Joe Nieuwendyk began his athletic career as a lacrosse player and was playoff MVP at the 1984 Minto Cup, given annually to the junior men’s lacrosse champions in Canada. He played three seasons on Cornell University’s ice hockey squad from 1984 through 1987 and was twice named an All-American centre. He joined the National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames for nine games in the 1986-1987 season, but won the Calder Trophy as top rookie during his first full season the following year. Until being traded to the NHL’s Dallas Stars in 1995, he had a successful run with the Flames that included a Stanley Cup championship (1989), the team captainship (1991 through 1995), and the King Clancy Memorial Trophy (1995) given in honor of his leadership qualities. He skated with the Stars until the 2001-2002 season, prior to being sent to the league’s New Jersey Devils, and captured a second Stanley Cup championship as well as the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1999. Along the way he attended the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics as a member of the Canadian delegation; in the former he had two goals in six matches, but did not win a medal, whereas he had one goal in six games at the latter and took home one of Canada’s first Olympic gold medals in ice hockey in fifty years. After two seasons with the Devils (and another Stanley Cup in 2003) and one with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he reemerged after the 2004-2005 NHL lockout as a member of the Florida Panthers, with whom he skated until his 2006 retirement due to back problems. Since 2009 he has been the general manager of the Dallas Stars. The Ontario Lacrosse Association’s Joe Nieuwendyk Award, given to the top junior rookie, is named in his honor.
Canada