A Brief History of Cooperalls - From the Broad Street Bullies to Brass Bonanza

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the sartorial splendor widely known as Cooperalls, for on this date in 1981, they made their NHL debut when the Philadelphia Flyers took to the ice in their full-length pants versus the Detroit Red Wings.

While many scoff at and scorn the Cooperalls, ranking them with other such sports uniform misfits as the 1976 Chicago White Sox shorts, we here at Third String Goalie embrace not only the concept of the Cooperalls, but their look as well. In our opinion, they made the players look taller and sleeker. If football and baseball players can look good in long pants, why not hockey players?

Even the basic idea of long pants for hockey players just makes so much sense to us. Why players would ever wear short pants for a winter sport played on ice, we will never quite understand...

The Cooperalls were first developed in order to increase player safety and protection, as the pads under the Cooperalls were held tightly to the body, unable to shift out of place like the current pads of the day, which would leave the player exposed to injuries, their tailbone in particular.

The original "Cooperalls" worn by the Flyers in 1981-82 were black with an orange stripe trimmed in white which ran down the length of the leg and were actually not Cooperalls, but a CCM version of the Cooperalls called CCM Pro Guard. Philadelphia completed their first season in the long pants with a 38-31-11 record, which was good for 87 points, placing them sixth in the Wales Conference.

Cooperalls were also reportedly worn by the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1981-82 pre-season, but despite a reported game worn pair for sale on ebay, no photographic or video evidence of game action to support this claim is readily available.

For the 1982-83 season, the Flyers long pants returned, only this time in solid black, adorned only with a large Flyers logo at the ankle of each leg. Philadelphia rose to a 49-23-8 record, good for a Patrick Division title and second overall in the Wales Conference. Unfortunately for the Flyers faithful, they would be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs both seasons at the hands of the New York Rangers.

The Flyers were joined by the Hartford Whalers in wearing "Cooperalls" for the 1982-83 season, with the Whalers version featuring a full-length pair of blue stripes surrounded by three white stripes, which again were actually the CCM version.

The Whalers did the full length pants look no favors with their on-ice performance, as they tied for last in the league with 45 points following a 19-54-7 record.

Following the 1982-83 season the NHL outlawed the long pants on the grounds of player safety, as the outer fabric of the pants was made out of what was comparable to a nylon windbreaker which was more slippery than the traditional hockey pants/knit socks combination, and any player who fell while wearing them would skid relatively unabated into the boards at a much faster speed than previously.

Still, it wasn't just the Flyers and Whalers who wore the "Cooperalls", as Canada's junior leagues and high schools in Minnesota also wore them for a period of time.

Brendan Shanahan of the London Knights in his Cooperalls

Brett Hull of the Penticton Vees sporting his Cooperalls

For those of you who think that 1983 was the last of the "Cooperalls" on NHL ice, think again, for it was on Halloween night in 2002 that Jeremy Roenick took to the ice during warmups for the Flyers upcoming game against the Phoenix Coyotes wearing a blond wig, blacked-out front teeth, striped "Cooperalls" and a #16 Bobby Clarke sweater!

Perhaps it's now time to revisit the idea of the long pants. We're actually surprised that Reebok hasn't taken this one on yet. After all, they were bold enough to reinvent the hockey jersey, so why not change the pants while you are at it? Doing so certainly would have no doubt taken away some of the negative attention the the jerseys at the time.

Additionally, in the last 30 years there certainly have been many innovations and advances in fabric technology to the point that the basic excuse for banning Cooperalls in the first place, the slick fabric, could now easily be addressed by any number of equipment manufacturers.

After all, think of all the other men's sports at the Winter Olympics, alpine and cross-country skiing, bobsled and luge, curling, figure skating, speed skating, ski jumping and snowboarding, and just how many of those winter sports feature competitors wearing short pants? Right. Not one. Not even figure skating's Johnny Weir.

Even if the old guard would refuse to allow the return of the late, great Cooperalls full time, there is an opportunity staring us in the face that is just too good to pass up. The Flyers have been chosen to host the 2012 Winter Classic. In advance of that announcement some clever designer proposed a Flyers jersey based on the original Philadelphia franchise of the 1930's, the Quakers. While it is a darn fine concept, it was immediately put into production by the Chinese knockoff industry, ruining it's chances at life, as to now select that design would be to validate the bootleggers already extensive production run which has now flooded the market.

