LaFayette, who was one of the main characters from the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals against the Rangers, says “certain moments get cemented in people’s minds.”
Go ahead. Ask Nathan LaFayette. He knows it’s coming.
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“My name means different things to different people. Sometimes it’s instantaneous, with my part in Game 7,” said LaFayette, now 51, who moved back to the Lower Mainland just over four years ago and is a senior vice-president and chief insurance officer for BCAA. “Sometimes, I’ve known somebody for six months and they’ll suddenly go, ‘You’re the guy.’
“It’s fine. If someone has a negative reaction, I remind them, ‘Look … I was 21 years old, on the ice in Game 7 with six minutes to go.’ It’s a big deal to be on the ice in the third period of a game like that.
“I think the irony for me is that if it went in I wouldn’t be remembered. Who scored our first goal? Who scored our second goal? Some people know, I’m sure. But if I scored, it would have been who scored the game winner who was remembered. If I missed the net or hit him in the stomach, it wouldn’t be remembered. I hit the post, and that’s what makes it memorable.
“That’s part of what’s so amazing about sports — certain moments get cemented in people’s minds. I just happen to be one of those moments.”
LaFayette had helped Canada win the world juniors the year before. He had been the Blues’ third-round selection in the 1991 draft out of the OHL’s Cornwall Royals program. He was the Canadian Hockey League’s scholastic player of the year in 1991-92. He had won the OHL’s version of the award for a second time that season, and his LinkedIn page lists stints at York University and the University of Ottawa while playing junior.
It’s still easy to wonder how things might have played out for that particular Vancouver team and the franchise as a whole had the Canucks won that night.
Pat Quinn stepped down as coach that off-season, looking to focus on his general manager duties. Rick Ley took over running the bench.
And then the next season started late, the result of the NHL owners locking out players when negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement reached an impasse. The regular season wound up starting in January and was just 48 games.
That was the first of five straight seasons where the Canucks failed to have a winning regular season record. The 1994 Finals team was disassembled along the way.
LaFayette isn’t sure what a Stanley Cup win would have meant for the direction of his career. He wound up playing 187 regular season games in the NHL over six seasons and maintains that if he had been a part of Vancouver winning the big prize, “I don’t know whether I would have went on to play 400 games or 100 games.”
He did get into 27 more regular season contests with Vancouver the season after those playoffs. He was traded in April 1995 to the Rangers for goaltender Corey Hirsch.
“Winning a Cup definitely would have meant something to me and, even moreso, I look around at the other guys with that team,” LaFayette continued. “In terms of things I regret, I regret it for those people. There were so many people who deserved a Cup in terms of what they put into that team and who they were as human beings.”
Quinn, who passed away in 2014, is at the top of his list.
“He was an amazing leader. He’s certainly had a positive impact on me as a leader,” explained LaFayette. “He wasn’t particularly sophisticated with strategy, but he was clear as day communicating it and holding people accountable in a professional way. Do these things, and this will happen. Don’t do them, and you’ll be in the minors.
“The messaging was crystal clear and consistent. That was something I didn’t realize in real time that I was learning, but looking back it’s left an impression on me.”
There was still a sting to losing that series, LaFayette admits. Being dealt to the Rangers “derailed” him for a time, because he “couldn’t accept that I got traded to the enemy.”
“I was bitter,” he continued. “I was no longer a part of Vancouver.
“I get why they made the trade. Corey Hirsch is an amazing guy. I’ve gotten to know him over the years. It’s not about any of the people involved. It was the circumstance of no longer being a part of something that was so special to me.
“I walked into the New York dressing room and I was like, ‘I hate you, I hate you, and I hate you.’ It was Brian Leetch and Mark Messier and Nick Kypreos. They had my Stanley Cup, in my mind. And please understand they were amazing to me. They welcomed me. They were fantastic. Probably a week later, I was over it. But I was a bad hockey player for that time. I started playing better, but the damage was done in the short term in New York.”
LaFayette’s stay with the Rangers was brief, and he spent much of it in the minors, suiting up for just 17 games with the big club in his two-season stint there. He was part of a seven-player swap in March 1996, going to the Los Angeles Kings along with centres Ray Ferraro and Ian Laperriere and defencemen Mattias Norstrom in return for wingers Jari Kurri and Shane Churla and defenceman Marty McSorley.
LaFayette spent four seasons with the Kings, getting into 94 games over that time. He played his last games in pro in 1999-2000 with the AHL’s Lowell Lock Monsters.
“There were some dark moments,” he said of his time in pro hockey. “I played in a Stanley Cup Final in Game 7. A couple of years later, I was a healthy scratch in the minors. That’s a lot of distance to cover.”
He is someone who has been in Vancouver when the fan base is engaged like it has been for the past couple of years.
That buy-in and team chemistry are integral to success, says LaFayette, explaining that they are “separate, but both necessary.”
LaFayette says that it is chemistry that “gets you through the rough patches,” and teams that aren’t connected “start falling apart quickly,” when losing streaks and lacklustre play hits. As for buy-in, LaFayette says believing in the larger team plan is “the only way, because you can’t win on skill alone.”
“It gets harder and harder,” he continued. “The first round gets harder and the second round gets harder, and so on. Buy-in is the only way you get through that.”
QUICK HITS WITH NATHAN LAFAYETTE
What do people not realize about Pat Quinn?
“He was a bit of a softy. You hear people talk about him as this hard man, a bit of a wall with no emotion. He was a warm-hearted human being. He was passionate. A great people person. He was tough as nails, but also super relatable.”
Who doesn’t get enough credit for the Canucks’ 1994 run?
“I think the entire defence. They were just so miserable to play against. (Jyrki) Lumme was phenomenal. I think he was the most highly rated and he was underrated.”
What was Pavel Bure like as a teammate?
