Joined again by writer, podcaster and Blackhawks fan Sam Fels, we remember goalie Jeff Hackett, who played decently in 500 NHL games for some of the worst teams of his era.
Jeff Hackett’s NHL career has a defined pattern. Every time he was given a chance to rise from back-up to starter, the team in front of him went directly into the crapper. He went from a bad early 90’s Islanders team to an awful inaugural Sharks team. When he was sent to Chicago two years later, a new problem emerged: Ed Belfour
was already the starter and wasn’t keen on sharing his crease. Hackett endured Belfour’s bullying for years before the elder goalie was shipped to San Jose and Hackett got the net full time. Too bad the Hawks playing in front of him were the definition of mediocre. His last starting gig was with the Montreal Canadiens, where the good new was that he wasn’t directly following a Hall of Famer. The bad news was basically everything else.
Sam walks us through Blackhawks goalie debates and in-fighting (which occasionally included actual fighting) in the era before Toews-Kane-Keith-etc changed everything. Fans in Chicago couldn’t watch home games on TV thanks to a cheapskate owner, but the team was barely worth watching anyway. On that team, Hackett wasn’t a bad goalie; he was just more of an “innings eater” than anything else. Sam regales us with some of the personalities and peculiarities of that time in Chicago sports and we share with him tales about some forgettable Islanders teams. Meanwhile, most of Mike’s memories of Hackett come from his years as a Hab during one of their fallow periods. It’s a wide-ranging episode covering a lot of 1990’s and 2000’s NHL nostalgia.
Thanks as always to Sam for coming on. We could have listened to his Weird Blackhawks stories all day. Be sure to subscribe to his great newsletter, which covers hockey, football, soccer, pro wrestling and more. And check out our Weird Islanders Extra! Patreon bonus episode with Sam and us talking more shit about Ed Belfour, a great goalie and true lunatic in his time.
WEIRD BONUS MATERIAL
- Jeff Hackett won just five games with the Islanders in 1990-91. If you watch this compilation, five wins seems very, very generous.
- One of his wins that second season was a 4-1 home victory over Winnipeg where he made 41 saves.
- That same season, young Hackett was trucked by future Blackhawks teammate Bob Probert in a game in Detroit. The Islanders were down 8-4 in the third at the time. Rough night for ol’ Hack.
- With Mark Fitzpatrick and Glenn Healy ahead of him, Hackett was left exposed in the 1991 expansion draft. He was selected by the San Jose Sharks, the only team in the league that was worse than the Islanders. He won just 13 times in 78 games as a Shark.
- Getting traded from a terrible expansion team to an original six playoff team sounds great. But the relationship between Hackett and All Star Ed Belfour was most definitely not. Belfour berated and belittled the younger goalie for the better part of four seasons until “The Eagle” was finally dealt to…the Sharks! Belfour was gracious as always on the way out.
- Late Breaking Bonus: Hackett was the starting goalie on the night the Islanders first honored Al Arbour with a banner at Nassau Coliseum on January 25, 1997.
- Hackett spent about two years as the starter for a less than stellar Blackhawks team (16, 26, 29:30), before being traded to the Habs in a deal for another legend, Jocelyn Thibault.
- Somewhat ironically, while playing against the Islanders for Montreal in 1998, Steve Webb barrelled into Hackett and knocked him out of the game.
- After stops in Boston and Philly, Hackett retired due to vertigo.
- In 2011, Bleacher Report ranked the top 100 goalies in NHL history. Hackett was No. 99.
- In 2017, Hackett was elected to the London Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
What makes a “Weird Islander?”
We’re always open to suggestions about other Weird Islanders to discuss. Remember the criteria. Candidates must fulfill one of the two of the following:
- Played one (1) season or less for the Islanders or very short stints over multiple seasons.
- Be a veteran NHLer who is not generally associated with his time on Islanders.
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