35 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Darcy Rota (35e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
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35 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Darcy Rota (35e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
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35. Darcy Rota — 289GP | 120G | 116A | 236P | 1980-1984
Darcy Rota was born in Vancouver on February 16th, 1953. Before playing junior hockey with the Edmonton Oil Kings, Rota spent his early years playing Bantam & Midget hockey in Prince George. When he joined the Oil Kings in the 1970-71 season, he made an immediate impact as a sniping winger scoring 43 goals in 64-games. The Oil Kings reached the memorial cup in Rota’s first two years with the club.
In his draft season, Rota was on fire, scoring 73-goals in 68-games and tallying 129-points. In 1973, Vancouver held the 9th selection in that draft and chose defenseman Bob Dailey while Chicago selected Rota at 13th overall.
Rota started with the Blackhawks immediately. As a rookie, he scored 21-goals and 54-points in 74-games. Rota developed beyond just being a sniper once getting into the NHL. He started to round out his two-way skillset and became a more dependable forward in all situations.
Rota played the better part of six seasons with the Blackhawks. His most productive season was 1976-77 when he had 46-points in 76-games. That year, he was tied with Ivan Boldirev for the most goals on the team.
Boldirev and Rota remained teammates in March, 1979 when the Atlanta Flames acquired Rota, Boldirev and Phil Russell in a blockbuster trade that returned Greg Fox, Tom Lysiak, Harold Phillipoff, Pat Ribble, & Miles Zaharko to the Blackhawks.
Boldirev & Rota did not last long in Atlanta. They both finished the 1979 season with the Flames and then in February, 1980, they were traded together again to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Don Lever and Brad Smith.
Rota’s hockey career aged like wine. His most productive seasons were his age 27-30 seasons with Vancouver. In his first full year as a Canuck in 1980-81, Rota set a career high in points with 56-points over 80-games.
In 1981-82, Rota missed time in the regular season due to a knee injury, but was a key contributor in the postseason en route to the Stanley Cup Finals. Rota scored the series winning goal in the Smythe Division Finals to beat the Los Angeles Kings. Rota had 6-goals and 9-points in 17-playoff games that season.
In 1982-83, Rota was on a roll. That season, he was primarily on a line with Thomas Gradin and Stan Smyl. The trio were easily Vancouver’s best forward line and Rota set career and franchise highs in goals and points with 42 and 81 respectively.
1983-84 would be Rota’s last season in the NHL. At 30, he still produced well that year with 48-points in 59-games, but Rota suffered an injured neck from a hit by LA Kings skater Jay Wells midway through the season. He then aggravated the same injury after getting in a fight and was suffering from recurring neck spasms. Rota made it back in-time for the playoffs, but the injury never fully healed.
Rota required spinal fusion surgery in the 1984 off-season and originally it was supposed to be a 4-6 week recovery, however, multiple doctors warned of permanent neck damage if he continued to play in the NHL, so Rota opted to retire.
Rota is 35th All-time in team scoring. He made the all-star team once in 1984, but most impressive was the fact that Rota played in the NHL playoffs for all 11-years in his NHL Career. He had 21-points in 60-playoff games.
Post playing career, Rota joined the Canucks front office in a community and public relations role. He then was named Director of Player Development in 1985. In 1987 he was named the Director of Media Relations. He left the team in 1991 to work as special assistant to the NHL President John Ziegler.
Rota also had a small stint as a broadcaster for the Canucks from 1994-1996. Then in 1998, he coached the expansion team Burnaby Bulldogs of the BCHL. Just two years later, he became part owner, GM, and President of the Coquitlam Express and built the team that won the Royal Bank Cup in 2006. Rota left the Express after 2014.
Darcy is a solid dude. Always around at events, and cruising the concourse. Feel free to ask for a photo he loves that stuff from my experience.
Fuck Bill LaForge…
>Ya, LaForge was Hardcore Psycho, somewhere between John Brophy & Eddie Shore. You mentioned The Gauntlet; players lining up 3’ out from the boards about 3’ apart in a row, the incoming basically getting stapled, nail gunned & sledge hammered absolutely full-on.
LaForge insisted on pulling this completely idiotic primeval stunt in Vancouver (lasted about 22 games) as well. Darcy Rota, then a top producer and not far off from leading the Canucks in goals “all time” is recovering from a serious neck injury. Forced to run the Gauntlet, gets hurt again & cant play at all, eventually retires from the NHL & hockey altogether prematurely as a result.
I met him a few times at canucks events, nice guy