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Juha Widing

Juha Widing was born in Oulu, Finland to Swedish parents. He grew up in Grums (Värmland), where players like Thomas Steen and Willy Lindstrom came from.

He played in Grums in the late 1950's and then moved to Gothenburg and a team named GAIS. There he played until 1964. Then as a 17-year old he made a bold and brave decision that would change his life forever - packed his bags and moved to Canada.

How would a Swedish kid fare in Canada in the 1960s? He wasn't a big physical player by any stretch, but he didn't shy away from that aspect of the game either. Juha was a very fast skater who was clocked as the fastest skater in several Kings training camps. He was technically skilled and smart.

Juha joined the Brandon Wheat Kings, a New York Rangers junior club, in 1964. He had a solid rookie year with the Wheat Kings - in 45 games he recorded 23 goals, 15 assists for 38 total points. The 1965/66 season was even better for Widing. In 50 games he recorded a league leading 62 goals, 52 assists for 114 points!

Once Widing turned 20, the New York Rangers assigned him to their minor pro farm club, the Omaha Knights of the Central Hockey League. He led the Knights in scoring with 27 goals and 60 points and tied for the lead in assists, with Bill Fairbairn, with 33 assists.

The 1968/69 season was another good year for Widing. He again led the entire CHL with 41 goals, and added 39 assists for 80 points, which placed him 2nd among all point getters. He was a CHL second team all star. Yet despite his two fine years of professional hockey, Juha still hadn't had a shot at the NHL.

Perhaps it was because he was labelled as the stereotypical European of the day because of his name, but Juha was determined to make it to the NHL. He had an impressive 1969 training camp with the Rangers and the Rangers had little choice but to keep the youngster at the NHL level. By playing for the Rangers in game one of the 1969-70 season. However they didn't give the rookie a lot of opportunity to do some real damage, appearing in 44 games of limited ice time, scoring 7 goals and 7 assists. He just didn't check enough to suit the defensive minded Rangers. - I've been concentrating on checking ever since and it's made me a more complete player, he said later on in his career.

By late in the season the Rangers traded Juha and Real Lemieux to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Teddy Irvine. It turned out be a great move for Widing, who would go on to be a top player in Los Angeles for years to come. Years later Widing chuckled when he thought about the trade.

"I was traded from New York at the airport. I didn't even have time to pack my things because Los Angeles had a game the following night."

He broke his wrist after only four games in LA, but Widing then went on to lead the Los Angeles Kings in scoring for the next three seasons. Teaming up with Mike Byers and Bob Berry to form the "Bee Line". Later on with Mike Corrigan and Bob Berry he formed the "Hot Line." He also played with other lines featuring Butch Goring and Bob Nevin, the Kings were pretty respectable leading up to the days when Marcel Dionne reigned as King of Kings. Juha played 7 full seasons in Los Angeles, the first five of which were very productive years.

In 1976 Juha was invited to represent Sweden in the 1976 Canada Cup. An invitation that he proudly accepted. When Juha landed in Sweden to prepare for the tournament he got a question from a Swedish reporter if he thought it would be difficult with the transition to European hockey after so many years in North America.

"It's going to be North American hockey over there and that's the kind of hockey that I can play" Juha said. He then added: "I gladly admit that I've dreamed about playing for the national team since I was a kid."

Juha also felt that it was a perfect opportunity to redeem himself after a weak 75-76 season in which he only scored 7 goals.

"I had a lot of bad luck in 75-76.I got hit by a "heat-stroke" during the training camp. When I returned I was in bad shape and was hurt on and off."

Juha made his international debut against the Soviet Union and Finland prior to the Canada Cup. Fittingly enough Juha scored in both of the games against Finland. He then had a decent Canada Cup tournament for Sweden.

From there it went downhill with Juha's hockey career. As the 1976-77 season started Juha failed to score in the 10 pre season games as well as the first 20 games of the regular season. The writing was on the wall. Juha and his $100,000 contract became expendable. He was traded to the Cleveland Barons on January 22, 1977, it was his last season in the NHL.

