Winnipeg Jets Greatest Players

Dave Babych
Dave Christian
Kim Clackson
Dave Ellett
Terrible Ted Green
Bob Essensa
Dale Hawerchuk
Anders Hedberg
Larry Hopkins
Bobby Hull
Jim Kyte
Morris Lukowich
Dave Manson
Markus Mattsson
Dave McLlwain
Troy Murray
Kent Nilsson
Ulf Nilsson
Ed Olczyk
Rich Preston
Terry Ruskowski
Teemu Selanne
Thomas Steen
Peter Sullivan
Tim Watters

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Markus Mattsson

Trivia Time - Who surrendered Wayne Gretzky's first goal as an Edmonton Oiler? Here's a hint - it happened in the WHA. Here's another hint, his name is in big bold lettering at the top of this page.

Winnipeg's Finnish goalie Markus Mattsson yielded the first goal to Wayne as a Oiler. Gretzky scored 14 seconds into the 2nd period on November 2, 1978, his first game as an Oiler. Gretzky had just been acquired from the Indianapolis Racers who had to sell the junior phenom due to financial problems occured by owner Nelson Skalbania.

Mattsson got his revenge on Wayne in the NHL more then five years later when he was a goalie for the Los Angeles Kings. Mattson was in the nets for the game on January 28, 1984. That was the night that Gretzky's incredible record 51 point scoring streak came to an end.

Other than those two moments involving The Great One, Mattsson is all but forgotten about other than being the answer to a couple of good trivia questions.

Mattsson was a solid goalie in his native Finland. He represented his country between the pipes at such glorious events as the European Junior Championships, World Junior Championships and even the 1976 Canada Cup.

A draft pick of the New York Islander in 1977, he was also drafted by Houston of the WHA though his WHA rights were traded to Quebec days later. Mattsson took the unconventional route to join the North American pro circuit with the Nordiques in 1977. European goalies struggled for years to establish themselves in the North American game. The stereotypical European goalie wasn't used to being peppered with so many hard and frequent shots and struggled as a result of this. Mattsson fell into this stereotype.

After just 6 games with the Nords (1-3 record, 6.77 GAA) he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets. The 1978-79 season would prove to be his best statistically as he backstopped the Jets in their final WHA season. In 52 games he won 25, lost 21 and tied 3 with a GAA of 3.63.

Upon the merger of the remaining WHA teams into the NHL, the Jets managed to select Mattsson's NHL rights away from the Islanders. Mattsson was then named as a priority selection, thus protecting him from being dispersed to another team upon the Jets merger.

Mattsson struggled in his first NHL season, and spent as much time in the minors as he did in Winnipege. He won only 5 of the 21 games he appeared in, but had a respectable 3.25 GAA with an awful Jets team. Two of his five wins were shutouts.

Unfortunately for Mattsson, the Jets only got worse the next year. Mattsson was a lame duck goalie on perhaps the worst team in NHL history. He finished the year with just 3 wins in 31 games. One of his wins was by a shutout.

The Minnesota North Stars signed Mattsson for the 1982-83 season. After representing Finland in his second Canada Cup tournament, Mattsson spent all but two games in the minors. He was 1-1 as a North Star, including a shutout. Mattsson then was moved to Los Angeles where he finished the year with a 5-5-4 record in 19 games.

Mattsson would play another 19 games in what proved to be his final season in North American hockey in 1983-84. However he spent most his final season in the minors.

Mattsson returned to Finland in the summer of 1984 and continued to play pro hockey over there until 1986.

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Larry Hopkins

You know your NHL career did not go the way of hockey dreams when you are best known as the mustachioed man mistakenly pictured on another player's rookie hockey card.

That would sum up how hockey history remembers Larry Hopkins, the man pictured as Paul MacLean in the 1982-83 O Pee Chee hockey card set.

I guess it can be chalked up to an honest mistake. After all both sported some pretty significant facial hair.

But that might be as close as the comparison between the two gets. MacLean went on to a 10 year NHL career averaging 36 goals and over 100 PIMs per season. Hopkins played in just 60 games in his career, scoring 13 times and assisting on 16 others.

The Oshawa born left winger made next to no splash at all in his quiet junior career with the hometown Generals. Despite playing with the likes of Rick Middleton, Nelson Pyatt and Lee Fogolin, he managed just 7 goals and 29 points in two years with the legendary OHA team. Despite his impressive size (he would play in the NHL at 6'1" and 210lbs) he was very polite, collecting just 13 minutes in the penalty box.

