CANTLON’S CORNER: LAWLESS IN THE HOUSE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Dull is a word that would never be associated with former Hartford Whaler, and New Haven Senator, the swift-skating winger, Paul Lawless.

Standing in the dugout at Dunkin’ Donuts Park, Lawless was holding court at the Whalers Alumni weekend last week that was presented by the Hartford Yard Goats of the Eastern League.

“This is over-the-moon exciting. I couldn’t make last year’s (reunion), but it’s amazing how time flies by and we haven’t seen each other in a long time and it’s great to be back in Hartford where my pro career started and it’s obvious we all miss the Whalers.”

When Lawless got drafted by the Whalers in the Forum in Montreal in the first round, 14^th overall, his first interview was with the legendary voice of hockey on the CBC Hockey Night in Canada in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Dick Irvin.

“His first question was, ‘Do you know the name of the state that Hartford is in?’ I paused a second or two… I said I think, Connecticut? So, I passed a geography test on national TV.”

Lawless calling card when he was drafted was his very good first step and speed. He was selected out of the Windsor Spitfires (OHL) where he had 49 points in 68 games and wound up in the NHL at the young age of 18. He was the can’t-miss prospect in his second junior year where he had 36 points in his first 33 games. He was recalled, but he was brought up way too early. It ended up costing him something he still regrets nearly 40 years later.

“That year, I had been picked to play for Team Canada at the (World) Juniors tournament. My agent, Bill Watters at the time, decided I should take the call-up to the Whalers rather than stay back and play for Team Canada. The Whalers were in last place that year. I wasn’t going to make a difference that year, and it was a learning experience, but for the rest of my life it was a real disappointment for me and I’ll never forgive him for that,” Lawless said.

That season, in 49 games with the Whalers, Lawless had six goals and 15 points and was a minus-31

The change in his life was so rapid, that looking back on it now with the wisdom of age he knows it was too much.

 (Courtesy of Gerry Cantlon – L-to-R, Chuck Kaiton, Lawless, and Don Nachbaur)

“At 16, I was playing major midget (Wexford OPJHL). At 17, playing major junior in Windsor, and then 18 in the NHL, was way too much, too quickly.”

His hockey passport would include quite a few stops in several spots along the way.

“Like any other player in this game, it’s normal for this business for things to happen and change because some stops it doesn’t work out.”

After being sent back to play his last year of junior, and then a full season in the old IHL in Salt Lake City tallying 97 points. Lawless spent three seasons with the Whalers. His best season was 1985-86 with 22 goals and 57 points in 60 games. The next season, Lawless was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers and then to the Vancouver Canucks. He then migrated to Milwaukee (IHL) the following year and got into a few games with the Maple Leafs over two years before making his first foray to Europe with HC Davos (NLA). Lawless registered 29 points in 16 games and then went on to HC Lausanne of Switzerland plus five games in Italy with HC Bolzano.

“I never knew why Toronto sent me down. It didn’t make sense to me, so I realized I had to start looking at other avenues,” Lawless said.

He spent just three games in Newmarket, then the smallest market in the AHL, playing in what was a local community rink before departing for Switzerland for three years. While there he amassed 176 points in 79 games with HC Lausanne (NLB) and HC Davos.

In the NHL, Lawless played just 236 games and in the old IHL, he played in 380 where he put up 466 points.

In 1992-’93, Lawless landed back in Connecticut via Austria where he played for EC Graz. While there he tallied 46 points in 29 games before the expansion Ottawa Senators showed interest. Before he would head there, he had to first play a 20-game PTO contract with the struggling misfit hockey team called the New Haven Senators before a recall and an NHL deal.

“Well, my agent then, Larry Rauch, talked to Mel Bridgman (his one and only NHL season in management) and we made an agreement. I would get called after 20 games with an NHL deal.”

Things didn’t quite go as planned.

On a very bad New Haven team, Lawless was unstoppable. He kept them alive with his 22 points in the 20 games he needed to play in. However, when he spoke to his agent around game 16, he was told they had no intention of calling him up and they would only offer him another 20-game deal.

Lawless was having none of that.

He told Rauch to seek a deal with Cincinnati in the old IHL where his Whaler buddy, Blaine “Stash” Stoughton, was a coach. They made a deal and the contract was signed.

Lawless left New Haven on his own terms, not on Ottawa’s.

In game 20, Lawless played in the game’s opening shift; then at the first whistle, 37 seconds in, he skated over and unloaded on the referee with a profanity-laced tirade. Lawless received a ten-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. The Senators head coach, Don MacAdam, was speechless. As his team’s best player, Lawless had just been tossed. MacAdam was totally blindsided.

Lawless went into the locker room, took a quick shower, cleaned out his locker, and left a note on the eraser board saying, “Been nice playing with you boys. See you at another rink real soon!”

“It was a memorable exit,” Lawless said with a laugh while in dark shades that protected his eyes from a very bright sunny day in the Connecticut capitol. “A little pre-planning was involved.”

He went on to play 29 games with the Cyclones where he tallied 29 goals and 54 points. All totaled, Lawless had 124 points with three teams in three different leagues that year.

“The next year, I signed my biggest contract ever with the Cyclones. I had two more good years (96, and 85 points) and I really did fall in love with Cincinnati. Then with Stash as a coach, there and then, it was off to my next adventure.”

Lawless would have his number 13 retired by Cincinnati.

That adventure took him to Austin, Texas where he became an owner with Stoughton in an upstart hockey league called the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL). It spanned most of Central and West Texas and extended hockey along I-5 into Louisiana, and Mississippi in truly non-traditional hockey markets like Lafayette, LA, and Biloxi, MS.

The Austin Ice Bats, owners of the best logo, was born.

“I heard Stash, who was retired at that time, and a fellow former Senator, Brad Trevling (now Calgary’s GM), were involved in a group starting a new league, so I said let’s take a look at it. We knew Austin was a good, solid market as far as population, but we needed a rink and didn’t have one, so we created one out at an old rodeo arena (Luedecke Arena seated 6,400) that never had a rink of any kind there. The locker room for the first year was a trailer.” Lawless said.

Lawless would play thirty games the first season with 46 points and coached the team the last 14 games and into the playoffs.

It took a lot of work to make it a reality.

“We were able to go out and raise the money and put a team there and it was a great success. I’m really proud of the Ice Bats. It was so much fun. I played a little bit to keep it alive, but I was 36 at the time. The knees were getting creaky. I thought this was a great transition for me, and it worked out fine for me.”

The WPHL lasted six seasons before merging with the Central Hockey League in 2001. Under different ownership, the Ice Bats lasted until 2011. After the IHL folded, Lawless went back to the Cyclones, who were then in the ECHL, along with six other teams, they merged with the AHL. LAwless was a part owner, head coach, and Director of Player Development, at different times before exiting the hockey business in 2004.

Austin is now home to one of the stronger AHL franchises, the Texas Stars, four hours away from their parent organization, the Dallas Stars, but it was the Ice Bats that got things started.

Lawless, who resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, recently sold his ticket agency business and will likely relocate to Florida in the next year.

Who knows perhaps Lawless gets a hockey team in Florida who could be called the Chiefs?

“I don’t think so,“ Lawless said with a laugh. “I want to get back toward the East Coast and look forward to being back next year.”