Ferraro’s season for the ages

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This article was published 21/04/2016 (3489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — Ray Ferraro’s magic season in Brandon nearly didn’t happen.

In one of the more one-sided deals in Western Hockey League history, the Wheat Kings acquired Ferraro, Brad Duggan, Derek Laxdal, Dave Thomlinson and Tony Horacek from the Portland Winter Hawks for Blaine Chrest in August 1983. All but Duggan went on to play in the NHL.

But Ferraro, who hails from Trail, B.C., initially balked at reporting to the distant city on the Prairies. He had just won a Memorial Cup in Portland and wasn’t sure about the move.

He didn’t initially report until his father Ed — “a rock of my life” — suggested it might be the right thing to do.

“I showed up, to my recollection, two days before the first game,” Ferraro said. “I got three goals in Winnipeg the first game and three goals in Brandon the second game. It was like everything worked.”

Ferraro went on to score a WHL record 108 goals and added 84 assists in 72 games, beating former Prince Albert Raiders star Dan Hodgson for the scoring title by 11 points. His 192 points in one WHL season ranks fourth all-time.

He was named to the WHL’s all-time top 50 players list at No. 11 on Thursday, alongside Cam Neely (No. 10) and Grant Fuhr (No. 9). He’s the sixth former Wheat King to make the list, which also includes Ron Chipperfield (No. 35, 1970-74), Ray Allison (No. 28, 1975-79), Brad McCrimmon (No. 22, 1976-79), Bill Derlago (No. 18, 1974-78) and Brian Propp (No. 14, 1976-79)

Ferraro thinks three things led to his success in the 1983-84 season, his only campaign in Brandon.

“One was playing with Stacy (Pratt) and Dave (Curry); they were both fantastic passers,” Ferraro said. “They could both really move the puck. The second thing was that our power play was a machine. Cam Plante ran it from the blue line, and if I could get myself open, the puck was on my stick. And short-handed, we were always trying to be aggressive and I got a pile of short-handed goals that year. Those were all factors, and they had to come together for me to score like that.”

All because of a trade that occurred weeks before the season started.

Ferraro said the team in Portland was loaded with talent and he was a third-line centre with what he considered very little responsibility, despite putting up 41 goals and 49 assists in 50 games. He quickly learned from general manager Les Jackson and head coach Jack Sangster much more would be expected from him in Brandon.

“They wanted me to produce,” Ferraro said. “I certainly hadn’t been counted on the year before. I had always been a guy who could score but to score at the pace I did, I don’t even know how to explain it. It just happened.”

He remembers seeing his statistics early in the year in the Brandon Sun and being amazed.

The Wheat Kings lost in the conference semifinal that season after posting a regular-season record of 44-26-2. It was a 23-win improvement over the season before.

Ferraro thinks with the way the game is now played, his goal-scoring record might last.

The father of four said he’s proud of a lot of things, including his NHL career, the chance he had to play in three world championships with Team Canada, his son Landon playing in the NHL and his wife Cammi Granato, an American hockey legend, winning a gold medal at the Olympics.

But his WHL exploits certainly rank highly for him.

‘They wanted me to produce. I certainly hadn’t been counted on the year before. I had always been a guy who could score but to score at the pace I did, I don’t even know how to explain it. It just happened’– Current NHL broadcaster Ray Ferraro on his 108-goal season in 1983-84

“Everything can or might be broken but it’s not going to get broken,” Ferraro said. “The goal-scoring records of yesteryear in all leagues are not going to be broken, not the way the game is played now unless there is some significant change down the road. I’m really proud to have my name on that list.”

Ferraro split the 1984-85 season between the AHL and the NHL. He was a full-time NHL player after that, going on to play 1,258 regular-season and 68 playoff games in the NHL for six teams in a career that lasted until 2002.

He quickly moved into television work when his playing career ended and he received a call from ESPN asking if he would like to try it.

Ferraro, who spoke from Dallas on Thursday as he prepared for the NBC broadcast of the NHL playoff game between the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild, said the transition from the ice to television was a good one.

“I like it,” he said. “The only tough part is the travel.”

He left the game fairly healthy, although he has had five operations on his left knee. The next surgery will be a replacement, he said.

Still Ferraro has no regrets. He said his time in Brandon turned his hockey career around in a life he suggests is full of good fortune.

“I owe everything in my life in three spots,” Ferraro said. “One is my parents (Ed and Anna). I was incredibly blessed with so supportive parents. That’s number one. Number two is my wife Cammi. Retiring is not always the easiest thing and there were some times when things weren’t going as smoothly internally for me and she has helped me in so many ways. And number three is the game of hockey. It’s been everything to me. It’s been everything I’ve done since the age of five.

“How much luckier can you be than that?”

— The Brandon Sun