Joe Nieuwendyk

He is the youngest of four children to Gordon and Joanne Nieuwendyk, who immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1958.

Gordon owned a car repair shop in Whitby.

Joe grew up in a sporting family.

His brother Gil was a box lacrosse player, while his uncle Ed Kea and cousin Jeff Beukeboom also played in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Growing up, his best friend was future NHL teammate Gary Roberts.

He played both hockey and lacrosse growing up and the latter considered his better sport.

At one point, Nieuwendyk was considered the top junior lacrosse player in Canada.

Joseph Nieuwendyk (born September 10, 1966) is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player.

Nieuwendyk was born on September 10, 1966, in Oshawa, Ontario, and grew up in Whitby.

Nieuwendyk went undrafted by any Ontario Hockey League team, so he played a season of junior B for the Pickering Panthers in 1983–84.

An accomplished box lacrosse player, Nieuwendyk led the Whitby Warriors to the 1984 Minto Cup national junior championship before focusing exclusively on hockey.

He played university hockey with the Cornell Big Red where he was a two-time All-American.

He earned a spot with the Whitby Warriors junior A team at the age of 15, and was named the most valuable player of the Minto Cup tournament in 1984 where he led the Warriors to the national championship.

The Ontario Lacrosse Association later named its junior A rookie of the year award after Nieuwendyk.

Eligible for the 1984 NHL Entry Draft but unselected, he chose to attend Cornell University where he played hockey and lacrosse for the Big Red.

He was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) hockey rookie of the year in 1984–85 after scoring 39 points in 23 games.

He was a second round selection of the Calgary Flames, 27th overall, at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft and played 20 seasons for the Flames, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Florida Panthers.

At the 1985 NHL Entry Draft, the Calgary Flames selected him in the second round, 27th overall, with a pick obtained that day in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars for Kent Nilsson.

The disappointment in Calgary over the trade of Nilsson resulted in some criticism of Nieuwendyk's selection, famously leading to a local newspaper to question the moves with the headline "Joe Who?"

Returning to Cornell for the 1985–86 season, Nieuwendyk chose to give up lacrosse in order to focus on hockey.

He was named an ECAC first team All-Star in 1985–86 and an NCAA All-American after scoring 42 points in 21 games.

In his final season at Cornell, he was named the team's most valuable player and led the ECAC in scoring with 52 points.

He was again named an ECAC All-Star and NCAA All-American, and a finalist for the 1987 Hobey Baker Award.

Nieuwendyk chose to forgo his senior year in favour of turning professional.

In 81 games with Cornell, Nieuwendyk scored 73 goals and 151 points, both among the highest totals in the school's history.

He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1988 after becoming only the second first-year player to score 50 goals.

He is one of only 11 players in NHL's history to win the Stanley Cup with three or more different teams, winning titles with Calgary in 1989, Dallas in 1999 and New Jersey in 2003.

He was a four-time All-Star, won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1995 for his leadership and humanitarian work, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 1999 as the most valuable player of the postseason.

He played 1,257 games in his career, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.

A two-time Olympian, Nieuwendyk won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2002 winter games.

Chronic back pain forced Nieuwendyk's retirement as a player in 2006.

He then began a new career in management, acting first as a consultant to the general manager with the Panthers before moving onto the Maple Leafs where he was an assistant to the general manager.

He was the general manager of the Dallas Stars between 2009 and 2013.

His number 25 jersey was retired by Cornell in 2010, shared with Ken Dryden's number 1 as the first such numbers retired by the hockey team, and believed the first in any sport in the school's varsity sports history.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and his uniform number 25 was honoured by the Flames in 2014.

In 2011, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in ECAC history.

Once his junior season at Cornell ended, Nieuwendyk joined the national team for five games before turning professional with the Flames.

He was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

In 2017, he was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.

He most recently worked as a pro scout and advisor for the Carolina Hurricanes, until resigning his contract on April 30, 2018.