'Savour Every Moment': Dionne always played bigger than his size

An NHL career is defined by many events, players present and past cherishing a single snapshot, a game or a broader body of work. Eight players reflect in our weekly eight-part series "Savour Every Moment" presented by Olymel, sharing a personal slice of what makes hockey a special part of their lives. Today, in the sixth part of the series, center Marcel Dionne reflects on forever playing larger than his size on his way to 1992 Hall of Fame induction.

Throughout his career, a great many people referenced Marcel Dionne's height, or lack of it.

Dionne was never one of them.

In fact, very little bothered this outspoken, legs-churning rain barrel on his way to 1992 Hockey Hall of Fame induction. Dionne was not merely one of the great small men in NHL history, he was one of the greats, period.

"I'm 5-foot-3, I'm shrinking," the 70-year-old said with a laugh from his home in Niagara Falls, Ontario, his tape measure 6 inches shorter than the one commonly used during his NHL career. "I have never, never had any issue with my height. That's very important. Never. Everybody else did, but it never crossed my mind."

Marcel Dionne and Star in March 2022 loving life in the great outdoors of Chippewa, Ontario.

Playing 1,348 NHL games for the Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers between 1971-89, the fiery center was a tower of offensive skill, scoring 1,771 regular-season points (731 goals, 1,040 assists) and another 45 points (21 goals, 24 assists) in 49 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Dionne won the Art Ross Trophy as the League's leading point-scorer with 137 in 1979-80 (53 goals, 84 assists), won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1974-75 and 1976-77 for sportsmanship and gentlemanly play and in 1978-79 and 1979-80 was recipient of the Lester B. Pearson Trophy (since 2010 the Ted Lindsay Award), voted to the most valuable player in the NHL by members of the NHL Players' Association.

He never won the Stanley Cup, but Dionne's firepower on offense saw him establish what then was the NHL rookie scoring record of 77 points (28 goals, 49 assists) in 1971-72 and pile up 366 points (139 goals, 227 assists) with the Red Wings from 1971-75. To that time, it was the greatest points total for a player in his first four NHL seasons.

The Los Angeles Kings' Triple Crown line of Dave Taylor (left), Marcel Dionne (center) and Charlie Simmer at the 1981 NHL All-Star Game.

With the Kings, Dionne scored at least 130 points in three consecutive seasons, from 1978-81, the Triple Crown line with Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer one of the day's finest. He put up six 50-goal seasons in a seven-season span, eight times in 11 seasons hitting at least 100 points (one with Detroit, seven with Los Angeles) before he was traded in 1987 to the Rangers, where he would finish his career.

The Kings retired Dionne's No 16 on Nov. 8, 1990.

If height never was an issue, nor was the native of Drummondville, Quebec short-changed on confidence, his superb statistics backed up by his cut-to-the-chase thoughts and opinions as a player and in retirement.

"I never had any problem winning, from the time I was a peewee through major junior," he said. "I knew what the game was all about but I didn't know at what level I could play, and that started right from playing bantam with Guy Lafleur and Gilbert Perreault."

The 1971 NHL Draft was almost going to be a coin toss for the No. 1 overall selection, Lafleur a superstar with the Quebec of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Dionne a scoring machine with St. Catharines of the Ontario Hockey Association. Perreault had entered the NHL with great fanfare the season before, the Buffalo Sabres making him the No. 1 pick in 1970.

As it turned out, the Montreal Canadiens chose Lafleur No. 1 in June 1971, the Red Wings only too happy to take Dionne right behind him.

"Going No. 2 never bothered me, I didn't care," said Dionne, who grew up 65 miles east of Montreal listening to Saturday night Canadiens games on the radio. "Guy and I had followed each other when I played Junior B in Drummondville and he was in Quebec (in 1967-68). We kicked his butt, it was incredible, but Guy was sort of a late bloomer."

St. Catharines roared to the 1970-71 Ontario title with a 4-0 sweep of Toronto, which featured future NHL forwards Steve Shutt, Billy Harris, Steve Gardner and Steve Vickers. By then Perreault was in his first season with the Sabres, bound for the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year, and Dionne recalls being impressed by the big center's puck-handling, playmaking and stickhandling.

But more than a half century later, Dionne can still recall the prediction of his future by an executive with Toronto of the OHA.

"When the series was over, he said I'd never have an NHL career as good as Perreault," he said. "That's some kind of talent evaluation. You've got to be careful with what you say."

Perreault would score 1,326 points (512 goals, 814 assists) in 1,191 games, 1.11 points per game, next to Dionne's 1,771 points, 1.31 per game.