With that design now seemingly out, and the Flyers having had so few changes in style of their sweaters over the last 40 plus years, the one thing that has changed has been their pants, and the time is right for a return to the Cooperalls/CCM PRo Guard long pants of yore. It is, after all, an outdoor game, and wouldn't a nice warm pair of long pants (perhaps lined with some modern high tech Therma Base/Polartec/Thermal Dri-FIT/Play Warm fabric) be just the thing to keep you warm against winter's chill rather than shorts and socks? Jeremy Roenick thinks so...

Perhaps we could be so bold as to suggest denim Cooperalls for that "old time pond hockey look" for this year's Winter Classic? Now we're talking!

Daniel Briere, Simon Gagne and Braydon Coburn modeling the Flyers 2010 Winter Classic jerseys, complete with long pants,

an idea whose time has returned!

Today's featured pants are the 1981-82 Philadelphia Flyers "Cooperalls". Not actually Cooperalls, but CCM Pro Guard pants, they were worn for only a single season. These pants, with their elegant long stripe down the leg, which served to accentuate that the pants were indeed full length, were a shock to the established look when they first appeared.

The stripe on the Flyers pants disappeared for the second season, with just a Flyers logo waaaaay down by the ankle of the otherwise all-black pants. Meanwhile, four hours to the north, the Hartford Whalers also adopted the long pants for one season and went all out to call attention to the full length of their pants with no less than five alternating white and green stripes.

While Philadelphia and Hartford actually both wore the CCM Pro Guard pants, the name "Cooperalls" has become the popular nomenclature for the full length hockey pants in the same way that all brands of tissues are commonly referred to as "Kleenex" while copiers are often referred to as a "Xerox machine" regardless of brand.

Today's video segment begins with footage of the Flyers wearing their Cooperalls from the first season of use, noted by the orange stripe down the legs.

This next clip from the WHL features Cam Neely of the Portland Winterhawks going toe-to-toe with Shawn Green of the New Westminster Bruins while both were wearing Cooperalls in the 1983-84 season.

In this next clip from the 1984 Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament, St. Paul Johnson takes on the Hill-Murray Pioneers during the Cooperall era. Note the clear boards of the old St. Paul Civic Center to complete the obscurity double!

Even French-Canadians and Soviets liked Cooperalls!

1979-80 Hartford Whalers Gordie Howe Jersey

A charter member of the World Hockey Association in the 1972-73 season, the New England Whalers actually started out life in Boston, Massachusetts in the backyard of the mighty Boston Bruins, who were fresh off a Stanley Cup winning season.

The Whalers gave it their best shot and not only finished with the best record in the new WHA with a 46-30-2 record that year, but also captured the inagural Avco World Trophy by winning three rounds of the playoffs by identical 4 games to 1 totals.

The Whalers lasted 2 1/2 seasons in Boston, but sagging attendance led the owners to relocate the team to Hartford - in mid season! The Whalers were successful in Hartford, still playing as the "New England" Whalers, never missing the playoffs in it's seven years in the WHA.

Easily the most recognizable names to play for the New England Whalers in their WHA days were hockey legend Gordie Howe and his sons Mark Howe and Marty Howe.

With the "merger" of the WHA and NHL, the Whalers were one of the four teams to survive the end of the WHA, but because of lobbying by the Boston Bruins, one of the conditions of the Whalers being allowed into the NHL was the dropping of "New England" from the team's name.

The move to the NHL was a rough one for the Whalers and they only had three winning seasons for their eighteen years in the NHL. While they did manage to qualify for the playoffs eight times, including seven in a row from 1986 to 1992, they only won a single playoff series in their NHL history, knocking out fellow WHA refugee the Quebec Nordiques in an opening round best-of-five three games to none in 1986.

One reason for the Whalers failure to improve was a history of horrible trades, including Mike Rogers (5th in NHL scoring in 1980 and 7th in 1981), Mark Howe, Gordie Roberts, Chris Pronger, Brendan Shanahan, Paul Coffey and worst of all, fan favorite Ron Francis.

