In the 1992 NHL draft, Tampa Bay picked defenseman Roman Hamrlik first overall. Windsor Spitfires forward Todd Warriner was the top player in The Hockey News' pre-draft rankings.
In 1992, the Tampa Bay Lightning selected defenseman Roman Hamrlik with the first-overall draft pick. But in this feature from The Hockey News’ June 1, 1992, edition (Volume 45, Issue 35), writers Jim Cressman and Steve Dryden profiled The Hockey News’ No. 1-ranked player, Todd Warriner.
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Warriner had a terrific season for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires in 1991-92, posting 41 goals and 83 points in 50 games. After dropping in the draft order to fourth overall (picked by the Quebec Nordiques), Warriner didn’t make his NHL debut until 1995. But his determination to be an NHLer carved him out a career as a decent winger who had speed to spare. He knew his career was on the line every time he took the ice.
“Todd is a realist,” Spitfires coach-GM Wane Maxner said of Warriner. “The draft is one thing. Performing is another. He knows if you don’t perform well, you don’t get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Warriner shared his NHL dream with friends, including Fay Heatherington, Warriner’s Grade 5 teacher. When he was a young rabble-rouser, Warriner got the attention of Heatherington, and he used the lessons she taught him as guideposts for his playing career, which included 453 regular-season NHL games and 154 points.
“She whipped me into shape,” Warriner said of Heatherington. “In Grade 3 and 4, I was always in trouble, and I spent a lot of time out in the hall. I had to take this pink book home to my parents each day telling them if I’d been a good boy or a bad boy. I liked attention, and I was always disturbing the other kids. But that changed when I went into Grade 5.”
Added Heatherington: “I didn’t want dead wood in my class. I wanted the best they had to offer.”
IN TODD SCOUTS TRUST
Vol. 45, No. 35, June 1, 1992
By Jim Cressman and Steve Dryden
The No. 1-ranked player entering the 1992 entry draft is more willing to commit to the future than the past.
Flashy forward Todd Warriner says he will go anywhere in the NHL but has some misgivings about playing for the Windsor Spitfires should he be returned to the Ontario League next season.
Warriner, 18, hopes he doesn’t face that prospect. He is determined to play in the NHL.
The league’s Central Scouting Bureau, which ranks him first among North American skaters, endorses his candidacy. So does Wayne Maxner, the Spitfires’ coach-general manager whose relationship with Warriner is apparently strained.
“He will make the NHL unless he breaks both legs and they have to saw them off because he desires to be at the top of the world,” Maxner said.
Warriner may well be atop the hockey world June 20 in Montreal. That’s when the left winger could be the first choice of either the Ottawa Senators or Tampa Bay Lightning. A coin flip will determine which of the expansion teams gets first pick overall.
“Todd is a realist,” Maxner said. “The draft is one thing. Performing is another. He knows if you don’t perform well, you don’t get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
Warriner is consumed by a desire to play in the NHL.
“That dream has been inside me for so long,” said the teenager with matinee idol looks. “It makes my heart beat so much faster when I think about it. I think about the money, the fame. I want it real bad.”
Warriner missed a month this season with a left knee injury but still scored 41 goals and 82 points in 50 games to earn a berth on the Canadian Hockey League second all-star team.
It wasn’t an entirely satisfying season, however. Warriner expressed vague concerns about how the Spitfires’ organization conducted its business this season.
Windsor went through three coaches in 1991-92: Brad Smith, Maxner and Dave Prpich, the last of whom was fired after the Spitfires lost in the first round of the playoffs. Maxner was then given back the coach’s title.
“If things carry on the way they have been,” Warriner said in a May 15 telephone interview, “then I’d probably look to get out of there but I really enjoy playing with the guys who are coming back.
“They’re great guys and I don’t want to screw them. If things change and they’re fine, then I’d be more than happy but there are some things that are up in the air.”
Warriner did not deny there were troubles between him and Maxner but he has not ruled out playing for the controversial major junior hockey executive again. “Yeah, I’ll be back if he’s there,” Warriner said. “(But) I think there are some things that have to change. A lot of people do.”
One of the sore points this past season was an incident in which Maxner directed the team bus driver to return home from Guelph although three players were not aboard. Maxner said it was an oversight.
“I never had a problem with Todd,” Maxner said May 15 in a telephone interview. “He was in my office two weeks ago and if he wasn’t happy I think he’d be man enough to say something.”
Whatever problems might exist between Maxner and Warriner, the coach-GM is effusive in his praise of the player.
“In terms of character, I’d rate him with a Brendan Shanahan (of the St. Louis Blues),” Maxner said. “It’s the way he handles himself away from the ice. He probably does it as well as any 18-year-old I’ve seen.”
Warriner has no reluctance about reporting to any NHL team that selects him.
“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “I’m not going to pull any Eric Lindros scams. I’ll be happy to go wherever I’m picked.”
Although nobody in the 1992 draft class is described as a franchise player, Warriner joins Medicine Hat Tigers’ defenseman Mike Rathje and Czechoslovakian defenseman Roman Hamrlik in an elite group that has separated itself from the pack.
Warriner, 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, is an excellent skater who possesses exceptional hockey sense and scoring skills. The second-year OHLer was leading the league in goals before the injury.
“He jumps out at you,” said one scout. “He catches your attention. You don’t have to go looking for him. Right from Day 1 when he arrived in Windsor, I said this kid has something going for him. He’s got a chance to be a player and I’d bet the farm on this guy.”
Warriner knows all about farms; he grew up in the rural southwestern Ontario community of Blenheim, pop. 4,800. His father, Ivan, is a seed corn salesman, his mother, Janet, a former skater in the Ice Follies, and his older sister, Julianne, a strong supporter.
“We went shopping at Christmas and all he could talk about was how much better he needs to get,” Julianne said. “He never thinks he’s good enough to do some of the things he’s actually doing. But he’s so motivated, I know he’ll make it.”
So do a host of people in Blenheim who plan on sharing the moment with Warriner’s family in Montreal. Twenty hotel rooms have been booked to accommodate friends.
One of Warriner’s oldest friends is Fay Heatherington, Warriner’s teacher in Grade 5 at Harwich-Raleigh Public School.
“She whipped me into shape,” Warriner said. “In Grade 3 and 4, I was always in trouble and I spent a lot of time out in the hall. I had to take this pink book home to my parents each day telling them if I’d been a good boy or a bad boy. I liked attention and I was always disturbing the other kids. But that changed when I went into Grade 5.”
Heatherington, retired after 38 years as a teacher, would have made a good hockey coach. “I didn’t want dead wood in my class,” she said. “I wanted the best they had to offer.”
The NHL awaits the best Todd Warriner has to offer.
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