Pat LaFontaine | New York Islanders 2025 Hall of Famer

Pat LaFontaine | New York Islanders 2025 Hall of Famer

La Fontaine. More and more Olympians coming into the National Hockey League. Al Arbert told me this morning, Mickey La Fontaine looks like he’s got to be a good one. Well, he’s got a great reputation. Bob, it’s special for me because I started my career here on Long Island. It’s home draft Pat. I was picked by the New York Islanders. I met my wife here. Family, we still live here. I think it’s extra special for me at this time in my life because I’ve been retired from the game now since 99. It’s given me an opportunity to kind of reflect on the game, what Long Island has meant to me as a person, as a player, and how everything really stems from being chosen as a New York Island. He has done it again. [Applause] My dad calls my brother and I in from spring cleaning and says, “Uh, you got to come see this. The Islanders are in overtime with Philadelphia.” And I run in. I’m 15 years old and watching it and I see Henning passes to Tanelli, Tanelli to Nestrom and watch the goal. We’re jumping up and down at 15. And I immediately went, “Long, where the where’s Long Island?” And I went and grabbed the map and I was like put my finger. I said, That’s Long Island. And I The Islanders put Long Island on the map. Well, I played my junior hockey career in Verdon, which was 5 10 minutes away from the form where the draft was. And during the year, I always, you know, was told that, hey, you’re you’re going to probably either go to Hartford, which picks second, or you’re going back home to Detroit. So, I was a kid from Michigan who skipped my senior year, followed a dream and wanted to become a hockey player and played for the Red Verdon Juniors, which was like the Montreal Juniors. Uh, and every dream came true. It was a storybook season. So, the draft was leading up, nobody ever mentioned the Islanders at three. So, my mom, my dad, my agent, Donnie Mian, uh, were all sitting there in the forum and Hartford picks Sylvane Turjon. And uh I remember looking over at them and and I said, “Well, I guess maybe coming back to Detroit and as we’re kind of talking I hear my name come up and I was like New York Islanders. Oh my god.” You know, four Stanley Cups and we were kind of in shock. And then I found out later Bill Tory was kind of playing possum and just not uh as Bill was great at doing. And um I was picked third and uh elated. Now if you told me 3 and a half almost four years later I just turned 19 that in Winnipeg that I would be lining up at a faceoff. Played in the Olympics in ‘ 84. A week later joined the Islanders. Looked on my left it was John Tenelli. Looked on my right wing it was Bobby Nestrom. I thought you you’d been crazy. Nobody could have told me that could have come true. Just things just clicked. I remember it was my second game and my dad was a big uh Maple Leaf fan. So he drove up from Michigan because we lived right on the border. We lived in in Waterford, Michigan, which is an hour from Windsor. So he was excited to go to Maple Leaf Garden to watch that game. Fontine got back to him. Boring to the line. Bourne gets in front. Bourne ran in. Rebound score. Lefontaine with his first NHL goal. A happy young man. Look at that. Smile is worth a million bucks, isn’t it? And the game I’ll never forget because somehow the the the chemistry just connected and we ended up winning that game 11 to six. Calgary left Fontaine number 16 get his third goal of his young NH and I remember Al coming in and kicking over the trash can and he was upset we gave up six goals and the three goals and the two assists were great were really a lot of fun and it was exciting as your first NHL goal and then we were number one two and three star of the night the whole line the first star Patine but it was when Jim K actually took some liberties on me and I took turn around. I think I slashed him or did something. And then Bobby Nia came in and it was my first penalty. So I’m sitting next to Bobby and he just said, “Hey kid, don’t ask me any questions. Go straight to the bench.” So I was almost ready to say, “Okay, Mr. Nestrom.” I mean, I just turned 19. I didn’t say anything. My two minutes were up. I skated straight to the bench. And before I got the bench, I looked and I saw Bobby grabbed Jim Corn at center ice and I turned around and he just one after the other uppercuts right then he switched arms and I remember just going whoa. And Jim K never came near me again. No. In fact, that just sent a message right away. And when I met my dad after the game, it wasn’t, hey, congratulations on your first goal hattick, you know, the win. He just said, “Now you know why they win.” What Bobby and I just did. But the great thing about teammates with Bobby’s like even years later, I get I’ll get emotional talking about, but they still have your back. Yeah. It’s a special bond between hockey players. One of the things that the players and Al did was that you nothing was given to you. You had to earn your ice time. Flats and I talk about it a lot. You know, going through Al’s boot camp for the first two years. If you’re going to last two years through the Al Arbor boot camp, you’re going to play 15 years pro. You know, cuz it’s he was great at knowing that you had to physically be in good shape. You had to learn the skills. You had to learn the plays, but mentally you had to be tough. And he would always say, you know, come playoff time, it’s 80% mental, 20% physical. The fact is is that if the roof is caving in, I don’t care. Don’t lose your focus. And the team that was even keel and that’s one thing I saw with this team was they always kept this never got too high, not never got too low. And that’s something actually Mike Bossy instilled something in me at a very young age that I use the rest of my career that really helped me. Denine out front shoots at a stick comes to the line. Lontain shot. He scores. La Fontaine at the blue line here in the fourth overtime firing the shot. So I always talk about everyone talks about the Easter epic which is something I’ll always you know cherish and remember all of that stems because of Bill Tory and the New York Islanders saying we’re going to choose Pat Laonte number three in 1983 and it’s more of gratitude for the fact that if it wasn’t for that moment all of these other special moments my teammates friends here on Long Island shovels it to Fontaine he scores. Islander record at Le Fontaine with goals in 11 consecutive games. You see that smile through the defense comes in, shoots and scores at Leonte. One choice that is really about my life. And then the game of hockey has taught me so much. Taught me leadership, taught me teamwork, it’s taught me adversity. It’s taught me sacrifice, discipline, pushing myself probably further than I could or should have at times, but it I use that every day in my life. So, I I guess it’s it’s it’s part of your journey. It’s part of your story. So, to have this kind of come full circle at this time in my life, just turning 60. And it’s meaningful when you put it all together. I feel so blessed and lucky and honored. And then to go in with a lot of the guys I played with like all the jerseys up there, all the guys that are in the Hall of Fame, I feel so blessed, but most importantly that I got to play for the Islanders for the that period of time and really really coming to my own as a player and try to help my teammates meet my wife and most importantly our family because I always said hockey is a stepping stone to get you to service and purpose and um it’s allowed me to have the family um And that’s your greatest joy. Uh is gratitude to the Islanders for bringing me here for starting out the rest of my life and then coming full circle to be, you know, part of this Ring of Honor and these great Hall of Famers who played for the team and know what it’s like to to to be a New York Islander, to be an Islander. Um it’s come full circle. So, it’s it’s extra special.

#isles Alum Pat LaFontaine is the 17th member to be inducted into the Islanders Hall of Fame.