Following their run of playoff appearances, they sunk back down in the standings and missed the playoffs for their final five seasons in Hartford.

The demise of the Whalers in Hartford began in 1994 when the club was purchased by Peter Karmanos, who quickly grew frustrated by the corporate support in Hartford and mediocre attendance. Karmanos began to make demands, including the sale of 11,000 season tickets and the desire for a new arena.

The negotiations for a new arena disintegrated when Karmanos demanded that the state of Connecticut reimburse the Whalers for up to $45 million in losses during the three years the new arena would be under construction. When the team gave up on getting a new arena, they announced on March 26, 1997 that they would be moving but had yet to pick a destination!

The Whalers final game was played on this date in 1997, a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, with Kevin Dineen scoring the final goal in Whalers history.

Many factors worked against the team in Hartford, including Hartford being the smallest market in the NHL, it's arena having the smallest capacity in the league and few private suites, and being located in between long time hockey cities of Boston (102 miles) and New York (122 miles).

The Whalers statistical leaders for their time in the NHL include Francis, who holds the record for Most Games (714), Goals (264), Assists (557) and Points (821) and goaltenders Sean Burke, who has the most Games Played (256), and Mike Liut, who holds the marks for Most Wins (115) and Shutouts (13).

Today's featured jersey is a 1979-80 Hartford Whalers Gordie Howe jersey. This is the first style of jersey worn by the Whalers franchise when they entered the NHL. Their original green road and white home 1972-73 WHA jerseys featured a "W" with a harpoon in a circle, which was simplified to just a larger "W" and harpoon, with the addition of gold trim to their green and white colors, for 1973-74. Those jerseys survived relatively unchanged for the remainder of their days in the WHA.

Upon entering the NHL, and undergoing their name change from "New England" to "Hartford" they club modernized their jerseys, debuting a clever new logo of a "W" topped off by a whale tail, with the negative space creating a subtle "H" for those clever fans who studied it long enough. The addition of blue trim made for an attractive set of jerseys, still topped off by the "Pucky the Whale" shoulder patches, worn since day one in the WHA.

That set of jerseys underwent some minor changes in striping, plus an experiment with the controversial Cooperalls in 1982-83, and the elimination of "Pucky the Whale" in 1983-84, but remained essentially the same basic jersey until the 1992-93 season, when a radical redesign saw the road jerseys no longer green for the first time in club history, as blue was the new main color.

Today's video section begins with the final goal in Whalers history, scored in this date in 1997 by Whalers captain Kevin Dineen.

Here is a report showing the end of that final Whalers game, although it is in French, the images capture the moment and there is also some good historical footage and photos of the Whalers.

No post about the Hartford Whalers would be complete without a mention of the Whalers theme song, "Brass Bonanza", also known as the "Whalers Victory March". Adopted by the Whalers as their theme song during their days in the WHA, it remained so through their years in the NHL. Gordie Howe was once quoted as saying that he loved to hear it as a visiting player for the Houston Aeros, but hearing it every night with the Whalers "began to drive me nuts."

1984-85 Hartford Whalers Mike Liut Jersey

While attending Bowling Green University from 1973-74 to 1976-77, goaltender Mike Liut was named to the CCHA First All-Star Team twice and named the CCHA Player of the Year in 1977. Also while at Bowling Green, Liut was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft.

Liut chose instead of join the Cincinnati Stingers of the rival World Hockey Association for the 1977-78 season and played in 27 games as a backup.

For 1978-79 he took over as the number one goalie for the Stingers and won 23 games in 54 appearances in what was the last season of the WHA.

His rights were reclaimed by the Blues as part of the provisions of the merger between the NHL and WHA and Liut was immediately installed as the Blues starter, a position he held down for the next five seasons. He introduced himself to the NHL with 32 wins in his first season to lead the league and 33 wins the next, which led to a runner-up finish in the Hart Trophy voting for league MVP. He was however, awarded the 1981 Lester Pearson Award for league MVP as voted by the players. He also appeared in the 1981 NHL All-Star Game where he was named the game's MVP.

On the heels of his outstanding regular season, Liut was named the starting goaltender for Team Canada for the 1981 Canada Cup, where he led Canada to the finals with a 4-1-1 record in six games.

