seasons for the Jets with a high of 30 goals until being traded to Chicago. 1992-93 would be Davydov's last with Winnipeg, as he was dealt to the Florida Panthers prior to the following season.

Tkachuk would play five seasons in Winnipeg with a high of 50 goals in 1995-96 on his way to 98 points and would be named team captain in 1993. He would move with the franchise when they relocated and became the Phoenix Coyotes for the 1996-97 season during which he led the NHL in goals with a career high 52. He was again named team captain in 1996 and remained with the franchise for five seasons in Arizona. He would eventually score 500 goals, 1,000 points and play in over 1,000 games.

Selanne would play three more seasons for Winnipeg, never scoring more than 25 goals before a cost cutting trade sent him to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. After a lengthy NHL career, Selanne would finish with 684 goals and 1,457 points in 1,451 games played. He led the NHL in goal scoring again in both 1998 and 1999 and won a Stanley Cup in 2007.

Selanne's memorable trap shooting celebration after

breaking Bossy's rookie goal scoring record

Today's featured jersey is a 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets Teemu Selanne jerseys as worn the the season Selanne shattered the NHL rookie goal scoring and points record. Selanne entered the NHL wearing #13 for his first season, as Randy Carlisle was wearing his preferred #8. After Carlisle's departure after Selanne's rookie season, he subsequently changed to #8 for the remainder of his time in Winnipeg.

The Jets were formed as a founding member of the World Hockey Association in 1972-73 and made the move to the NHL for the 1979-80 season. They introduced today's feature style jersey for the 1990-91 season and wore it until the franchise moved out of Winnipeg after the 1995-96 season.

The Jets were responsible for one of the oddities concerning the Stanley Cup Centennial patch worn by all the players that season, as, for the first half of the schedule, Winnipeg wore a set of jerseys which had the white outline around their patches like the rest of the league, but for the second half of the season the white outlines vanished and they were the only team to not have the outline around their patches, which did not help them stand out from the jerseys like they did previously.

Selanne did not have the A on the first set of jerseys from the first half of the season where the white outlined patches were worn and did wear the assistant captain's "A" with the version of the patch that lacked the white outline for the season's second half, but there are photos showing Selanne with the borderless patch prior to being awarded the "A".

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets Keith Tkachuk jersey as worn the the season Tkachuk was one of four Jets rookies to reach the 20 goal mark, making Winnipeg the first team in NHL history with four 20 goal rookies.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 1994-95 Winnipeg Jets Alexei Zhamnov jersey as worn the the season Zhamnov set a career high with 30 goals. 

Extra extra bonus jersey: Today's extra extra bonus jersey is a 1990-91 CSKA Moscow Evgeny Davydov jersey as worn during Davydov's final season in the Soviet Union prior to coming to the NHL. Davydov won three Soviet championships with the Red Army club in 1987, 1988 and 1989.

Unlike many of the sometimes paper thin mesh Soviet jerseys of the era with silkscreened or heat sealed graphics, this Red Army jersey is a top of the line, Canadian-made CCM jersey produced to the same standards as one would find in the NHL and very likely produced for use in the 1989, 1990 or 1991 Super Series which then had the English nameplates removed and Cyrillic names screened on as they were converted for use back home in the Soviet League.

Extra extra extra bonus jersey: Today's extra extra extra bonus jersey is a 1992 Unified Team Evgeny Davydov jersey as worn during the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. With the upheaval of the political situation in the Soviet Union in 1991, there was little time to sort out what kind of identity the brand new team made up of six of the 15 former Soviet republics would be represented by.

The Unified Team competed under the Olympic flag, and with just five weeks before the games were to commence, the jersey supplier to all the Olympic teams, Tackla of Finland, made up a set of the current Soviet Union jerseys, only without the "CCCP" lettering across the chest. Note they did not even alter the chest stripes, which were still notched on the left hand side for the curvature of the absent "P"!

Davydov waving to the crowd during the 1992 gold medal ceremony

This was the one and only appearance for these stop-gap jerseys, as Russia wore a brand new set of jerseys at the 1992 World Championships held just two months later in April as an independent nation, separate from the other five countries of the Unified Team.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Today's video section is all about Selanne's magical rookie season in 1992-93.

1988-89 Central Red Army Evgeny Davydov Jersey

Born on this date in 1967, right winger Evgeny Davydov started his career with his hometown Traktor Chelyabinsk with 5 games in the 1984-85 season. That season his international career began with the European U18 Junior tournament. He became a regular the following season with 11 goals and 16 points in 39 games. During that season he also competed in his first World Junior Championship, scoring 3 goals and 4 points in 7 games as the Soviets won the gold medal.

