The Blues were going to try and protect me from being taken in the Expansion Draft, but it turned out both the Ducks and Panthers teams were interested in me. St. Louis told me they didn’t want to lose me, but you could only protect one goaltender and they also had Curtis Joseph. They called me a few days before the draft and said both Anaheim and Florida wanted to pick me and by the end of the draft I would no longer be a member of the St. Louis Blues.
I was crashing at my parents’ house in Troy, New York for the summer, and I went out fly fishing at a local stream by the house the day of the draft. I kind of purposely left the house because I didn’t want to be sitting around waiting by the phone. I remember pulling back in the driveway in my jeep, and my little brother came out and said, “Where’ve you been? You just got taken by the Ducks.” I realized my life and my career was taking a different turn.
I was 26 years old, I had made all-star teams in the minors, and I had gotten my feet wet in St. Louis as a backup. I was excited for the opportunity out west with Anaheim. I knew I’d get a chance to win a starting job, but for goaltenders, it’s tough to start with an expansion team because they are often not as strong in the first couple of years. That was a concern, but I also knew Ron Wilson was going to be the coach, and I had played for Ron on some USA national teams. We had a good rapport, I knew his style and I knew it would make for a defensive-minded team early on.
It was like a kid getting ready to move out of the house. I was ready to be a No. 1 goalie and Anaheim was that opportunity. I could only see upside from the day I got on the plane to the time I landed in Orange County. It really was a great place to come play hockey. With the weather and the atmosphere, it was exciting from the moment I got there and walked into the Pond.
It ended up being the start of a great career for me in Anaheim, where I played the next eight seasons and set Mighty Ducks franchise records in nearly every goaltending category – that is, until J.S. Giguere came along and wiped them all out.
That first year in Anaheim was a unique experience. You had the allure of Disney owning the team, and they make magic. A lot of people were interested to see how that would work with a professional sports franchise. I think Michael Eisner did the right thing by hiring the right people and handing the reins over to them. He would come down to the locker room every so often and talk to us, even though he was out of his element and a little shy.
I remember vividly our first Mighty Ducks team event. We were on a float going down Main Street at Disneyland, and people didn’t know if we were from the Mighty Ducks movie or if we were a real team. Once we started playing, more and more people learned who we were. There were a lot of transplanted fans that were from the Midwest or East Coast that were big hockey fans and had to root for the Kings, even though they were in Orange County. Now they had the opportunity to root for their own team.
I have friends now in my life who I didn’t know until I was retired and I met them on the golf course. They will say, “I used to sit in the rafters and some nights yell for you, and some nights yell at you.” You had people who were interested in what was new and exciting, and then you had a core group of hockey fans who were season tickets holders that first year and are still season ticket holders today. But I probably have hundreds of stories about those first years.
One that comes to mind is that first-ever game, October 8, 1993 against Detroit at The Pond. I remember as I drove into the parking lot that day, it looked like a Saturday college football game. It was just mobbed with tailgaters, and I had never seen that in the world of hockey.
I pulled up to the parking booth and tried to explain to the lady that I was actually a player and was playing in the game. But it didn’t work. I had to pay the 8 or 10 bucks to get into the parking lot. We got outplayed in that game pretty handily, and we ended up losing 7-2. I joke with a buddy of mine, Steve King, that he was really the first guy to score on me in Anaheim. There was a shot from the point that he tried to knock down and he ended up deflecting it over my shoulder for that first goal. I’ve never let him live that down.
It got better for us from there, and we ended up getting our first win two games later. But that first season was an adventure. Playing for the team when they were owned by Disney was great, but when you’re wearing teal and eggplant with that duck-bill goalie mask logo from the movie, things don’t seem like they’re going to be easy.
We had guys like Todd Ewen and Stu Grimson, two of our toughest guys, lining up on a daily basis thinking we have to make sure we’re physical enough to make people understand we’re not a pushover. It took awhile because you’re the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim taking on teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins and those classic NHL teams. We had to earn credibility and make people aware that hiding behind this Disneyesque pomp and circumstance, there are actually real hockey players, real toughness and real talent.
It was after I retired in 2001 that the franchise emerged into a Stanley Cup contender and a Stanley Cup champion, but I have been able to enjoy so many memorable moments as a fan and a broadcaster for the team over the last several years.
It is a franchise that players want to come and play for and have the opportunity to compete for a Cup every year. I like to think that – not just myself, but a lot of the guys who played for the franchise early on – had a hand in that growth. There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that gradually moved the franchise forward to where it is today. That’s a source of pride I know I have, and I think I speak for a lot of the guys who feel the same way. The way the team has grown in 25 years, and knowing I had a hand in eight of those years, there is a real sense of satisfaction.
Hebert resides in Newport Beach and provides analysis for all home Ducks Live pregame and postgame shows on Fox Sports Prime Ticket.