Young's unique championship resume made him 'Mr. Lucky'

Legendary hockey reporter and analyst Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as The Hockey Maven, will share his knowledge, brand of humor and insights with readers each week.
Today, Stan writes about at Wendell Young, the only player to win championships in four different North American leagues, including twice as a backup goalie with the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup-winning teams in the early 1990s.

Who wouldn't want to be
Wendell Young
?
The goalie from Halifax, Nova Scotia, has an unprecedented championship resume. He played for a Memorial Cup winner in junior hockey, a Calder Cup (American Hockey League) champion, a couple of Turner Cup (International Hockey League) titlists and sipped champagne from the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992. For good measure, he's also been part of a Calder Cup-winning team as an assistant.
"I get giddy just thinking about it," Young said. "Imagine -- no one in the long history of hockey has been able to do what I've done."
His parade of championships began in 1982, when he helped Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League win the Memorial Cup. Six years later, he went 12-0 in the AHL playoffs to fuel Hershey's perfect playoff run to the Calder Cup.
Penguins general manager Craig Patrick brought Young to Pittsburgh in the fall of 1988. The improving Penguins won the Cup for the first time in their history in 1991 and repeated in 1992. Young backed up
Tom Barrasso
each time, though he didn't see any playoff action either year.
"I didn't know if I was going to be good enough to play junior hockey," he said. "But then to be a part of Pittsburgh's Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992 was a privilege."
Young played two seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning and one with the Penguins before his time in the NHL ran out in 1995. But his hockey career had one more act: Young played six more seasons with Chicago of the IHL and was part of championship teams in 1998 and 2000.
"Just call me Mr. Lucky," he said. "I always seemed to be in the right place, with the right team with the right guys in the right year."
Considering that his Penguins buddies included
Mario Lemieux
,
Jaromir Jagr
,
Ron Francis
and Barrasso, Young knows he won the teammates lottery in the NHL. It was the continuation of a trend that began in junior hockey.
"It wasn't just with Pittsburgh that I was lucky," he said. "It started back in juniors with Kitchener. Look who I had on defense in front of me; a couple of Hall of Famers,
Scott Stevens
and
Al MacInnis
. Plus, David Shaw (a longtime NHL defenseman) wasn't too bad either."

Searching for heroes during his 12-0 Calder Cup run with Hershey, Wendell defers to coach John Paddock.
"Johnny was unbelievable as coaches go," Young said. "He possessed this special knack of seeing what the team was all about. Then he'd let the guys play, but at the same time kept every one of the players accountable."
Young's penchant for being in the right place at the right time extended beyond his playing career. After hanging up his pads and having his number retired by Chicago in 2001, Young was part of a Calder Cup-winning team with Chicago (which moved to the AHL after the demise of the IHL) as an assistant under coach John Anderson in 2008.
He was named Chicago's general manager in 2009 and looks back at his success there from a management perspective.
"The leadership is still the same as when we won the two (Turner Cups)," Young said with a smile. "Our owners then and now, Don Levin and Buddy Meyers, have kept the club strong consistently on and off the ice. Organizations win Cups."
Not surprisingly, his fondest memories are of the championship years with Pittsburgh.
"'Way, way back when I was a kid playing street hockey in Halifax, I dreamed of being part of a Stanley Cup winner," he said. "And then, more than 20 years later, I was actually a part of it. Not once but twice. Now tell me, is that not luck?"
Then, a pause: "Looking backward, it all seems so surreal; to be part of multiple Stanley Cup winners, and two Turner Cups and the Calder and Memorial Cups.
"I've been in the right place so many times I should be buying lottery tickets!"