Archive: In 1986, Minnesota North Star Was First American NHLer to Hit 100-Point Mark

This 1986 story from The Hockey News Archive covered Minnesota North Stars forward Neal Broten as he became the first American-born player to hit the 100-point plateau.

For the second time in the past three seasons, Toronto Maple Leafs superstar and proud American Auston Matthews has produced more than 100 points. But in this feature story from The Hockey News’ April 11, 1986 edition (Volume 39, Issue 28) writer Jerry Zgoda profiled Neal Broten – the first American-born NHLer to hit the 100-point mark.

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In 1,099 career regular-season NHL games from 1981 to 1997, Broten generated 634 assists and 923 points. But in 1985-86 as a member of the Minnesota North Stars, he put up a career-best 76 assists and 105 points. And legendary North Stars GM Lou Nanne heaped praise on Broten for his elite performance that year.

“You knew that sooner or later someone would score 100 points, and it’s only fitting that Neal should be the first to do it,” Nanne said of Broten, who was picked 42nd overall in the 1979 draft. “He is the most gifted American forward in the league today. When we drafted him, we just figured he was a guy that’d have a chance to play here. If I had known how good he was going to be, we wouldn’t have waited that long.”

Broten was proud of reaching the 100-point mark, but ultimately, he was like every player in that his main goal was winning a Stanley Cup. Broten did so with New Jersey in 1995, but nine years earlier, he humbly accepted the laurels while focusing on the bigger picture in his career.

“What’s the difference if you score 98, 100, 95 or 92 points?” Broten said. “It will probably be something more important when I am 45 or 50, when I’m old and decrepit and I can start bragging to my grandchildren. I think it means more to my mom and dad. My dad called me (after Broten went three games without a point) and said, ‘Damn, I thought I’d better call you to wish you luck and get you going again.’ They think this is pretty great. It makes them proud.”

Vol. 39, No. 28, April 11, 1986

By Jerry Zgoda

BLOOMINGTON — John Mariucci has this vision. He closes his eyes and sees a 6-foot tall Neal Broten. He sees Broten skating up and down the ice — taller, stronger, a little faster.

“He’s so smart, but can you imagine what he’d be like if he were three or four inches taller?” asks Mariucci, the Minnesota North Stars’ 69-year-old assistant general manager.

“He’d be like Gretzky with that (kind of) reach. At 5-foot-8, look what he does. At 6 feet, who knows what he could do?”

Mariucci is not alone in that opinion.

“If he were taller and had longer arms,” Stars’ general manager Lou Nanne added, “he’d probably get 180 points a year.”

Still, at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, Broten is doing just fine, thank you.

The 26-year-old native of Roseau, Minn., became the first American-born player to reach 100 points with two assists in a 6-1 victory at Toronto March 26.

In doing so, he set the team record for most assists in a season with 73 and was four games shy of completing the best season in his six-year NHL career. His best previous had been 38 goals and 98 points in 1981-82, his rookie season.

“People ask you what you’d like to change and I guess one of my wishes is to be bigger and stronger,” Broten said. “The players have grown a lot just since I came into the league and a guy like me gets hacked and held and pushed a lot. But I’ve been like this all my life and I’ve learned how to play with it.”

He has learned well. Broten has done what such American players as Bob Carpenter, Joe Mullen, Dave Christian and Ed Olczyk have yet to achieve.

Broten, owner of 1979 NCAA Championship and 1980 Olympic gold medals, was the first winner of the Hobey Baker Award, after playing his second and final season with the University of Minnesota in 1981.

Now he leads Americans into another dimension in the NHL.

“You knew that sooner or later someone would score 100 points and it’s only fitting that Neal should be the first to do it,” said Nanne, who made Broten the 42nd player chosen in the 1979 draft.

“He is the most gifted American forward in the league today. When we drafted him we just figured he was a guy that’d have a chance to play here. If I had known how good he was going to be, we wouldn’t have waited that long.”

Broten rode into the NHL on a new wave of players from American high schools and colleges. He was drafted the same year as Minneapolis Roosevelt High’s Mike Ramsey and Dave Christian of Warroad, Minn.

Two years later. Carpenter, from suburban Boston, became the first American taken in the first round. South St. Paul’s Phil Housley went in the first round the year after in 1982, and five Americans, led by top pick Brian Lawton of the North Stars, were selected in the first round in 1983.

The wave is expected to continue this year when as many as seven Americans could be selected among the first 15 players taken.

“Right now, Neal’s achievement is really special, but soon 100 points by an American is going to become almost common,” Lawton said. “There are too many good players coming up for it not to happen.”

Said Broten: “The game is changing so much. Before scouts weren’t looking at the colleges. Now, people are getting smarter. It used to be that life was hockey, hockey and more hockey. The old-timers seemed to live and die by it — you’d drink, spend money, have fun and your career was over and then what? Now you have to know how to take care of yourself — how to invest your money and things like that. Players seem more serious about everything and college is the best route to go.”

For now, Broten is the only one of those players to reach 100 points, but he seems unimpressed.

“What’s the difference if you score 98, 100, 95 or 92 points?” Broten asked. “It will probably be something more important when I am 45 or 50, when I’m old and decrepit and I can start bragging to my grandchildren. I think it means more to my mom and dad. My dad called me last week (after Broten went three games without a point) and said, ‘Damn, I thought I’d better call you to wish you luck and get you going again.’ They think this is pretty great. It makes them proud.”

His parents, Newell and Carol Broten, were the ones who awoke before 6 o’clock on cold, Roseau winter mornings and made their sons hot chocolate and toast before driving them to the indoor rink for practice.

“You remember all those things they used to do for you when you were a little kid,” said Broten, who, with his wife Sally, has two daughters. “And you want to do everything you can so you can make all that effort worth it.”

He told his mother that someday he would make it to the NHL and then he would build a big house and swimming pool. He recently moved into a new, big house in Eden Prairie, a move that left him living in his accountant’s house for two months earlier this season, but his yard isn’t big enough to build that pool.

“She won’t care as long as I keep getting better,” Broten said with a grin.

He says he can be better. Although he is two points beyond his best previous season, Broten says he can score 125 or 130 points in a season.

“This isn’t a perfect season,” Broten said. “I thought my first year (when he scored 38 goals and 98 points) was a better year. You need to get the bounces — you have to play on the power play a lot, which I have this year, and you have to play with two top wingers all year, and I’ve been lucky to have Scotty (Bjugstad) and Dino (Ciccarelli) this year.

“Maybe next year we can keep it going and maybe I’ll get 130 points. I think that’s realistic, but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.”

Said Mariucci: “With every point he scores, he becomes more and more of an inspiration for American kids, especially those kids who are 5-foot-6, 5-foot-7, 5-foot-8. We talk about the Russians, Finns, Swedes and Americans, but face it, nobody can touch the Canadians for the number of good players. But it doesn’t hurt to shoot for them and Neal is leading the way.”

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