For the next three seasons with the Blues Liut played strongly and averaged 25 wins per season. He was on his way to a repeat of those numbers when he was traded to the Hartford Whalers midway through the 1984-85 season.

As the Whalers lead goaltender Liut continued his solid play, leading the league in shutouts with four in 1986-87, no mean feat during the high scoring 1980's. In his first season with the Whalers, Liut recorded 27 wins and then topped 30 for the third time in his career with 31, followed by 25 more in 1987-88.

In the 1989-90 season Liut led the league with the lowest goals against average of 2.53 despite a late season trade to the Washington Capitals. For the final two seasons of Liut's career he shared time with incumbent Don Beaupre before being forced to retire due to back problems.

Throughout his career he became recognized for both his #1 sweater he wore during his entire career, as well as his distinctive snow white mask, which remained unadorned throughout his NHL career despite his flashy mask worn while in the WHA.

Liut finished his career with 294 wins and 25 shutouts in 14 NHL seasons in addition to the 31 wins and 4 shutouts he recorded in the WHA.

Today's featured jersey is a 1984-85 Hartford Whalers Mike Liut jersey. This would be the only season Liut would wear this specific style of jersey, as the next season Pucky the Whale would disappear for good from the shoulders of the jerseys and the green stripe at the bottom of the jersey would also vanish, making the bottom of the sweaters white from then on.

Today's video selection is a run down of the 1988-89 Hartford Whalers and their many pornstaches.

Here is video of Liut in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Note the "birdcage" helmet he's wearing rather than his trademark mask, as well as the short-lived Blues jerseys with the team name on the front, worn only for three seasons starting with 1984-85, the year Liut was traded to Hartford.

1978-79 Montreal Canadiens Pierre Larouche Jersey

Born on this date in 1955, Pierre Larouche began his junior hockey career with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL in 1972. There, he scored 13 points in 20 games before moving over to the Sorel Black Hawks, where he announced his presence with 47 goals, plus 54 assists, for 101 points in just 43 games.

The next season he buried the accelerator and won the Jean Beliveau Trophy as the league's leading scorer when he scored 251 points from 94 goals and 157 assists in 67 games, an average of 3.75 points and 1.4 goals per game. His 251 points were a league record which stood for ten years until surpassed by Mario Lemieux's 282 in 70 games.

Despite his record setting point totals in juniors, Larouche was not picked until the eighth selection of the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins, the fifth forward taken.

He adjusted to the NHL game quickly, and after scoring 31 goals and 68 points as a rookie, Larouche became only the 16th player in league history to score 50 goals in a season, which he accomplished in just his second year of professional hockey, with 53 goals in 1975-76. Additionally, he had even more assists, 58, for 111 points for fifth place in that year's scoring race. His 50 goals and 100 points made him the youngest player to ever accomplish both feats.

Limited to 65 games the following season, his point totals dropped to 63, and following the Penguins quick exit from the playoffs, Larouche was a member of Team Canada at the 1977 World Championships, Canada's first world championship following their boycott due to the rules on professionalism.

After 20 games of the 1977-78 season, the French-Canadian Larouche was acquired by the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Peter Mahovlich and Peter Lee. Larouche was an odd fit under the guidance of head coach Scotty Bowman, who was not the greatest fan of Larouche's frankly offense only style of play. Still, it was a good time to join the Canadiens and after 49 points in 44 games, Larouche won a Stanley Cup ring as a member of the champions.

The following season was more of the same, limited playing time and another championship, as Larouche only saw action in 36 games. Things changed however, when Bowman left the Canadiens and was replaced by "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, who knew a thing or two about goal scoring himself.

Freed of Bowman's control, Larouche was again free to play his style of game and responded with the second 50 goal season of his career, the first player to ever score 50 goals for two different teams. After one more season in Montreal, Larouche was traded to the Hartford Whalers after playing 22 games for the Canadiens in 1981-82.

Larouche would play 83 games for Hartford over the course of the next two seasons and then sign with the New York Rangers as a free agent in time for the 1983-84 season. His new surroundings energized Larouche after playing with the cellar dwelling Whalers, and he scored 48 goals and 81 points in 77 games, yet he was a -15 in plus/minus. The next year followed the same pattern, with 60 points in 65 games and a -17 rating.

