Razor reflections: Daryl Reaugh “incredibly fortunate” for unique run with Stars organization

I love my job for a multitude of reasons. After all, it’s not every day that you get to cover your favorite hockey team both in a broadcast and written medium.

In addition to spending my days finding random, but meaningful statistics to help weave enticing stories for each telecast, it also puts me in a fun position to interact with Stars fans. Whether that’s engaging in a back-and-forth on social media or having a conversation in the concourse at American Airlines Center, I always love chatting with the Stars faithful.

When I meet a fan for the first time and they ask me about my associate producer/graphics coordinator role on Stars telecasts, it usually opens the door to another dose of questions. And more often than not, the first question is always the same.

But it’s not, “What’s your favorite city to visit on the NHL circuit when you travel?” or “What’s the coolest Stars game you’ve ever covered?”

Instead, the first question I get almost every time is, “What’s it like working with Razor?”

Whether it be the guy who installed my Christmas lights, the pizza delivery guy, or the cashier at the grocery store who notices my Stars polo, everyone wants to know what it’s like collaborating alongside Daryl Reaugh for 200-plus days out of the year.

I always offer the same response by saying that it’s a joy and a treat. After all, I get to work with the guy I grew up watching on TV, absorbing his fascinating and one-of-a-kind analysis on a nightly basis. I tell them that you always know what you’re getting with Razor, a broadcaster who never fails to bring anything except his absolute best to every telecast and only asks that you do the same in return. It’s a fun challenge that brings a new opportunity with every game day.

There’s a reason I tell people that if there was a Dallas Stars Mount Rushmore with the four most influential figures of the team’s 32-year history, Razor would make the list. And as a 29-year adventure in Dallas - one that recently involved a milestone moment in being given the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award at the Hockey Hall of Fame last week - continues to unfold, it feels like as good of a time as any to reflect on the past and how he got here.

Like who first called him in 1996 to gauge his interest about leaving the Hartford Whalers and joining the Stars broadcast team?

“That’s a good question,” Reaugh said with a chuckle. “I can’t remember exactly. It might’ve been Ralph [Strangis] or Jeff Cogen, or maybe Kevin Spivey.

I was doing playoff games for ESPN2 and a weekly NHL show that was sponsored by Brut Aftershave. They would’ve seen me on that weekly show that played on the jumbotron in every NHL arena.”

Reaugh remembers feeling like the team was interested in him, though he didn’t know how many people they were interviewing. The Stars initially offered him a one-year contract, which matched what he had with the Whalers, who were a year from moving to Raleigh. With the need for added security in order to make the 1,700-mile journey, Reaugh lobbied for more. The result?

“I got two,” he said with a cheeky grin. “So that was it. We went back, packed up, and 30 years later we’re still here.”

Reaugh remembers his first impressions of hockey in Texas when he played in two preseason games with the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980’s. The first was at Reunion Arena in Dallas, and with the NHL still nearly a decade away from landing in Texas (or anywhere in the south, for that matter), it was an unforgettable experience.

“It was bizarre,” Reaugh said. “I’ll never forget, I made a save on a shot from center ice with my blocker and the fans went nuts. Then, I stoned Brian Propp or someone else point blank and there was nothing. No noise.”

From walking on woodchip boards that disintegrated onto their skate blades in the hallways at Reunion Arena, to seeing wakes behind the puck at Houston Summit Arena because of the excess water on the ice, it wasn’t hard to see that hockey had a long way to go before finding stable success in Texas. But Reaugh was nonetheless intrigued by the opportunity.

Familiarity helped make the transition a simple one for Reaugh, who already had a relationship with new Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock and goalie Andy Moog, among a handful of others.

The first year in Dallas came with a number of fascinating assimilations and “figure it out as you go” moments. There was the makeshift Staples “Easy” button lookalike in the broadcast perch to tell the production truck when to stop replays while using the Telestrator since he couldn’t vocally say over the air due to the radio simulcast. There was also the feeling of calling games amidst the raucous crowds at Reunion Arena reinvigorated by the team’s sudden upward trajectory.

Through it all, Reaugh never could have imagined that he was embarking on a three-decade journey.

“In my mind at that time, I was probably like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do a few years down here.’ I would do two to four years and then obviously I would be moving on to the national stage from there,” Reaugh said. “We’re at a point now where the building we built right in the midst of those great teams in the late ‘90’s is now antiquated. You’re like, ‘Oh wow, I’ve been here the whole time.’”

The memory of losing a Game 7 heartbreaker in overtime against the Oilers in 1997 is still nestled firmly in Reaugh’s mind. So is the excitement from when management brought in Brett Hull and Ed Belfour to help line the team up for a run at the Stanley Cup.

“Obviously, the Cup and the whole run that year was amazing,” Reaugh said. “It was such a different atmosphere back then because we were all just sort of in it. My wife started the Dallas Stars Foundation. Everybody worked and lived in Valley Ranch and so did the Cowboys. It was almost kind of a mini-city of high-end, highly-compensated athletes.”

Then came the title defense season in 2000.