As was often the case during the time of the Soviet Union, the players recognized as being the best in the land found themselves becoming members of the Soviet Red Army and being assigned to play hockey for the army's sports club, CSKA Moscow, also known as Central Red Army. There were many benefits to playing for Red Army, as the majority of the Soviet Union National Team was comprised of the Red Army squad. The downside was living life under the stern oversight of head coach Viktor Tikhonov, who had strict control of the player's lives for 11 months a year.

Davydov joined the famed Red Army club in 1986

Davydov's Red Army career began with the 1986-87 season with 11 goals in 32 points on the high powered club. Davydov also returned to the World Junior Championships in 1987. Things did not go according to form however, as the Soviets entered their final game with a 2-3-1 record in their game against rivals Canada, who needed to win by five goals to secure the gold medal.

With the Canadians leading 4-2 with 6:07 left in the second period, a fight broke out which led to Valeri Zelepukin, who was playing hurt with a separated shoulder, being pummeled by Mike Keane. Davydov left the Soviet bench to come to Zelepukin's rescue, which sparked the most infamous bench clearing brawl in international hockey history. The officials were powerless to break up the battling players and eventually left the ice and had the lights turned off in the arena in an attempt to end the fighting.

Eventually, after the brawl lasted some 20 minutes, both teams were disqualified from the tournament, which cost Canada a medal since they were guaranteed at least a bronze. The incident became known as The Punch-up in Piestany.

The Soviets and Canadians battle after Davydov sparked a bench clearing brawl

Davydov would play five more seasons with CSKA at the end of their incredible dynasty, winning Soviet League championships in 1987, 1988 and 1989, a Soviet Cup in 1988, the IIHF European Champions Cup four times from 1987 to 1990 and a Spengler Cup in 1991. His best seasons with Red Army came in 1989-90 with 17 goals in 44 games and in 1991-92 with 25 points in just 27 games.

During that time period, Davydov would appear in his only World Championship in 1990, where he scored 5 goals and 9 points in 9 games as the Big Red Machine of the Soviet Union would win it's final of 22 gold medals.

The 1990 gold medal winning Soviet Union National Team

Also during this period of Davydov's career, massive changes were happening politically in the Soviet Union and the country ceased to exist in late December of 1991 while preparations were being made for the upcoming 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. While the Soviet Union ceased to exists, a coalition of former member states competed together as the Unified Team. So short were the preparations before the Games, that the Unified Team wore the same Soviet jerseys as before, only with the letters CCCP removed. On the home white jerseys there was even the curvature around the "P" remaining!

No matter what they were called, these were still the elite of the Soviet hockey system, who roared through the competition with a 7-1 record to defeat Canada 3-1 in the final to win the Olympic gold medal to go with his World Championship and World Junior gold.

Davydov jumps on top of the goal as the Soviet Union

celebrates its' 1992 Olympic gold medal

With his Olympic obligations to the Motherland now completed, Davydov began the next phase of his career as he reported to the Winnipeg Jets for the final dozen games of their NHL schedule where he impressed with 4 goals and 7 points followed by his first playoff experience with an additional 7 games.

Davydov then completed his first, full NHL season in 1992-93, showing good promise with 28 goals and 49 points in 79 games, nearly twice as many as he had ever played during a Soviet regular season, where his previous maximum was 44. Also of note was his +/- rating of -2, showing he was not a one way defensive liability.

Davydov showed promise with the Jets in 1992-93

Despite the promise shown by Davydov in 1992-93, he was considered expendable in light of the Jets having a lineup that consisted of the likes of rookie superstar Teemu Selanne, Thomas Steen, fellow Russian Alexei Zhamnov, Darrin Shannon and Keith Tkachuk which resulted in Davydov being traded in September of 1993 to the expansion Florida Panthers.

Davydov's time with the Panthers was brief

Life with the expansion Panthers was difficult and not a good fit for Davydov, and after just 21 games and a mere 2 goals, he was traded to the Ottawa Senators in January of 1994 where he fared no better, scoring just 5 goals in 40 games for the even more offensively challenged Senators.

His 1994-95 season cannot be descirbed as anything but a bust, as Davydov played just 3 NHL games with Ottawa, scoring just once. He also saw action in 11 games for the San Diego Gulls and 18 with the Chicago Wolves, both of the IHL. His final NHL totals were 155 games played, 40 goals and 39 assists for 79 points.

Ottawa was Davydov's final NHL stop

The remainder of his career was spent back in Europe, where he spent the next ten seasons meandering through its various pro leagues. 1995-96 saw Davydov play 7 games with EHC Olten of the Swiss second division followed by 3 regular season and 13 playoff games with HC Amiens in France, highlighted by 15 goals and 24 points during the playoffs.

The next two seasons brought a measure of stability, as he signed with Brynas IF Gavle in Sweden, scoring a league leading 30 goals and 48 points in 46 games in 1996-97 followed by a 33 point season in 40 games with Brynas in 1997-98.