The Rangers sent Larouche to the minors for the start of the 1985-86 season. While with the Hershey Bears of the AHL, he scored 20 goals in 32 games before being recalled by the Rangers, where he scored 28 goals and 63 points in 73 games, one of the few players to score 20 goals in two leagues in the same season. His career wrapped up with 12 points in 10 games of the 1987-88 season before Larouche retired.

Today's featured jersey is a 1978-79 Montreal Canadiens Pierre Larouche jersey worn during the season when Larouche won his second Stanley Cup as a member of the Canadiens dynasty of the 1970's.

While not as famous as the Canadiens iconic red jerseys, the white Montreal jersey first appeared in 1935 and gained it's red shoulders in 1941. Aside from a brief three year run in the mid 1940's where the Canadiens jerseys had white shoulders and a blue band around the chest, a style now often worn by Montreal as a throwback or alternate style, the white jersey with red shoulders has remained in use for nearly 70 years.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1982-83 Hartford Whalers Pierre Larouche jersey. This style of jersey was used from their entry into the NHL in 1979 through 1985 and is infamous for having been one of only two NHL jerseys to have been worn with the controversial Cooperalls, the full-length pants that proved to be too radical for the tradition-leaden NHL. The pants were eventually banned in the name of safety, as the slick, slippery fabric they were constructed from regularly sent players skidding into the boards, but in our opinion made the players look taller, sleeker and faster.

Why players would ever wear short pants for a winter sport, we will never quite understand...

In today's video segment, a profile of Larouche while a member of the Hartford Whalers. Be sure to note the size of his wife's hair and a glimpse of the Cooperalls in action.

1977-78 New England Whalers Rick Ley Jersey

Founded in 1972, the World Hockey Association began it's first season with an ambitious twelve member clubs located in Cleveland, Boston, New York, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Quebec, Edmonton, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota and Winnipeg.

Team movement began before the second season had even begun, with Philadelphia relocating to Vancouver and Ottawa finding a new home in Toronto, while New York moved over to New Jersey and underwent a name change.

The third season saw expansion to Indianapolis and Phoenix, while the New Jersey franchise relocated cross-country to San Diego as Los Angeles moved to Detroit for just half a season prior to moving to Baltimore before folding for good after the season, as did Chicago.

And so it went for the next four seasons with additions such as Cincinnati and Denver, teams moving to Calgary, Ottawa again, Birmingham, Minnesota again, while clubs in San Diego, Phoenix, Calgary and Houtson folded after their seasons ended.

Worse, clubs were no longer waiting until the conclusion of the season to fold, as Ottawa, Minnesota (twice) and Indianapolis all called it quits mid-season.

Still, the four constants during all the meandering and bankruptcies were the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and New England Whalers, although in the interest of fairness it must be noted that the Whalers did relocate from Boston 91 miles up the freeway to Hartford, Connecticut midway though the 1974-75 season while keeping the "New England" moniker throughout.

The Whalers won the first WHA championship in 1973 and made the finals again in 1978. Finally after several years of negotiations and failed attempts, the Oilers, Jets, Nordiques and Whalers were granted expansion status into the NHL, leaving Birmingham and Cincinnati out in the cold. The original merger/expansion vote was initially rejected by a single vote but a massive boycott of Molson products in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec City led to the Montreal Canadiens, who were owned by Molson at the time, and the Vancouver Canucks to change their votes during a second ballot, approving the plan on March 22, 1979.

One provision of the expansion, as the NHL chose to treat it, rather than a "merger", was the Boston Bruins insisting that the Whalers drop "New England" from their name. Thus, on this date in 1979, the New England Whalers formally changed their name to the Hartford Whalers.

The WHA teams were severely restricted by the terms of the deal. Since they were being treated as expansion clubs, they each were required to pay a $6 million franchise fee to enter the NHL, as well as returning any player who had left the NHL to join the WHA without compensation after being allowed to protect just two goalies and two skaters. They were also placed at the end of the line for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft, rather than having picks 1-4 as any normal expansion club would expect.

The Whalers chose to keep Jordy Douglas, Mark Howe and goaltender John Garrett. An agreement was also reached which allowed Gordie Howe to remain in Hartford despite the Detroit Red Wings legally having the right to reclaim the now 50 year old Howe.

