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Rafalski a Little Big Man for Devils
By Phil Coffey
NHL.com
PHILADELPHIA (May 14, 2000) -- Need a classic example of a diametrically opposed statement?
Brian Rafalski.
Why, you ask? OK. Rafalski is a rookie defenseman for the New Jersey Devils. In fact, he's a member of the 1999-2000 NHL All-Rookie Team. He also is 26-years-old. That’s a little long in the tooth by pro hockey standards.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs discovered Brian Rafalski is a big hitter in a small man's body.
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And, he's listed as 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, which is kinda small when compared to the various and sundry redwoods populating NHL defenses this season. Plus, he admits to being 5-9.
"My size might have had something to do with me not being drafted, but I also needed to work on a few things, said Rafalski, who was signed by Devils’ General Manager Lou Lamoriello as a free agent on June 18, 1999. "I needed to improve on my offensive skills. When I came out of college, I had OK offensive skills, but I needed to get better, and in Europe, I had the chance to do that. And that's what I've been focusing on."
Rafalski had 19 goals and 34 assists for HIFK Helsinki in 1998-99, the fourth-best total in the Finnish League's scoring race. Rafalski also was an eye-opening plus-38 in 53 games in '98-99. He was New Jersey’s only major summer acquisition. And he didn’t disappoint in training camp, where he added another offensive dimension to the New Jersey backline. He also did a good job of proving that you don’t have to be a giant to play effective defense in the NHL.
"I've always been decent defensively, but there aren't too many 5-foot-9 defensive defensemen, so I knew that if I wanted to make it to the NHL that I would have to improve offensively."
And he wanted to disprove the notion that a smaller defenseman can’t play a physical game.
"I'm going to be a physical as I can," Rafalski vowed. "I don't think my job is to fight guys, but I am going to be physical. I think that is one part of my game that people underrate."
Over the course of a regular season in which he was Scott Stevens' partner and scored five goals and 27 assists in 75 games, Rafalski proved all his critics wrong. And during the playoffs, he's won over countless fans with smart, hard-hitting hockey that has bordered on brilliant for the Devils.
He's come a long way from last summer, when even his new teammates didn't know who he was.
"I heard we signed this defenseman out of Finland," goalie Martin Brodeur said. "No one had ever heard of him. And it just became this thing, 'Watch out for the Finnish Defenseman!' Like the scouting staff's finally lost it. And now look at Brian. He's a great story, one those things you never think could happen."
It almost didn't. Undrafted, Rafalski was playing in Finland when a Devils scout attended games to watch goalie Ari Ahonen, the goalie New Jersey ended up taking in the first round of the 1999 draft. Ahonen's team happened to be playing against Rafalski's. The scout saw Rafalski and soon invited him to training camp.
"I heard we signed this defenseman from the Finnish League and that he was headed for Albany (the Devils' AHL affiliate)," Stevens recalls. "I didn't think anything else of it. Then a few days into training camp it's like, 'This guy's pretty good.' I still thought there had to be a reason no NHL team wanted him, though. It must be because he's too small. He must not be able to handle the physical play."
Stevens decided to test the rookie. He slammed him into the boards, tried to rattle him day after day. Rafalski kept coming back for more, not saying much. By the end of camp, everyone was convinced.
Surely coach Larry Robinson knew all about Rafalski when he was signed, right?
"Not a damn thing," Robinson said of his pre-training camp knowledge of Rafalski. "I heard we signed this guy from Finland. He was small. No one in the NHL wanted to sign him out of college.
"Playing in Europe really gave me an opportunity to work on the skills part of my game -- my stickhandling, moving the puck and getting to carry the puck up ice more," Rafalski said. "It gave me time to work on my own game and to improve it.
"I try to make good passes and to move the puck quickly and to use my quickness to put pressure on guys," he said.
But it took a while for Rafalski to grow accustomed to the idea he was a legitimate NHL defenseman.
"I just came to camp knowing that I was going to have to work as hard as I could everyday, he said. "I've had success at a lot of different levels and it's just a case of not having the opportunity here before now. This is my first chance to show what I can do."
And he's shown plenty, especially to Stevens.
"I like him," Stevens said. "He's a good little player. I've been impressed with him. He's got good quickness and is a heads-up player."
And now, the ultra-intense Stevens has a new partner and road roommate. The two spent the better part of the Devils various road swings watching games on TV, with Stevens supplying plenty of commentary.
"We'll be watching a hockey game and Scotty will just be critiquing everything," Rafalski says. "He'll be, 'this guy should have done that and this other guy should have done that.' I'm like, 'That may be right. But it's not that easy."
Stevens usually just glares back. But Rafalski see the stare and knows he has arrived. After all, here he is debating defensive technique with a future Hall of Famer. But Rafalski no longer is doing it as an unknown. Rather he can voice his opinion as a pretty darn good NHL defenseman, one who is playing a big role in the Eastern Conference Finals.
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