"Turning pro was absolutely a nightmare," Dionne remembered, arriving for his first Red Wings training camp in the fall of 1971. "I was not prepared. My first day of camp, I never got on the ice. They sent me to Detroit to do a press conference. More than 100 players were on the ice in Port Huron [Michigan], broken into four teams. Physicals were the next day, so I missed my second day. I was dressing by myself, without any atmosphere of a locker room."

But Dionne stuck to it, his roller coaster ride taking him to 534 NHL wins, 617 losses and 197 ties, scoring on 169 different goalies along the way.

"I studied the game early in my career," he said. "When I arrived with Detroit, I was told, 'You're a pro now, you should know what to do.' I was dying. I wasn't taught anything except by Johnny Wilson (Detroit's coach from 1971-73), who came up to me on the road in Vancouver and said, 'Marcel, if you apply yourself a little bit harder, you're going to be a 40-goal scorer.'

"I never thought of that. But after I left practice that day, things changed for me. Johnny is the guy who gave me confidence. He put me on the point on the power play. I wasn't getting the amount of ice time I had in junior, but you have to make the best of what you get. It was turmoil. Gordie Howe had just retired (after the 1970-71 season).

"I'm a thinker. I think ahead. I knew the teams I played for and against in my career. The turnover of coaches -- I had 16 coaches in 18 years, it's ridiculous. They weren't bad people but they weren't in the right place."

Dionne needed a program to keep track of his teammates, too, all 308 of them during his 18 seasons. Upon his retirement following the 1988-89 season, he ranked second all-time in goals (now sixth) and power-play goals (ninth) and third all-time in assists (11th) and points (sixth).

Marcel Dionne takes position between Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Michel Larocque and defenseman Barry Melrose during a Jan. 9, 1982 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

His idol in his youth had been tall, elegant Canadiens center Jean Beliveau. But by now Dionne knew he had to set his sights a little differently. He needed smaller role models, in stature at least.
"I watched Yvan Cournoyer and Henri Richard (each of the Canadiens), and Davey Keon (of the Toronto Maple Leafs)," Dionne said. "I asked myself, 'How do they do what they do? How have they managed to survive against bigger guys?' That's where I started to focus. A lot of people had trouble accepting that a guy my size did what I was doing, but I'm not a guy you can compare to anybody."

Dionne signed as a free agent with the Kings before the 1975-76 season, his contract for $1.5 million for five seasons. In 11 full seasons with Los Angeles, he never scored fewer than 36 goals but the team didn't fare as well, winning three playoff series during his tenure, four times having a regular-season winning record.

"People said I only cared about myself, about the points I was scoring," he said. "But no matter where I played, I hated to lose."

Coach Scotty Bowman, whose 1970s Canadiens teams won five Stanley Cup titles with Lafleur their greatest star, just sniffed at Dionne's critics.

"Marcel can play for me anytime, anywhere," he said, comparing him to Richard, Cournoyer, Keon and Stan Mikita of the Chicago Black Hawks.
Dionne was lethal around the net, his low center of gravity and powerful legs getting him into scoring position.

"Some of it was natural ability, but a lot was also positioning," he said. "It was moving, reacting, getting into the right place.

Positioning yourself so you always knew where the defenseman's stick was. They always told me, 'You've got to get into the corner first to get the puck.' Are you crazy? I'm not going in first, I'll be right behind the other guy, but I'll come out with the puck.

"I was good at protecting the puck, keeping it away from the big guys, and I was aware who was on the ice. Playing against (defensemen) Bobby Orr and Don Awrey with [the] Boston [Bruins], Awrey would slash me and I'd say, 'What are you doing that for? I don't deserve that,' and he'd say, 'If you don't want to get slashed, go over to Bobby's side of the ice.'"

Steve Yzerman (left) and Marcel Dionne, each a former Detroit Red Wings captain, on Nov. 6, 2006 at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.

Dionne retired without fanfare after 37 games with the 1988-89 Rangers, slipping into a successful life in a variety of businesses. He was firm that he'd always be his own boss, an unrestricted free agent forever.

"I left the game and I never looked back," he said. "I said that I'd never work for anybody again."

Dionne is as energetic and busy as ever, engaging with clients, fostering relationships, brokering deals, matching up investors, consulting. He has no job description and never knows what's next when his phone rings, which is exactly the way he likes it.

"Anything that makes money," Dionne joked. "I like to do many things, and it's not all about the money. More than anything else, hockey educated me. I paid attention. I'm very lucky to have played this game.

"I stuck with the right people. When I played, I was criticized by many people. They didn't like me but they didn't hate me."
And then, laughing again: "They knew I was good."

Photos: Hockey Hall of Fame; Marcel Dionne; Getty Images