The Whalers did lose Alan Hangsleben (Canucks), Rick Ley (Maple Leafs), George Lyle (Red Wings) and Warren Miller (Rangers) to their original clubs.

Once the reclaiming process was completed, an expansion draft was held, which allowed each NHL team to protect 15 skaters and two goalies before the "new" clubs were allowed to restock their rosters at a cost of $125,000 for each player chosen.

Thus, the Whalers paid $250,000 to simply keep Ley and Hangsleben on their roster in the end when they reclaimed the pair among the 16 players they selected at a cost of $2 million on top of the $6 million they had already been charged simply for the right to become a member of the NHL.

The move to the NHL resulted in an overhaul of the team's sweaters and logo. While the original team colors were simply green and white, gold trim was added for the second season while the crest was simplified to a "W" bisected by a harpoon. These jerseys would remain in use for three seasons before some striping changes to the road jerseys and the player's names changing from one color to two in 1976-77. The home jersey waist striping was changed to mirror that of the road jerseys in 1977-78 through the final WHA season of 1978-79.

On entry to the NHL, gold was dropped in favor of royal blue and a completely new jersey was designed to compliment the brand new, much more modernized team logo.

Today's featured jersey is a 1977-78 New England Whalers Rick Ley jersey. This was the third variation of road jerseys used by the Whalers while in the WHA and differed from the second version only in the waist stripes. No longer was it a wide white stripe with gold trim three stripe pattern, but now a main white stripe (thinner than previous) bordered with a pair of green stripes which were then in turn bordered by a pair of gold stripes in a five stripe "Northwestern" pattern as featured on today's jersey.

Ley played four seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to moving to the Whalers for their inaugural WHA season of 1972-73 through the demise of the WHA in 1979, being named team captain in 1975.

While Ley was reclaimed by the Maple Leafs as part of the expansion process, the Whalers reclaimed him from the Maple Leafs (for $125,000) and he played two more seasons with the renamed Hartford Whalers in the NHL, remaining team captain until 1980.

He would play 310 NHL games and 478 in the WHA with a combined 47 goals and 329 points plus 1244 penalty minutes. His #2 was one of only three numbers retired by the Whalers franchise.

Today's video section begins with Rick Ley scoring a shorthanded goal with speed and a nifty move for the Whalers.

Here Ley is later interviewed later on in the same game.

Here is a video scouting report on Ley with rare video clips from the Whalers very first season of 1972-73 using their original jerseys featuring the circle crest.

Our final clips today are the kind we just live for. First, the Whalers are introduced to the sounds of "Brass Bonanza" in an all-too-short clip, followed by game action from their December 27, 1976 Super Series meeting in which the New England Whalers defeated the Soviet National Team, with Vladislav Tretiak in goal, 5-2!

The Top Twenty Names in Hockey History

Here is the Top Twenty Names in Hockey History, as chosen by the staff of Third String Goalie. Don't agree? Send us your favorites in the comments below!

Top Twenty Names in Hockey History

20. Lou Franceschetti

19. Chico Maki

18. Branko Radivojevic

17. Lucien DeBlois (DEB Low Wah)

16. Maxim Afinogenov

15. Ilkka Sinisalo

14. Tony Twist

13. Pekka Rinne

12. Frank St. Marseille

11. Peter Sidorkiewicz

10. Kari Takko

9. Bubba Berenzweig

8. Sheldon Kannegiesser

7. Radek Bonk

6. Guillaume Latendresse

5. Ron Tugnutt

4. Parris Duffus

3. Valeri Zelepukin

2. Hakan Loob

And, without a doubt, the greatest name in hockey history, Zarley Zalapski, was born on this date in 1968.

Following two seasons of junior hockey Zalapski played three seasons for the Canadian National Team, then a season long proposition which many players used as a stepping stone to the NHL.

He was drafted fourth overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1986 NHL Entry Draft and made his NHL debut following the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. He would play four seasons for the Penguins, playing a high of 66 games before being traded near the end of the 1990-91 season and just missing out on the Penguins run to the Stanley Cup.

1987-88 Pittsburgh Penguins

1988-89 Pittsburgh Penguins

Notice the changes in the customization in the Penguins jerseys from Zalapski's rookie year to his sophomore season. The name on the back is thinner and without serifs, the number changes font and the sleeve numbers move from the shoulders down to the arms.