“They should’ve won back-to-back,” Reaugh said. “All kinds of stuff went on. Waking up in almost like Witness Protection in New Jersey that year after they won 1-0 [in Game 5] when Hully and Mo combined on that goal in triple OT. Being so close to winning it again and then, all of a sudden, they couldn’t win a home game, which was weird.”

Reaugh also remembers the team’s run under Dave Tippett that included five straight seasons with 95-plus points and five playoff runs. He fondly recalls just how close and involved everyone was in the organization during those times.

But of course, every happy memory often comes with a uniquely challenging counterpart.

“Then you get into games in this building where there were 3,000 people in the stands, which was awkward and tough,” Reaugh said of the early 2010’s that saw the Stars navigate bankruptcy and a five-year playoff drought.

He’ll never forget March 10, 2014 when Rich Peverley collapsed on the Stars bench in the middle of a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and all of the uncertain anxiety that followed.

“That will stick with you forever, something like that going on,” Reaugh said. “That will shake you to your core, and then having to play the very next night.”

There was also the hiring of Jim Nill in the spring of 2013 and the “changing of the guard” that accompanied it, including the high-flying days of the “Benneguin” with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin wreaking havoc on the League.

He’s shown up to call a game that was canceled one hour before puck drop during the historic winter storm in Dallas in February 2021. He’s also called an entire Stanley Cup Final run from 2,000 miles away as the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Fans got robbed of it and we all got robbed of it,” Reaugh added. “It was a great experience of just trying to make sure you covered it and did it in crazy circumstances. Now you look back and I don’t even want to hear the replay of those things because they’re so bad.”

Mixed into that was some shuffling in the booth. After Strangis departed in 2015 following a 19-year run of “Ralph and Razor” in Dallas, Reaugh partnered with Dave Strader for the 2015-16 season. And after Strader’s cancer diagnosis forced him to step away from calling games the next summer, Reaugh quickly pivoted into the play-by-play role for the next two seasons alongside Craig Ludwig.

In the summer of 2018, the team promoted Josh Bogorad to the play-by-play chair and shifted Reaugh back to color analyst, a role he’s become incredibly well-known for not just across the NHL, but professional sports as a whole.

But there isn’t one singular reason for his esteemed success as an analyst. While a beaming smile and gargantuan personality have helped carry him through the last 29 seasons, his unparalleled verbiage has also vaulted him into a new atmosphere in the sports broadcasting world.

And that begs the question: which ‘Razorism’ is his favorite?

“I’m a terrible guy to ask that question,” Reaugh said with a big smile. “You know the ones that resonate with people. You don’t want to turn into a cartoon character and say it all the time. I don’t know what I would say is a favorite.”

Reaugh mentioned that he does love elephantine because no one else seems to use it, but that they often just enter and exit his mind at any given moment. But he always finds a way to keep his commentary fresh while adding new layers or twists.

“Sometimes it’s larceny. Sometimes it’s pure larceny. Sometimes it’s petty larceny, or unadulterated larceny. And sometimes, it’s larcenous.”

“The listeners are intrigued by catchphrases and words,” Reaugh added. “I’m not trying to run from it because I’m sort of known for it. But they’re the ones that have their favorites, not me.”

Verbs like mastodonic, sassy and corpulent, and phrases such as, “Like poop through a diarrhea-infected goose”, “a full-frontal lobotomy” and “Sometimes, you just have to pee in the sink” have garnered worldwide attention from hockey diehards and hockey strangers alike.

I always feel like there’s a responsibility with that, too,” Reaugh said of his platform. “They expect a certain program and standard. I would never want to let them down. I always keep ICE in the back of my mind: Information, Continuity, Entertainment.”

There may not be another person in hockey (or sports television, for that matter) who better embodies these three traits. And when you mix those with his undeniable wit and charm, you get a larger-than-life color analyst.

“I feel like I’m getting this award for my longevity as much as anything else,” Reaugh said before his trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame. “This just doesn’t happen, for the most part. You don’t do what you’ve done for 30 years for one organization. I feel incredibly fortunate that the organization has kept me, that I haven’t said enough things to get myself fired and that our growing fanbase has happily consumed what I have put out.”

And has the longevity numbed the experience in any way? Not a chance.

“Nothing blows me away more than when someone comes over to my house to fix a sewer pipe or something and he says, ‘I love listening to you.’ I’m just like, ‘Really?’ I’m sure there are lots of people that I annoy the life out of,” said Reaugh. “But I am still as blown away today as I was back then. I really do love the people that have listened and been fans for 30 years.”

And the fans love the man that has dissected Dallas Stars hockey in the remarkable and one-of-one style that he’s made into his own since 1996. They love the new words they learn on any given night, some of which you’ll find in the dictionary and others that are simply Daryl Reaugh patents. They love the unmistakable belly laugh and the comedic interjections they have come to expect in a Dallas Stars telecast.

“Who cares if the team recently switched to a 1-2-2 formation? Make ‘em laugh!” Reaugh said with a smile. “Don’t forget that it’s sports entertainment!”

Simply put, they love the man they’ve come to know as “Razor.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Josh Clark is a writer for DallasStars.com. Follow him on X @Josh_Clark02.