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Derian Hatcher: A Sterling Heights, Michigan native who grew up playing in tournaments with his local Detroit minor league ice hockey team. But it wasn’t until he started to play for the North Bay Centennials of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) that Hatcher began to get noticed- not just for his pure size and unforgiving physical play, but for the kind of numbers he was able to produce on the score sheet as well. In his draft year with the Centennials, Derian was able to produce at a near point-per-game pace, putting up 63 points in 64 games played that year. Not bad for a defenseman, right? Well, this writer would say that was downright incredible considering he also took in 163 minutes of those games from within the penalty box that year.
With production like that coming from a player who was also gifted with immense size (6’5) that you just can’t teach, it looked like a no-brainer for the Minnesota North Stars when they drafted him 8th overall in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft.
After being selected by the North Stars, Hatcher would prove he would not need long to join the ranks of the big club. In fact, Derian even managed to make quite the splash in his NHL debut on October 12th, 1991, when he was able to net a goal. After playing in Minnesota for only two seasons, Hatcher and the Stars moved to Dallas, Texas, to help grow the game of hockey in the south.
Here, Hatcher succeeded (in the NHL today there are Texas native defensemen Tyler Myers, and Seth Jones, plus forward Blake Coleman) and, for his hard work both on/off the ice, Derian was awarded the C (honor of being named team captain) in the beginning of the 1994-1995 season; an honor he would hold for a total of nine seasons. During that time, Hatcher was able to compete for the United States in the Olympics, become an NHL All Star, a World Cup gold medalist, and the first ever American-born captain to ever win a Stanley Cup!
But in 2003, after giving the Stars a total of 12 years of his best hockey, Hatcher decided to head back to his home state of Michigan where he then signed a 5-year $30 million dollar deal with the Red Wings. Although this would seem to be a picturesque way to end to his historic career, things did not go quite as planned during his time with the Red Wings. Derian would suffer a nagging knee injury in his first season with Detroit which only allowed him to play in 15 games that season. The following season Hatcher would have no better luck seeing that in 2004 the league and players union could not come to an agreement and were then forced into the now-infamous NHL lockout.
Once the league and players’ union came to their senses and agreed to terms the next season, a newly implemented salary cap was then set into place. The Red Wings found themselves over the cap and were then forced to buy out Hatcher (and others) in order to meet the new finical restraints. But what was the Red Wings’ loss became the Flyers’ gain because, in 2005, Philadelphia was able to convince this proven force to patrol their blueline. Signing him to a 4-year $14 million dollar deal, the Flyers were then able to reunite Hatcher with the then-Flyers head coach Ken Hitchcock- who he won the Stanley Cup back in 1999 playing under.
Now in the city of Brotherly Love, over the course of the next three seasons Derian would help to not only bring in some instantaneous leadership (which was made evident by him being named interim captain of the Flyers in just his first season with the team on January 29th, 2006, due to Keith Primeau’s battle with post-concussion syndrome) but he optimized what it meant to be a Flyer by playing the game the right way and bringing back that physical brand of hockey that Philadelphia fans have come to love and expect from their players. Hatcher, who would go on to prove to be a near impenetrable force for the Flyers during that time, even managed to teach the-then rookie nicknamed “The Next One” (Sidney Crosby) the painfully valuable lesson that respect is earned in the NHL. That lesson, (which you can watch below) proved to be a costly one for Crosby because, during his first game against the Flyers, he would lose two teeth thanks to Hatcher.
After his first, and very effective 1st season with the team (that he was born to play for), Derian would serve as one of the teams’ alternate captains for the next two seasons before sustaining yet another knee injury which would have him sitting out the entire 2008-2009 season for the Flyers. Only then did he decided to try his hand at coaching when he came back later that season as a co-coach for the team’s playoff run.
This opportunity must have sparked his interest because after having to undergo a full-on knee replacement in the summer of 2009, less than a month later he formally announced his retirement from the NHL. It was at that time that Derian- who had played in 1,045 games where he totaled 331 points and accumulated 1,581 penalty minutes, was now in need of a new endeavor. Making the most of his newfound niche, he took on the role as a player development coach for the Flyers. Helping to cultivate the Flyers draft picks and other youth already in the team’s system over the course of the next five years only left this now-member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame wanting more.
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So, in 2015, along with former NHL’er David Legwand, Derian purchased the OHL’s Sarnia Sting which he would then also assume the role as their head coach. A role that he would hold onto until June of this year when he decided to step down from behind the bench. During his reign with the Sting, Hatcher led the team to two franchise record-winning seasons and even captured the club’s first division title since 2008. Throughout that time behind the bench Hatcher would help produce these now-NHL players, and current draft prospects: Travis Konecny, Jordan Kyrou, Jakob Chychrun, Jacob Perreault, and goalie Benjamin Gaudreau.
Currently taking a break from coaching, Derian will still look to play a major role in the success of the Sting, but he now wishes to focus more on spending time with his family. Hatcher still predominantly resides in Michigan where he and his brother Kevin (who also played in the NHL) previously owned a bar/restaurant together, but both later decided they’re better off sticking to what they know.
Although Derian only played but a short portion of his career here in Philadelphia, that time would prove to be quite impactful. Hatcher embodied what is expected by Flyers fans of any player that is to ever wear the orange and black, and he did so with pride. The grit and toughness that Hatcher played with night in and night out was something that, until quite recently (with the acquisition of Rasmus Ristolainen), the Flyers seemingly lacked. His true leadership qualities both on and off the ice are something that only the few that got the chance to either play with him or for him really ever got the chance to know the totality of, but rest assured all of those who come in contact with him are compelled to respect. Like few players successfully did before him, Hatcher was able to hang up his skates for the last time and pick up a coach’s whistle with flawless transition. It is in this writer’s mind, if Derian so chooses to ever purse it, he too could procure a job coaching at the professional level, just like his former Flyers teammate Jason Smith did recently when he secured a job with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
