Dave Andreychuk

Andreychuk zeroes in on Hartford Whalers goalie Mike Luit in 1989. He played 11 seasons with Buffalo. Courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator

Dave Andreychuk
Dave Andreychuk a real Hamilton hometown hero

Not many sports personalities have buildings named after them, but Hamilton’s Dave Andreychuk certainly deserved the honor when the Mountain Arena was renamed the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena and Skating Center in 2005.

Born in Hamilton in September of 1963, Andreychuk played 24 seasons in the NHL, 11 full seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, where he started in the 1982-83 season. Even at this early date it was felt the young left-winger was going to score a great deal.

“Since training camp, he’s been really impressive inside the blue line,” noted Sabre assistant coach Red Berenson in November of 1982. “There is no question he can score goals. He has great size (6-foot-3, 190 pounds) and reach and he uses his body to protect the puck. He’s like an octopus – you can’t take the puck away from him.”

During his second season with the Maple Leafs, Andreychuk scored 53 goals. Courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator

The former East Mountain resident and altar boy at Blessed Sacrament had scored five goals a month earlier, and after 12 games in the NHL, had seven goals and a pair of assists, and was not skating full-time.

A product of the Hamilton minor system, Andreychuk played three seasons with the Oshawa Generals of the OHL, and in his second season, scored 57 times in the 67-game schedule.

While in his first year at Buffalo, there was talk of Andreychuk returning to the Generals for some more experience, but it never happened to the 19-year old.

And he continued to hone his skills:

“I work on my skating and defensive play every day,” he stated in an interview during his first pro season. “I stay after practice for half an hour with Red and work on skating drills.”

In his 11 seasons with Buffalo, he scored 30-plus goals in seven of those seasons, and only once, his first year, scoring less than 20 goals. For the 1991-92 season, he amassed 41 goals, but two seasons later after being traded to Toronto, he scored 53 times.

Andreychuk said he was a little dubious about traveling to the opposite end of the QEW to play in Toronto, where he remained until traded during the 1995-96 season.

Where it all began for Dave Andreychuk, the Mountain Arena renamed in his honor in 2005.

“Nobody likes to get traded, but I think it was best for the Buffalo Sabres,” he noted in a January 1994 interview. “I was a little skeptical coming to Toronto. I knew there would be a lot of pressure on me because I was traded for a decent player and was expected to score goals.”
Pat Burns, Maple Leaf coach at the time, said Andreychuk had a passion for the game. “He wants to play,” said Burns. “He wants the puck, wants to score, and does that on a constant basis.”

During the 1995-96 season, he was traded to the New Jersey Devils, remaining there for three seasons before signing with the Boston Bruins as a free agent in 1999. He was traded to the Colorado Avalanche during the 1999-2000 season, and later that year went back to Buffalo. His game was not up to his usual standards of years previous, and now approaching 40 years of age, there was the specter of retirement.

But Andreychuk went south, way south, to play for the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he remained for the next four, and final, seasons in the NHL. He also returned to his scoring prowess, with three 20-plus goal seasons.

While he had a great hockey career, one important item was missing - a Stanley Cup ring.

Finally, after his 162nd NHL playoff match, Andreychuk collected the coveted prize, the after Lightning captain and his team beat the Calgary Flames for the 2004 version of the Cup.

“You dream about this day for a long time," Andreychuk said in a post-game interview at the time. "It's taken me a while to get to this point and I don't think you can put into words the things going through your mind.

"The years that you got knocked out in the first round, the years that you didn't make the playoffs, all the players you have played with.

"We battled all year long to get home ice advantage and it happens that we win a Stanley Cup in a seventh game in our own building.

"I can't put into words how I feel."

And not forgetting his roots, his family, or his friends, Andreychuk brought the Cup home to Hamilton in the summer of 2004.

“We’re going to take the Cup to the McMaster Children’s Hospital first, and then do something for the whole city,” he related to the Hamilton Spectator at the time.
“I don’t’ know if it will be at Copps Coliseum or where.

“What I’d really like to do is have it at Mountain Arena, if that works, because that’s where it all started for me.”

Andreychuk continues to work in hockey in the Tampa Bay area, leading a group of former teammates with the Lightning Fantasy Camp.

In 1639 NHL contests, Andreychuk scored 640 goals in regular season play, and 698 assists for 1338 points. He also scored 43 times in 162 post-season games. He was also played in the NHL All-Star games of 1990 and 1994, and won two bronze medals with the Canadian World Junior team in 1983 and 1986.

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