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It may not have been a franchise, but it was an NHL game. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan happily took what it could get. On October 13, 1992, Saskatoon hosted the first neutral-site, regularly-scheduled, regular-season game in NHL history.

Saskatoon had almost had its own NHL franchise. Back in January 1983, the owner of the St. Louis Blues sold the team to a Saskatoon group (Batoni-Hunter Enterprises, Ltd.) whose owner (Bill Hunter) had co-founded the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972. Hunter planned to build an 18,000-seat arena for a town of 160,000. In May 1983, the NHL rejected the sale (by a 15-3 vote) over concerns of Saskatoon being self-sustaining with that population. Among other reactions, the Blues ended up being the only team to ever skip the Entry Draft. NHL President John Ziegler promised, “The NHL would do everything it could to keep the Blues in St. Louis under a new Blues franchise.” Someone sent Ziegler and Gil Stein (then the NHL’s chief legal counsel) a plaque stating, “The NHL will not be taking the noon balloon to Saskatoon.”

However, nearly a decade later when Stein became the last NHL president in 1992, the NHL did go to Saskatoon. Under Stein’s direction, the NHL decided to implement an NHL Across North America tour in which teams would play in neutral sites. The NHL gave three reasons for the tour: to generate revenue, to nurture hockey in expansion-candidate areas, and to bring hockey to the people. Stein explained, “I’ve made it very clear that the foremost priority is to grow in areas to help us get back on network television in the United States. Our focus will have to be on the densely populated television markets.”

A not-quite-capacity crowd of 8,783 hockey fans filled Saskatchewan Place for a taste of the NHL. The arena’s general manager, Ken Wood, commented that the cold, snowy weather led to “a lot of farmers coming in and buying last-minute tickets.” He summed up, “I know the NHL is really happy with what we got.” They were probably happier that they drew 60 accredited media to attend.

Overnight, Saskatchewan Place had had to convert from a WWF event that Monday night to an NHL-quality ice rink in time for Tuesday morning practices. As the staff added advertisement stickers, they accidentally sealed up one of the penalty boxes leading someone to joke, “No penalties for the home team.”

The “home” team was represented by the Minnesota North Stars, whose coach, Bob Gainey, held a 10 am practice. Their opponents, the Calgary Flames, were led in a practice at 11:30 am by Coach Dave King. Minnesota had at least two players who had skated in Saskatoon. Richard Matvichuk, who played for the Saskatoon Blades the previous season, simply said, “It feels weird being here.” Left wing Brian Propp commented, “It’s been since juniors that I played here in Saskatoon and I’ve never been in this building. But it’s exciting to be here. My family usually comes to Winnipeg or Calgary but it’s a pretty long drive.” For the Flames, King had coached the Saskatoon Huskies and also had various players with Saskatchewan connections.

The two teams gave the Saskatoon audience a close-scoring game despite few shots on goal. Propp started the scoring when he “tipped in a corner feed from Ulf Dahlen at 1:55.” Calgary tied towards the end of the first period. The Flames scored the only two goals in the second, but the North Stars came back with two goals in the third. Calgary beat Minnesota 4-3 with Mike Vernon making 24 saves for the Flames and Jon Casey blocking only 14 for the Stars.

Coach Gainey noted, “We did a pretty good job on defence. I think we needed a little stronger goaltending. We needed a couple of more big saves.” While Coach King explained, “In the first period, we had the puck all alone behind their defence three times, ourselves and the goalie, and didn’t get a shot on goal. The other thing that’s a little deceptive is that we probably had five or six of our best scoring chances in which no shots resulted. We either overpassed the puck or shot into a block.”

Saskatoon also was scheduled to host NHL games on January 18, February 23, and March 11, 1993. The neutral-site tours only continued throughout the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons. 

Additional Sources:
In her personal history, Kyle Hurst hated her toe picks and wanted to skate on a hockey team like her brother. With age comes wisdom, and realizing how poorly she skates, she now much prefers watching the professionals. Writing about history for her day job, Kyle enjoys combining her two loves by writing hockey history. She still hates toe picks.

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