Top 100 Oilers: No. 61 — Ken Linseman

Notable

Ken Linseman was the catalyst for the NHL to lower the draft age to 18 years old. As a junior with the Kingston Canadians, he was a late selection by the Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association in 1977.

He was a talent, scoring 53-74–127 points in his third year of junior. He believed he was ready to play pro hockey.

At that time, the NHL draft age was 20 years old. Linseman was signed by the Bulls and would sue the NHL.

“I just felt that if I was old enough to vote and old enough to go to war, that I was old enough to play pro if someone wanted to pay me to play,” said Linseman.

Linseman was one of several junior talents leaving to play in the WHA, making the NHL fume, and to make a long story short, the NHL would be forced to lower the draft age to 18.

Drafted seventh overall in 1978 by the Philadelphia Flyers, Linseman would quickly become a fixture in their lineup, scoring a career high 92 points in 1981-82 as part of the “Rat Patrol” line with Brian Propp and Paul Holmgren.

The Story

How did Kenny become The Rat?

Well, the original story ain’t pretty. During a scrap in junior playoffs with Kingston, facing the Ottawa 67s, Linseman kicked Jeff Gieger in the face, leading to a suspension and eventual conviction of assault.

The Rat crossed the line at times.

Just months after lifting the Cup with the Oilers, Linseman was in a tangle-up with former teammate Lee Fogolin and bit Foggy’s cheek. He received merely a fine.

You’d love him as a teammate, hate him as an opponent. But he came to play when the games mattered. He is 26th all-time in playoff points per game (1.062) with 120 in 113 games.

Perhaps this quote from 1985 via Sports Illustrated best sums up his no-remorse policy.

“If the league is going to let us fight, I don’t see where there are any rules about how we should fight.”

Linseman was dirty, but effective. He was a helluva player to have in your lineup.

The Oilers acquired the original super-pest via the Hartford Whalers on Aug. 19, 1982, for Risto Siltanen and Brent Loney (he was swapped from Philadelphia to Hartford earlier that day).

Linseman’s impact was immediate. Proving a second layer of offence and a brand of penalty-drawing agitation, to outright disregard for “The Code,” Linseman would cement himself as a beloved Oiler.

He was fifth in team goals in 82-83, scoring 33-42–75 and 181 PIMs with a team nearing the chalice, but losing to the Islanders in the final. The Rat was also suspended twice for four games that season.

A year later, he provided 18-49–67, but his best hockey was in the playoffs. He scored 10-4–14, the third most Oilers goals in that run, only behind Gretzky and Kurri in the first Stanley Cup. The most memorable moment for Linseman in the SCF was the slash or high-stick he produced on Bryan Trottier that led to a five-minute major in Game 4.

The Oilers, leading 2-1 at the time, wouldn’t be undone, and cruised to an eventual 7-2 win to take a stranglehold of the series 3-1. Translating to offence a game later, in Game 5, Linseman’s 3-0 goal became the Stanley Cup clincher in a 5-2 at Northlands.

Lowe said in Champions that his trade in the off-season to Boston came as a surprise, but Linseman had a way of getting under teammates’ skin as much as the opposition, recalling the time Gretzky said he was going to “f***ing kill him” after he took multiple penalties. Linseman would score twice en route to an Oilers win on that occasion.

Mike Krushelnyski came to Edmonton in the trade and became a tight friend with Gretzky, joining him in Los Angeles in the Great Sale. Linseman played exactly 200 regular-season games with the Oilers and 37 more in the playoffs.

What Brownlee said

Some hockey historians consider Linseman the first true agitator in NHL history. He was a contradictory blend of speed and skill and piss and vinegar who could play the game anyway you wanted. Linseman scored 20-or-more goals seven times in the NHL and he got better when the games got bigger. While Linseman wasn’t a big man at five-foot-11 and 175 pounds, he’d yap and hack and drive opponents to distraction.

Linseman was suspended in junior for kicking an opponent. As a member of the Oilers, Linseman was suspended for fighting Dean Kennedy of the LA Kings under the stands at Northlands Coliseum. How much of a pain in the ass was Linseman? Long after his days of dirty deeds were done, the writers at Grantland rated The Rat among the Top 10 NHL dirt bags of all time here.

Whatever your views on Linseman tip-toeing along the line that separates mayhem from being “highly competitive” – something swayed largely by whether he was playing for your team or not – there’s no getting around how effective he was with the Oilers, particularly during the playoffs and when he played on a line with Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson.

The Last 10

• No. 71 — Anson Carter
• No. 70 — Adam Graves
• No. 69 — Vincent Damphousse
• No. 68 — Dustin Penner
• No. 67 — Roman Hamrlík
• No. 66 — Pat Hughes
• No. 65 — Dave Brown
• No. 64 — Tom Gilbert
• No. 63 — Mike Grier
• No. 62 — Marty McSorley