6 From 1982-83 Portland Winterhawks With 100+ Points

For the Portland Winterhawks, it was business as usual in the 1982-83 Western Hockey League. The franchise had been dominant in the WHL since relocating from Edmonton, Alberta for the 1976-77 season. The Winterhawks are descendants of the original Edmonton Oil Kings team.

In 1982-83, Portland finished first in the West Division and second overall in the WHL with 50 wins and 100 points over the 72 game regular season schedule. The only team with a better record was the East Division leading Saskatoon Blades with 105 points. The Winterhawks led the WHL with 495 goals.

In the playoffs, Portland plowed through the Seattle Thunderbirds and Victoria Cougars before meeting up with the Lethbridge Broncos in the finals. Despite finishing the regular season with 21 points less than Portland, the Broncos took the series in five games. However, because Portland was hosting the Memorial Cup, both teams advanced. The Winterhawks got their revenge by winning the national title with an 8-3 victory over the Oshawa Generals in the final game.

On that 1982-83 Portland Winterhawks team were six players with 100 points or more. Just short of 100 was rookie Ray Ferraro. The following season, Ferraro would set the as yet unbroken record of 108 goals in a single WHL season while playing for the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Ken Yaremchuk – 160

It was third full season and final full season with Portland over a WHL career where Yaremchuk produced 424 points in just 210 games. In the high offense WHL, Ken’s 160 points placed him just sixth in the league.

Yaremchuk was the seventh overall pick by the Chicago Blackhawks at the 1982 NHL Entry Draft. He went on to play 235 regular season games in the National Hockey League between 1983-84 and 1988-89 with Chicago and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ken rounded out his professional hockey career playing in Switzerland from 1990-91 to 1998-99.

Randy Heath – 151

Heath was in his second of three years with Portland in 1982-83. His 82 goals placed him second in the WHL, behind Dale Derkatch of the Regina Pats with 84. Randy was a second round pick of the New York Rangers in 1983 and went on to play a total of 13 games with the club in 1984-85 and 1985-86. Like Ken Yaremchuk, Heath finished his pro career in Europe, playing in Sweden’s Elitserien.

Cam Neely – 120

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005, Cam Neely was in his rookie WHL season in 1982-83 and his only full season in the league. The following year, Neely played just 19 games with the Winterhawks before being called up to the Vancouver Canucks to finish the season. The Canucks had chosen him ninth overall at the 1983 NHL Entry Draft.

Cam played 726 regular season games in an injury shortened NHL career. He played for the Canucks and the Boston Bruins but, of course, the bulk of success came while wearing a Bruins jersey. He scored 395 goals over his career with two seasons with 50 or more. In 1989-90, he scored 55 for Boston. In 1993-94, in perhaps one of the most underrated performances in hockey history, he scored 50 goals while playing just 49 games for the Bruins.

Grant Sasser – 119

1982-83 was Grant’s second of three seasons with the Winterhawks. He was a fifth round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins after just his first year of WHL hockey. His only three NHL games came in 1983-84 with the Penguins before being sent back down to Portland. Sasser played one year of pro hockey after junior. In 1984-85, he split the year between the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American Hockey League and the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the IHL.

Richard Kromm – 103

Kromm was in his second of three seasons with Portland but would play just ten games in 1983-84 before being called up to the Calgary Flames. Richard was a second round pick of the mighty New York Islanders in 1982. He would get his chance to play for the Islanders but started his NHL career in Calgary with the Flames. He played 372 regular season NHL games between 1983-84 and 1992-93 with the Flames and Islanders.

Richard immediately moved on to a life of coaching after the 1992-93 season. He has since coached in the IHL, AHL, UHL, WHL, CHL and ECHL. Kromm was head coach of the Winterhawks for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 season. The past three years, he has coached the Evansville Icemen. For the first two years, the team was in the Central Hockey League. This past season, 2012-13, the Icemen were members of the ECHL.

Brad Duggan – 100

Between 1980-81 and 1983-84, Duggan roamed the Western Hockey League, playing for the Billings Longhorns, Saskatoon Blades, Portland and the Brandon Wheat Kings. Of his 100 points in 1982-83, just 16 were goals. The soft handed defenseman recorded 84 assists. Brad did not continue on to play professional hockey.