Davydov with Brynas of the Swedish Elitserien

He was on the move again in 1998-99, splitting time between Ak Bars Kazan of the Russian Superleague (14 games) and EV Zug in Switzerland (11 games).

For the next two seasons, Davydov was back with Olten in the Swiss second division, where he excelled with 26 goals and 56 points in 1999-00 before setting career highs in 2000-01 when he cut loose for 31 goals and 80 points in 40 games, an average of two points per game.

He could not sustain that success however, as 2001-02 saw him struggle with 2 goals in 7 games with Karpat Oulu in Finland followed by 5 goals in 34 games with the Berlin Capitals in the German DEL.

If possible, Davydov's 2002-03 season was worse, as he only managed cameo appearances which amounted to 5 scoreless games with Krylja Sovetov Moscow (Soviet Wings) followed by a mere 2 games with HC Milano in the top Italian league, where he scored his lone goal of the season while acquiring another stamp in his passport.

In 2003-04, he showed some signs of his past promise. After 12 games with Olofstroms IK in the Swedish second division, Davydov again returned to Russia, only this time in the third division with Velkom Moscow, where he scored 10 goals and 30 points in 30 games.

His final season of play was with Titan Kiln, also in the Russian third division, where in 32 games he wrapped up his career with 7 goals and 25 points.

After starting his career with the prestige and stability of playing with Central Red Army and winning three league championships and three gold medals in the World Juniors, World Championships and Olympics, his move to the NHL, which looked promising after his first full season in Winnipeg, ended quickly 64 games later and he began a journey through the hockey wilderness, never spending more than two consecutive seasons with any single team, as he moved among ten leagues spread among seven countries - Switzerland, France, Sweden, Russia, Germany, Finland and Italy.

Davydov waves to the crowd at the 1992 Olympic hockey medal ceremony

Today's featured jersey is a 1988-89 Central Red Army Evgeny Davydov jersey. Unlike today's featured jersey, this is a prime example of a typical Soviet jersey from the era that has been hammered with game use that has worn the combination of silk screening and heat pressed graphics, which have been both ground off or peeling off, particularly along the waist stripe, lower left arm and lower torso.

The Super Series of games, in which Soviet Club teams came to North America to play exhibition games against NHL club teams, gave the top Soviet clubs who came over in 1989 and 1990 (Red Army, Dynamo Riga, Khimik Voskresensk, Soviet Wings and Dynamo Moscow) an injection of cash and a nice, new set of top quality jerseys.

While some of the team's jerseys appear to have been worn for games back in the Soviet Union with Cyrillic names added, Red Army in particular, others were likely sold following the final game of the club's North American tour, probably in one of a few different manners, either as a complete team set to a well funded memorabilia seller in a shady deal out of the back door of the locker room by the team's head coach for personal gain or individually by the team's equipment manager as an impromptu garage sale to the lucky fans who happened to be in the area or the the knowledgeable individual collector hoping for just such an opportunity after the Soviet's final game before heading home.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1990-91 Central Red Army Evgeny Davydov jersey as worn during his time with the most dominant club in the history of hockey. Unlike many of the somtimes paper thin mesh jerseys with silkscreened or heat sealed graphics as seen in today's featured jersey, this Red Army jersey is a top of the line, Canadian-made CCM jersey produced to the same standards as one would find in the NHL and very likely produced for use in the 1989, 1990 or 1991 Super Series and then converted to Cyrillic names for use back home in the Soviet League.

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 1992 Unified Team Evgeny Davydov jersey as used in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. With the upheaval of the political situation in the Soviet Union in 1991, there was little time to sort out what kind of identity the brand new team made up of six of the 15 former Soviet republics would compete with.

The Unified Team competed under the Olympic flag, and with just five weeks before the games were to commence, the jersey supplier to all the Olympic teams, Tackla of Finland, made up a set of the usual Soviet Union jerseys, only without the "CCCP" lettering across the chest. Note they did not even alter the chest stripes, which were still notched on the left hand side for the curvature of the "P"!

This was the one and only appearance for these stop-gap jerseys, as Russia competed in a new set of jerseys at the 1992 World Championships held just two months later in April as an independent nation, separate from the other five countries of the Unified Team.

Unlike the screened or heat pressed Soviet jerseys, this Tackla jersey uses the dye sublimation process, in which each jersey starts as a white blank jersey and then has all the graphics dyed into the jersey, not added onto the jersey, a much superior process which is permanent and allows the jersey to retain its vibrant colors indefinitely.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

 

Today's video selection is the gold medal game from the 1992 Olympics, as the Unified Team, wearing their jerseys without any national identity, captures the gold medal against Canada, followed by a brief clip of the medal ceremony.