The power of Peter Stastny

Peter Stastny was one of the most prolific scorers of the 1980s.
In fact, only Wayne Gretzky had more points in the decade than Stastny.
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Wayne Gretzky is the top scorer of the 1980s, but who is number two?

The answer would surprise some, but anyone who ever saw Peter Stastny play, would instantly realize how smooth a playmaker he was and how great a scorer.

More impressive than his talent is his personal story. It started behind the Iron Curtain then led to freedom, on and off the ice.

I was thinking about Peter Stastny when his son Paul scored an important overtime winner for Winnipeg in the Stanley Cup playoffs last year.

Cry freedom
The journey of Peter Stastny begins in a different time and literally in a different place. He was born behind the Iron Curtain and rose to become the greatest hockey player in Czechoslovakia.

Yet Peter Stastny despised Communism and the oppression it brought. When he was just 11 years old, Soviet tanks rolled into his native Czechoslovakia in 1968 to quell a populist uprising.

He, and his countrymen, would exact some measure of revenge a few short years later, winning the 1976 and 1977 world championships over the Soviets. He would help Czechoslovakia advance to the final of the inaugural Canada Cup in 1976 where they lost to Canada on Darryl Sittler’s overtime goal. He also played for his country in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

By then, he had begun to speak out against the Communist regime. In turn, they threatened to drop him from the national team if he continued, but that just steeled his resolve. Peter Stastny vowed to do something about his desire for freedom – and did.

The year was 1980, not much after the Winter Olympics, and the dawn of a new decade would bring freedom for Peter Stastny. He, his pregnant wife Darina, and brother Anton defected from Czechoslovakia. They were playing in a tournament in Innsbruck where they were smuggled out of Austria, by officials of the Quebec Nordiques.

Peter Stastny was now a free man.

Immediate impact
Stastny was 24 when he joined the NHL. That was considered old for a rookie back then. He contributed immediately, turning in one of the greatest rookie seasons in NHL history. Stastny recorded 109 points in 77 games, with 39 goals and 70 assists. He still shares the record for assists by a rookie, and was the first rookie in league history to score more than 100 points.

That effort won him the Calder Trophy as the league’s outstanding rookie, but there was some opposition. Critics claimed he really wasn’t a rookie, having played professional-level hockey for years in Czechoslovakia. It was a debate that would go on for years. The rules were only changed after Sergei Makarov, who was even older and more seasoned than Stastny, won the rookie of the year.

Reunion
The next season a third brother, Marian Stastny, would also defect in 1981 and join the Nordiques. The three brothers would make NHL history when all three combined for a goal, which was recorded on the scoresheet as Stastny from Stastny and Stastny. I remember riding the bus on the way to school and hearing that very fact on the radio.

One of the best
Peter Stastny would cement his place in history as one of the top scorers of the decade with a string of successful seasons.

In his second year, Stastny continued to impress, with the performance of his career. He played in 80 games, scoring 46 goals and adding 93 assists for 139 points. In his third season, 1982-1983, he had 124 points, with 47 goals and 77 assists in 75 games.

He would stay at or above the 100-point mark for three more seasons. He had 46 goals and 73 assists for 119 points in 1983-1984; a total of 32 goals and 68 assists for 100 points in 1984-1985; and 41 goals and 81 assists for 122 points In 1985-1986.

Statstny missed 18 games in the 1986-1987 season, and his production fell off to 24 goals and 53 assists for 77 points.

The following season, 1987-1988, he was back up to form, recording 111 points in 76 games, with 46 goals and 65 assists.

The following season, 1988-1989, would be Stastny’s final full year with the Nordiques. He appeared in 72 games, scoring 35 goals and adding 50 assists for 85 points.

Stastny played 62 games for the Nordiques in the 1989-1990 season, recording 62 points with 24 goals and 38 assists. On March 6, 1990, Peter Stastny was traded to the New Jersey Devils for Craig Wolanin and future considerations which turned out to be Randy Velischek.

A period of his career in Quebec, that had spanned the entire decade of the 1980s, had come to an end.

Enemy to friend
Peter Stastny had become a Canadian citizen while with the Nordiques. In 1984, he did something unthinkable only five years earlier – he suited up for Team Canada and played in the Canada Cup. One of the teams he faced was his old country Czechoslovakia.

It would not be the last time he changed teams and played for another country. He would become the only player in history to suit up for three different countries in international play. That happened when Stastny played for Slovakia in the 1994 Winter Olympics and the 1995 World Championships. He was even named the tournament’s top forward at those 1995 World Championships.

The years after
Peter Stastny would begin a new decade with a new team. He appeared in 12 games for the Devils in 1989-1990, scoring five goals and adding six assists for 11 points. He would play three seasons with the Devils, then two with the St. Louis Blues. Between these two seasons with the Blues, he went home and played four games with HC Slovan Bratislava, notching four assists. He retired at the end of the 1994-1995 season.

He played a total of 977 games in the NHl, scoring 450 goals and 789 assists for 1,239 points in 15 seasons. Those numbers put him 34th on the all-time scoring list. He also played 93 playoff games, recording 33 goals and 72 assists for 105 points, and played in the 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1988 all-star games.

Peter Stastny was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998.

After his hockey career ended, he entered politics, and was elected a member of the European Parliament for Slovakia in 2004, serving until 2014.

Parting thoughts
When I was in university, a friend of mine told me about a profile of Peter Stastny he read in the Globe and Mail. In it, Stastny was described as a renaissance man in part because he spoke six languages – Czech, Slovak, German, Russian, English, and French. That always impressed me.

So did his commitment to his home country. once the Iron Curtain fell. He returned to suit up for Slovakia in international play and, after his playing days were over, he continued to represent his country. Only this time as a member of the European Parliament.

Beyond all that, was his wizardry on the ice.

I will never forget the time I saw Peter Stastny play. It was in the 1992-1993 season and, by then, he was playing with New Jersey. He brought his Devils to the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton  and I went to the game with my friend Dominik Aeby. It was part way through the first period, and Stastny was bringing the puck into the Oiler zone. Then he made a cross-ice pass, just high enough off the ice to go over the outstretched sticks of two Oilers and hit the tape on his teammate’s stick. I have since discovered that is called a saucer pass, but back then it seemed like magic to me.

That was the power of Peter Stastny.