If it was not for his impressive size, NHL scouts may never have noticed Hopkins. He likely had realized the NHL dream was unrealistic for him when he passed on the chance to play with Oshawa as an overaged 20 year old junior and enrolled at the University of Toronto instead. He chose to pursue a degree in commerce while playing for the U of T Varsity Blues hockey team.

It is rare that a Canadian university player gets noticed by the NHL. But Hopkins quickly established himself as the best collegiate hockey player in all of Canada. Sensing he may be a late bloomer, the Atlanta Flames took a flier on him with the 152nd pick of the 1974 NHL Amateur draft.

Hopkins stayed at the University of Toronto for 5 seasons, completing his degree in commerce. In that time he also led the U of T to CIAU championships in 1976 and 1977.

Upon graduation late in the 1977-78 season, the Flames did not offer Hopkins a contract, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent. The Toronto Maple Leafs offered the kid in their backyard a tryout contract. Though he would finish that season and all of the next in the minor leagues, he did get a chance to play in two games for the Leafs, wearing number 12.

This undoubtedly rekindled Hopkins' dreams of the NHL, and he worked hard while in the minor leagues. The Winnipeg Jets noticed and offered him a contract in the summer of 1979.

Over the next three seasons Hopkins was shuttled back and forth between the NHL and the minor leagues. His best season was in 1981-82 when he got into 41 games with the Jets, sometimes even playing on the top line with Dale Hawerchuk and Paul MacLean.

Hopkins retired after the 1982-83 season. He and his wife Linda soon returned to the Tulsa, Oklahoma area where he played 3 seasons of minor league hockey and was a very popular player and was voted as the unsung player of the year. He became an account manager for a telecommunications company.

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Bob Essensa

Robert Earle (Bob) Essensa was drafted 69th overall in the 1983 Entry Draft by the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets knew he was a long term project. He had just completed playing hockey at Henry Carr High School in Toronto (although scholastically he attended Vincent Massey High School) and was about to enroll at Michigan State University for the 1983 season. The Jets were patient with their selection, knowing he'd be 4 years away from turning pro, but they knew he was with one of the top hockey programs in the United States.

The Jets' patience paid off. He was a CCHA all star with a career record of an impressive 62-13-2 career record and set several school records, though they have since been bettered.

Essensa made his NHL debut in 1988-89 at the age of 23. He went 6-8-3 in 20 games, but in 1989-90, that record improved to 18-9-5 with a 3.15 goals-against average, while being named the NHL All-Rookie goaltender. In 1990-91, Essensa posted four shutouts and won the Jets' Molson Cup award, given to the player with the most points accumulated through three-star selections at the conclusion of each game.

In 1991-92, Essensa registered a league best five shutouts and was the second runner up for the Vezina and Jennings trophies, and posted a career-high 33 wins in 1992-93. He was an extremely popular player in Winnipeg, and well decorated too. He set franchise records for most career games played by a goalie, most minutes, most career wins, most wins in one season, most consecutive wins and most assists by a goalie in one season.

In 1993-94 Essensa was traded to the Detroit the Red Wings for Tim Cheveldae and Dallas Drake. Though he was excited to return to the city where he attended university, he never got the playing time he had hoped for in the Motor City and played most of the next two seasons in the minors.

Essensa resurfaced in the NHL in 1996 as a backup goalie with the Edmonton Oilers. Though he never really was given a shot to re-prove himself as a number one goalie, he received great feedback for his positive attitude and play as a back up netminder, thus lengthening his career. He also was quite approachable when it came to mentoring young goalies.

In 1999-2000, Essensa rejoined the Phoenix Coyotes, the old Winnipeg Jets team, and posted a 13-10-3 record. On July 26, 2000, Essensa signed as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks and split goaltending duties first with Felix Potvin and then Dan Cloutier. He went 18-12 with a 2.68 GAA and helped the Canucks make the playoffs for the first time in five years. In the playoffs, he started two of the Canucks four games.

Although Vancouver fans loved to chant "Bob E, Bob E," the popular goalie was not re-signed. In September 2001, Essensa signed as a free agent with the Buffalo Sabres where he served as backup and mentor to Martin Biron.

He would retire at the end of the season, and would move on to become a goalie coach. He retired 173-176-47 record with 18 shutouts in 447 NHL games.

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