Brian Skrudland entered his hockey career — pucks blazing. Breaking out of junior hockey with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades after three seasons, Skrudland turned pro in 1985 with the Montréal Canadiens. Despite a season of inconsistent results, the Canadiens made the playoffs, and Skrudland led the team to victory winning the Stanley Cup in his rookie year. In game two of that Final, Skrudland scribed his name in the NHL record books after scoring the fastest overtime goal (a whopping nine seconds) in Stanley Cup Playoff History.
Skrudland went on to play nearly eight seasons with the Habs before moving to the Calgary Flames during a mid-season trade. Then, he began his next season as the first-ever captain for the expansion Florida Panthers in 1993. Skrudland spent four seasons on the ice as a centre in the “Sunshine State”, which saw a run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 where sadly the Panthers were defeated by the Colorado Avalanche, 4-0. In the summer of 1997, Skrudland signed briefly as a free agent with the New York Rangers playing a single season before joining the Dallas Stars, with whom he won his second Stanley Cup in 1999. Just one year later, Skrudland retired at 36, following one concluding attempt at the Stanley Cup Finals. Making his transition into coaching the Calgary Flames for three seasons, Skrudland is now currently the assistant coach of the Panthers. In the thick of his 15-year-NHL playing career, Skrudland competed in 881 NHL contests, cataloguing 343 points, and 1,107 PIM.
