Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne turns on power play at Leominster Dekhockey

LEOMINSTER — Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne was the honorary guest at the U.S. Nationals at the Leominster Dekhockey outdoor rinks during the Memorial Day weekend.

The 70-year-old Dionne, who played for 18 seasons in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers, was available for autograph signings and even dropped the ball during faceoffs to begin a few games.

Dionne is a good friend of Leominster Dekhockey owner and U.S. Dekhockey President Chris Housser, originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario. Housser recalls watching Dionne skate in Junior A leagues during the late 1960 and early 1970s.

“When I first saw Marcel play at 18 years old, he was unbelievable. No one could touch his skating and shooting. He and Guy LaFleur were the top junior players in Canada,” Housser said. “I’m so fortunate that Marcel has been a big supporter of our programs here in Leominster over the years.”

With 731 goals, Dionne is sixth on the list of all-time NHL goal scorers behind leader Wayne Gretzky (894), Gordie Howe (801), Alex Ovechkin (780), Jaromir Jagr (766) and Brett Hull (741).

Named 38th in 2017 on the list of the 100 top players in the NHL, Dionne, who married his high school sweetheart Carol and has three children and 10 grandchildren, agreed to a sporting conversation at the Leominster Dekhockey facility.

Q. Who taught you how to play hockey?

A. Nobody taught me. I grew up in Drummondville, Quebec, and it was so cold we could skate every day for four straight months beginning around the start of November. Everybody skated. To this day, when people say I was a great player, I just say, ‘I know that. I guess it just came naturally to me. I just played the game, and I loved it.'

Q. Can you talk a little about the contracts you signed during your career?

A. I still remember my first NHL check in 1971. It was for $3,500, and it was the first of 12 checks. My father was stunned. He said, “That’s more than what I make in a whole year.” My first contract with L.A. was for $300,000, and I remember Harry Sinden was upset because I was making more than Bobby Orr. My salary kept increasing, and I eventually made up to $800,000.

Q. Who in your opinion is the best player in the NHL today?

A. Connor McDavid, without a doubt. He’s phenomenal and so fast. When I watch him I notice that he will touch the puck three or four times and is always thinking of scoring a goal.

Q. What were your first impressions of Wayne Gretzky?

A. I had heard of him as a Pee Wee player who had scored 300 goals in a season, and I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ When he came into the NHL, I watched him and said, ‘There are things this guy does that no one else can do.' It’s funny because at the end of his first year in the NHL, we were both tied in points for the scoring title, but I had two more goals, so I won the Ross award. I think of it now, and it’s hard to believe I had more goals than Wayne Gretzky in a season.

Q. Who was the toughest goalie you played against?

A. I’ve been asked that question many times, and I always answer with, ‘I scored 731 goals. No one was tough.' (He laughs). Hey, I even scored two hat tricks on Ken Dryden. How about that?

Q. What are your thoughts about youngsters and hockey today?

A. Hockey is such an expensive sport for parents, probably the most expensive sport. I remember Alex Delvecchio, my Detroit teammate, he would sharpen his skates just twice a year. He just glided. And the danger in youth hockey is when it becomes too competitive and unsafe for kids at an early age. It should be fun and safe for everyone.

Q. What do you consider your greatest achievement in hockey?

A. Here’s my answer, and I’ve said this many times. I came from a family of eight kids, and I’m the oldest. I promised to myself when I was 13 years old that I would never, ever embarrass my mom and dad. And I never did. And I will add this: My biggest disappointment when I turned pro was that I couldn’t believe how much the guys drank and smoked cigarettes. The training could have been so much better. When I went to L.A., there wasn’t even a weight room We had nothing like that.

Q. Of the 731 goals that you scored in your career, is there one that is the most memorable?

A. Yes, that goal for me was the one when I passed The Rocket (Maurice Richard) with 545. That meant so much to me because he was the player I so looked up to when I was a kid. I once asked Jean Beliveau, who was also one of my heroes, about the Rocket, and he said, ‘He was very special.’

Q. How has the NHL game changed over the years since you played?

A. Moving the red line has created a different game. Everything is so much faster, and defensive strategy has changed. Goalies are so much bigger, and the glass on the boards is higher, which keeps the puck in play.

Q. After your NHL career ended, what did you do?

A. I went into real estate and I also had a couple of successful businesses, one a diner in Niagara and a sports memorabilia store in Buffalo. We were smart in that we just didn’t sell Bills and Sabres items. For example, when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, I called the Boston Globe and bought 60 newspapers for about a buck a piece. Well, we sold all of those for $25 each. Also, I played on a Legends of Hockey team with guys like Guy Lafleur and Gilbert Perreault until I was 60. It was a lot of fun, and we skated all over Canada in front of big crowds, around 15,000 fans who remembered us.

Q. Of Detroit, Los Angeles and New York, what city was the most fun for you?

A. L.A. definitely. No worries about shoveling snow.

Q. The great Guy Lafleur passed in April. How did that affect you?

A. I miss him a lot. We were both born in 1951, and we played a lot of hockey together going back to when we were only 10 years old in Canada. He was drafted No. 1, and I was No. 2 in the 1971 draft. Even after our NHL careers ended, we stayed very close. (Marcel shows Lafleur’s number on his cellphone). It’s very difficult to remove someone’s number. I scroll by Guy's, and I just can’t touch it.

—Contact Jay Gearan at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne turns on power play at Leominster Dekhockey