THN Archive: Before Verbeek Became Ducks GM, He Was a Bona Fide Star

Anaheim Ducks GM Pat Verbeek was a hockey fanatic as a kid, but he quickly became a high-impact player and is now a highly respected force off the ice.

Since he took over the job of the Anaheim Ducks’ GM, Pat Verbeek has operated in relative silence, remaking the roster with the knowledge he’d need a few years before the team was a legitimate Stanley Cup threat. However, some newer hockey fans might not remember what a force Verbeek was as a player – and in THN’s Nov. 15, 1991 edition, Verbeek was front and center on the cover, which asked the question, “Is This Man A Star?”

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In the main story on Verbeek, writer Al Morganti profiled the quiet-but-determined Verbeek, going right back to his early days growing up in small-town Wyoming, Ont. Verbeek was typically humble as a young star, telling Morganti he was a hockey super-fan before he became a super-player.

“I was one of those kids who watched all the hockey I could,” Verbeek said, “and maybe it sounds corny, but I knew what I wanted to do from when I was very, very little and it was a dream come true. And then you realize that this is as much a business as it is a sport, and you have to deal with the contract stuff.”

In his time as Ducks GM, Verbeek has had a showdown of sorts with some of his young stars – including Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale – and he learned how to manage a team from his time working with former Detroit teammate Steve Yzerman in the latter’s time running the Tampa Bay Lightning and Red Wings. It was never all about statistics for Verbeek as a player, and that attitude carried over to his work as a GM.

In the other element of the cover story, Verbeek was ranked as a top-50 NHL star – not quite up there with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, but in the same area as Brian Bellows, Guy Carbonneau, Mark Recchi and Doug Gilmour. Verbeek was noted as the only player in the two seasons leading up to the article to lead his team in goals (44 and 43) and penalty minutes (228 and 246).

But there’s no question he appreciated players who bring positive intangibles to the table. Verbeek was indeed a star, but as a player, he loved looking at things that couldn’t be summed up by numbers.

“There are intangibles which a lot of people do not take into consideration,” Verbeek said. “There are things you can’t take into arbitration and look at like statistics.”

Vol. 45, Issue 9, Nov. 15, 1991

By Al Morganti

Pat Verbeek just wouldn’t bite. No matter how many times we asked where he ranks among the game’s best left wingers, the Hartford Whaler wouldn’t nibble.

Verbeek comes from a down-to-earth farming family in Wyoming, Ont., and if brash comments were to appear in print, the story just might end up in the manure pile somewhere behind the barn.

“Just who does does Patty think he is anyway,” the conversation would likely begin, “a star or something?”

Well, whether Verbeek cares to whisper it or shout it from atop the state capital building in Hartford, the message should be clear: Pat Verbeek is a bona-fide, legitimate, sign-my-hockey card-please star player in the NHL.

Just don’t ask him where he-ranks in the league’s star system.

“What you’re asking me to do is compare myself to other players and that’s not easy without sounding self-centered,” he says. “I think my stats speak to that and I think what we asked for in my contract also speaks to that.”

Verbeek is asking for a new deal that would pay him $1.1 million this season; the Whalers are reportedly offering $700,000. The two sides are headed for arbitration. No hearing date has been set. Verbeek is currently in the option year of a contract that pays him $250,000 this season.

“When you’re a kid, you dream about playing,” Verbeek says. “I was one of those kids who watched all the hockey I could, and maybe it sounds corny, but I knew what I wanted to do from when I was very, very little and it was a dream come true. And then you realize that this is as much a business as it is a sport, and you have to deal with the contract stuff. I know, a million dollars, it’s a lot of money.”

Should Verbeek succeed in reaching the seven-digit stratosphere, he would join a select group of 16 other NHLers who will earn in excess of $1 million this season according to a salary survey published by the Toronto Star. (See page 44 for listing of NHL salaries.)

Verbeek sat out the Whalers’ first three games to protest a contract that will pay him $250,000 during this, his option year. He had four goals and 10 points in nine games.

“It’s a lot of money,” Verbeek admits of his demands, “but I really think if you compare numbers, I come out pretty well. And when you add in the time I’ve put into the league, and the intangibles I don’t think it’s out of line. Not at all.”

Verbeek has clearly earned a place among the four best left wingers in the NHL. They are the Los Angeles Kings’ Luc Robitaille, 25, the best scorer who will earn $1.1 million in 1991-92; Pittsburgh Penguins’ Kevin Stevens, 26, the prototypical power forward who will earn $1,375 million; Edmonton Oilers’ Esa Tikkanen, 26, the most complete player who will earn $800,000; and Verbeek, 27, the…

That’s part of the problem. How do you define Verbeek? Let’s start with his stats:

- Verbeek, a converted right winger, ranks second to Robitaille (241-194) in goals by left wingers over the past five seasons.
- He has averaged 39 goals per season while playing with teams that have never reached the NHL’s higher echelon.
- Verbeek set single-season records for goals (46) and plus-minus (plus-29) with the New Jersey Devils before his trade to Hartford in the summer of 1989.
- He has been the leading goal-scorer and second-leading point-getter in each of his two seasons with the Whalers.

Care for something a little more esoteric?

Verbeek was the highest-ranking left winger on the Inside HOCKEY dominance index last season—a new statistic that measures the impact of individual players on their team’s offense.

No other left winger was as dominant a scorer on his team as Verbeek with the low-scoring Whalers. Verbeek finished 20th in league scoring with 82 points but was 13th on the dominance index. Robitaille was 13th with 91 points but 31st on the DI; Tikkanen was 39th with 69 points and 35th; and Stevens was 17th with 86 points and 41st. Verbeek and playmaking center John Cullen represent the heart of Hartford’s offense.

Verbeek’s numbers are not hollow statistics compiled by a 5-foot-9 gnat who floats around the perimeter. Maybe he’s not in Dale Hunter’s category, but Verbeek does his damage in the comers and actually led the Devils in penalty minutes four times. It’s a combination of goal scoring and physical play which he has carried over to the Whalers. Verbeek was the only player the last two seasons to lead his team in goals (44 and 43) and penalty minutes (228 and 246).

“There are intangibles which a lot of people do not take into consideration,” Verbeek says. “There are things you can’t take into arbitration and look at like statistics.”

One of those intangibles could have been a place on Team Canada for Canada Cup ’91—but it was not meant to be. Verbeek was an early and unhappy cut. He was the only player to make a fuss about being let go. “It just seemed to me that I didn’t get a fair chance,” Verbeek says. “I just think there were certain decisions made even before the camp. I don’t know, maybe I just don’t have the…”

The profile. It’s time that changed.

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