The Penguins dealt Zalapski to the Hartford Whalers as part of the Ron Francis trade, a move that saw Zalapski see an increase in playing time and career highs in points as a result. The defenseman's only 20 goal season of his career came in 1991-92 followed by a 65 point campaign the following season while wearing the Whalers green jerseys.

1990-91 Hartford Whalers

Prior to Zalapski's final season in Hartford, they would change to their new modernized jerseys, which featured blue road jerseys rather than the traditional green.

1993-94 Hartford Whalers jersey

Traded once more, Zalapski was on the move, this time north of the border to Calgary to join the Flames. Once in Calgary, he would find his customary #3 already in use by Frantisek Musil and adopt the #33 while skating for the Flames. He would play in five seasons with the Flames, although he would miss all but two games of the 1996-97 season with a knee injury suffered in practice.

1993-94 Calgary Flames

Zalapski played a more defensive role in Calgary, as he would never again approach the offensive numbers he achieved while in Pittsburgh and especially Hartford. Zalapski also was present for yet another uniform change, as the Flames finally moved away from their traditional jerseys, which remained unchanged, save for the crest, even after their relocation from Atlanta.

The bold new sweaters featured the addition of a shot of black, reminiscent of the change the Minnesota North Stars made in 1981, where the restrained use of black added to the jersey, rather than taking over, such as what the North Stars succumed to in 1991. The main feature of the new design was the arresting diagonal multi-stripe on the front of the jerseys, which originated just below the main crest and shot off in the direction of the right hip. These bold jerseys would remain in use for three seasons before becoming dated.

1994-95 Calgary Flames

After five seasons in Calgary, Zalapski was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens in a deal which brought Valeri Bure to Calgary. His stay in Montreal was brief, playing there for only the second half of the 1997-98 season. Now back in his customary #3 Zalapski would have the honor of wearing the classic "bleu, blanc et rouge" sweater of the storied Canadiens.

1997-98 Montreal Canadiens

The 1998-99 season would see Zalapski's first foray into European hockey with an abbreviated season of just 11 games with the ZSC Lions in Zurich, Switzerland. He returned to North America for the 1999-00 season, which included time with the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the IHL for seven games before spending the majority of the season with the Utah Grizzlies, also of the IHL and a return to the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers for 12 games.

1999-00 Philadelphia Flyers

His time in Philadelphia would be the conclusion of Zalapski's NHL career, which would finish with 637 games played with five teams, 99 goals and 285 assists for 384 points and one All-Star Game appearance in 1993.

He would begin the 2000-01 season with the Houston Aeros of the IHL for nine games before returning to Europe, this time with the Munich Barons of the German DEL.

2000-01 Munich Barons

A new season meant another new country, as the former NHL All-Star found himself with HC Merano of the Italian league for 26 games. Zalapski began to apparently "dabble" in hockey at this point, playing seven games with IF Bjorkloeven Umea in the Swedish second division in 2002-03, no hockey at all in 2003-04 and 11 games with the Kalamazoo Wings in the UHL in 2004-05.

The 2005-06 season saw a total of just 16 split between three clubs, EHC Visp in the Swiss second division, Innsbrucker EV in Austria and SC Rapperswill-Jona Lakers in the Swiss top division. He suited up for just five games in all of 2006-07 with EHC Chur in the Swiss second division leaving behind a trail of lightly used game worn jerseys in his wake!

2007-08 saw a more serious effort with 33 games for EHC Biel-Bienne, still in the Swiss second division and a move to EHC Olten for a 34 game season and one of the more unique team logos in the world of hockey.

2008-09 EHC Olten

Zalapski continues to play 22 years after his NHL debut, proving once more that there is life beyond the NHL, having moved to Lausanne HC in the Swiss second division and are currently involved in a playoff to determine promotion to the Swiss National League A, the top division of Swiss hockey for 2010-11. Lausanne currently leads Bienne three games to two in their best of seven series with Game 6 scheduled for today and Game 7 if needed on Saturday.

Today's video section begins with Zalapski scoring his first NHL goal on March 19, 1988 on a beautiful feed from Mario Lemieux.