In 1977-78, Widing jumped to the W.H.A. Edmonton Oilers and played one last season of professional hockey before retiring. In Widing's 8 year N.H.L. career he appeared in 575 games, scoring 144 goals, along with 226 assists.

After his hockey career was over he worked as a consultant for the Vancouver Canucks. Sadly enough his heart gave up on December 30, 1984. Only 38-years old Widing died of a heart attack at a hospital in Vancouver. The likeable Scandinavian who was tagged "Whitey" for his blond hair eventually lost the battle, but he also won one when he became the first European born and trained player to have a pretty successful career in the NHL.

Craig Redmond

Dawson Creek, BC, born Craig Redmond (cousin to 1970s NHL standouts Dick or Mickey) was a very promising offensive defenseman in the the 1984 Entry Draft. So much so that the Los Angeles Kings snapped up the the 5'11" 190lb defenseman with the 6th overall pick, selecting him ahead of the likes of Shayne Corson, Gary Roberts, Doug Bodger and Kevin Hatcher.

Craig resisted jumping to major junior hockey in order to get a chance to earn an all expense paid scholarship from a major US hockey college. After two strong seasons with the BCJHL Abbortsford Flyers, the scholarship offers came pouring in for the 1982-83 season. Redmond finally decided to head to the University of Denver of the WCHA.

Redmond had an incredible rookie season in Denver, turning many heads - especially those of National Hockey League scouts. He had a 16 goals, 38 assists and 54 points in 34 collegiate showdowns. He showed great offensive ability, suggesting to some that he could become one of the elite offensive rearguards down the road.

After the Kings drafted Redmond so high, he decided to put school on the backburner and give a professional hockey career a full shot. He dropped out of school in order to skate with Dave King's Canadian national team. Not only was it a great opportunity because it was an Olympic year, but it was a great chance to improve his game. King was notorious for his defensive hockey, something Redmond was not known for. Redmond and the Kings felt it would best if he apprenticed under King's watchful eye for the year.

Redmond had a decent year and made the Olympic team. He scored twice in 7 games in Sarajevo, but the Canadians failed to medal.

Redmond made the jump to the NHL in 1984-85. He had a nice rookie season, scoring 6 goals and 39 points. He was by no means dominant but for a NHL rookie defenseman he was a serviceable player, particularly on a bad Kings team.

However Redmond's career would turn downwards in his sophomore season in 1985-86. Craig had a real tough year that year, collecting just 24 points but also struggling defensively, finishing with a bad -34. The LA Kings failed to make the playoffs, and Craig used the opportunity to return to the international game, playing 10 games for Canada in the World Championships.

1986-87 was even worse for Craig. Because of a serious knee injury, Craig only appeared in 16 contests. He looked better in those games than he had in the previous year, scoring 1 goal and 8 points and improving his +/- to -1. However the knee injury took a lot out of Redmond.

1987-88 was a weird year for Craig. Obviously relations between Craig and the Kings had soured. Craig had recovered from his knee injury and started his comeback. But after just two games, the Kings wanted to demote Craig to the minor leagues, which was a move Redmond was not prepared to do. The Monarchs were forced to suspend Redmond when he refused to report to New Haven. Redmond instead demanded a trade.

The trade never came all season long. Teams were weary of Craig's knee, as well as his on-ice shortcomings. He had failed to establish himself as an offensive presence at the elite level. His defensive play was poor, and like many young defensemen, he was prone to making costly errors in his own zone. He also lacked any physical game, and had trouble with NHL power forwards. Add that to the fact that he missed basically two years of development due to the knee injury and his subsequent hold out, it was a very long 1987-88 season for Craig.

