Minnesota North Stars
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| Minnesota North Stars | |
| Missing image MinnesotaNorthStars.GIF Minnesota North Stars | |
| Played | 1967 to 1993 |
| Home ice | Metropolitan Sports Center |
| Based in | Minneapolis - St. Paul |
| Colors | Green, gold, white |
| League | National Hockey League |
The Minnesota North Stars were a team in the National Hockey League between 1967 and 1993. In the fall of 1993, the franchise was moved to Dallas, Texas, where it is now known as the Dallas Stars. The team's colors (for most of their history) were green, gold and white.
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History
Starting with the 1967-1968 season, the NHL expanded from its long-time base of six teams (the so-called Original Six) to twelve teams. As a well-known hockey hotbed, Minnesota was the natural site for a franchise. With the new Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington for a home arena and behind a skilled management team, the North Stars had respectable success in the early years. Although the fledgling team suffered an unprecedented calamity with the death of forward Bill Masterton in its first season -- the only death in NHL history resulting from an on-ice injury -- the club prospered behind goaltending duo Lorne "Gump" Worsley and Cesare Maniago, defenseman and captain Ted Harris, high-scoring winger Bill Goldsworthy and other quality players such as Barry Gibbs, Jude Drouin, J.P. Parise, Danny Grant and Dennis Hextall.
By the mid-Seventies, however, with Worsley and Harris retired, the North Stars had fallen on hard times, finishing with perennially poor records and usually out of the playoffs. However, in 1978, the struggling team was bought by the owners of the NHL Cleveland Barons, who merged the two teams in an unprecedented move. A few skilled players -- notably goaltender Gilles Meloche and forwards Al MacAdam and Mike Fidler -- bolstered the lineup; furthermore, Minnesota had drafted the eventual Calder Trophy winner as rookie of the year, Bobby Smith. With the subsequent additions of fine new players such as Minnesota native and ex-1980 Olympian Neal Broten and sniper Dino Ciccarelli, the North Stars had five straight winning seasons starting in 1979-1980, even reaching the Stanley Cup finals in 1981.
Thereafter, though, success would elude the North Stars. After 1984, the franchise would only have one more winning season in Minnesota, although playing in the weak Norris Division meant that they made the playoffs more often than not. While the Nineties saw the franchise draft what would turn out to be their greatest player -- forward Mike Modano -- chronic attendance problems spurred the owners to threaten to move the club to San Jose, much against the league's wishes. A compromise was implemented for the 1990-1991 season where the North Stars would be split into two squads, the then-current owners receiving some players and an expansion franchise for the Bay Area (the San Jose Sharks) -- an irony considering the merger over a decade before with the NHL's previous Bay Area franchise. A new ownership team took over Minnesota, led by a man who would become notorious in the annals of Minnesota hockey, Norman Green.
In that 1991 season, despite a losing record in the regular season, the Cinderella North Stars made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals and fought hard against the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins, before being obliterated 8-0 in the final game of the series.
The shocking loss seemed to let the air out of the franchise for good. With mounting financial and legal problems, Green demanded concessions that the area and state were unwilling to give, and moved the team to Dallas in the fall of 1993.
Subsequently, in the next wave of league expansion, the Twin Cities were granted a new franchise, the Minnesota Wild, which took the ice starting in 2000.
Hall of Famers
Not to be forgotten
- Brian Bellows
- Dino Ciccarelli
- Dave Gagner
- Danny Grant
- Paul Shmyr
- Bobby Smith
- Mike Modano
- Neal Broten
- Cesare Maniago
Retired Numbers (in Minnesota)
- 8 Bill Goldsworthy 1967 - 1977
- 19 Bill Masterton 1967 - 1968
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| Trophies and Awards: Stanley Cup | Prince of Wales | Clarence S. Campbell | Presidents' Trophy | Art Ross | Bill Masterton | Calder | Conn Smythe | Hart | Norris | King Clancy | Lady Byng | Lester B. Pearson Award | Rocket Richard | Plus/Minus | Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award | Jennings | Vezina | |
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