Craig's trade came in the summer of 1988. He was traded from Los Angeles to Edmonton just two days after the two teams got together to make the biggest trade in NHL history - sending the great Wayne Gretzky to Hollywood. Essentially Redmond was part of the package that came to Edmonton in exchange for Gretzky, even though it took a couple of days later for the two to come to terms. The Oilers agreed to send John Miner, a minor league defensemen, to LA on August 10 1988.

Redmond did play in Edmonton for 21 games in the 1988-89 season, but it was a round about arrival to the Alberta capital. After training camp, the Oilers had to expose Redmond in the pre-season waiver draft, and the New York Rangers quickly grabbed the smooth skater. He was immediately sent to the minor leagues, and he did report. He spent the month of October playing 10 games back in Denver, with the IHL Rangers, and picked up 13 points, all assists.

After the quick start, the Rangers recalled Redmond at the end of the month as an emergency injury replacement, except he never did get into a game. Once the injury situation eased up the Rangers had to put Redmond on waivers again in order for him to go back to Denver. The Oilers took the opportunity to grab him back.

The Oilers, looking for a true offensive defenseman ever since the departure of Paul Coffey, gave Redmond a good look. In 21 games Redmond was given some good powerplay time, scoring 3 times and adding 10 points. However he was, as always, an adventure at even strength as his -10 attests. The Oilers demoted Redmond to their farm team in Cape Breton for the second half of the year, where Craig played well.

Frustrated with the way his career had been going and the way NHL teams had dismissed him, Craig walked away from the game before the 1989-90 season started. Perhaps looking for some closure, Craig made a comeback 5 years later, spending the 1995-96 season split between the AHL Cape Breton Oilers and the IHL Atlanta Knights.

All said, Craig was a first round draft bust who played in 191 games, scoring 16 goals, 68 assists and 84 points. He got into only 3 playoff games, scoring 1 goal.

Peter Helander

Peter Helander arrived in the NHL with great fanfare, but he did not last very long.

Helander was 30 when he came to Los Angeles. The Kings drafted him in the 8th round, 153rd overall, in the 1982 draft after Helander really impressed at the 1982 World Championships, as well as the 1981 Canada Cup where he was playing as Borje Salming's defense partner.

Helander was already established as a star with his home club in Skelleftea, where he also earned an engineering degree and worked for a steel company. He was a strong skater who could move the puck. A self-described defensive defenseman, Helander had good size for the NHL game.

George Maguire, general manager of the Los Angeles Kings, was drooling over his late round find, bringing countryman Ulf Isaksson over with him.

It was certainly an eye opening experience for the duo.

"There are so many fights. We have very few fights in Sweden. Over there, you get in a fight and you can't play for maybe a week. It costs you four or five games," said Helander.

Neither Helander or Isaksson seemed intimidated by the aggressiveness, though, said coach Don Perry.

"The thing I like is that teams were testing them right off the bat and they weren't intimidated at all. They were throwing elbows right back. They've needed time to adjust to the different style of play and they've done very well," said Perry.

Helander found the coaching in the NHL quite a bit different.

"I think Don Perry is a very good coach, but it seems like we skate a lot more here (in practice) than we ever did in Sweden. It's a lot of hard work, but it's gotten us ready for the season."

GM Maguire expected Helander in particular to make an immediate impact. So much so that he bought out the contract of Ian Turnbull, Borje Salming's old defense partner from Toronto.

That turned out to be a bad move. The Kings blue line was thin enough already, and it got thinner before Helander really had a chance. In his seventh NHL game, a contest against Hartford on October 23rd, 1982, Helander broke his wrist.

The injury would cost Helander his career. Aside from a short minor league stint to test out his surgically repaired wrist, he never played again. He had three surgeries, but when it was obvious he could not play in the Kings 1983 training camp, Peter Helander retired.

It was a blunt end to a good career. Unfortunately North American fans never got a chance to see just how good Peter Helander could be.

Juha Widing

Craig Redmond

Los Angeles Kings Greatest Players

Peter Helander