Marty McSorley

Martin James McSorley (born May 18, 1963) is a Canadian former NHL player who suited up from 1983 to 2000. He was versatile enough to line up at both forward and defense. Later, he coached the Springfield Falcons of the AHL from 2002 to 2004. McSorley was a key teammate of Wayne Gretzky in Edmonton and Los Angeles, where he worked as an enforcer. In 2000, he struck Donald Brashear with his stick, giving Brashear a severe concussion. That assault led to McSorley’s suspension, a guilty verdict, and his retirement from hockey.

McSorley was born in Cayuga, Ontario. He debuted in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins in October 1983, but his career took off after a September 1985 trade to the Edmonton Oilers. There, he won Stanley Cups in 1987 and 1988. His physical style made Edmonton’s enforcer Dave Semenko expendable, and McSorley became known as “Wayne Gretzky’s bodyguard.”

That label followed him to Los Angeles in 1988, when he, Gretzky, and Mike Krushelnyski were traded to the Kings. With Los Angeles, his bruising play made him a fan favorite, but he worked to improve beyond just enforcing, earning respect for his work ethic, team play, and intelligence off the ice. He shared the NHL Plus-Minus Award with Theo Fleury in 1991. In the 1992–93 season, he led all defensemen in shorthanded goals with three.

He also served as an assistant captain for part of that season when Luc Robitaille took over the captaincy after Gretzky’s injury. The Kings reached the 1993 Stanley Cup Final against Montreal, but in Game 2, with the Kings up 2–1, McSorley was caught with an illegal stick. That led to Montreal tying the game and winning in overtime; the Canadiens took the series in five games. McSorley had ten points in the playoffs and was the only King to score in the final game. Some thought he was the second most dominant King after Gretzky in those playoffs.

In August 1993, McSorley was traded back to Pittsburgh for Shawn McEachern. He played just 47 games there before the Kings re-acquired him on February 16, 1994. Back in L.A., he assisted on Gretzky’s goal that broke Gordie Howe’s all-time goal-scoring record. On March 14, 1996, he left the Kings for good in a multi-player trade to the New York Rangers. After finishing the 1995–96 season with the Rangers, he was acquired by the San Jose Sharks in August 1996. He spent two injury-plagued seasons there, then returned to Edmonton as a free agent in October 1998. Used in a part-time role, he left after one season and signed with the Boston Bruins in December 1999.

In a game between the Bruins and Vancouver Canucks on February 21, 2000, McSorley swung his stick and hit Donald Brashear in the head with 4.6 seconds left. Brashear fell backward, hit his head hard on the ice, lost consciousness, and suffered a Grade III concussion. McSorley was charged with assault and suspended by the NHL for the rest of the 1999–2000 season and playoffs, missing 23 games. On October 6, 2000, Judge William Kitchen of the British Columbia Provincial Court found him guilty of assault with a weapon.

He got 18 months probation with a conditional discharge, meaning no conviction. It was the first trial for an on-ice attack by an NHL player since Dino Ciccarelli’s in 1988. After the verdict, the NHL extended his suspension to one full year through February 21, 2001—the longest suspension for an on-ice incident in modern NHL history. His contract expired during the suspension, and he never played another NHL game.

During the suspension, McSorley tried to play in the UK with the London Knights, where his older brother Chris coached, but the International Ice Hockey Federation blocked it out of deference to the NHL. A similar attempt to play in Germany for the Munich Barons also failed. He joined the Grand Rapids Griffins of the IHL and dressed for 14 games. In autumn 2001, after his suspension ended, he looked again across the Atlantic. He considered buying the struggling Cardiff Devils with his brother to become a player-coach and boost UK hockey interest. He appeared as a guest player for both the Devils and the British national team during a series of games in November 2001, but the purchase deal fell through.

McSorley coached the Springfield Falcons of the AHL from 2002 to 2004. From 1995 to 1997, he had small roles in four movies: Bad Boys (1995), Forget Paris (1995), Con Air (1997), and Do Me a Favor (1997). During the 2005–06 NHL season, he worked for Fox Sports West in Los Angeles, providing in-studio analysis of Kings and Mighty Ducks games. He did color commentary for San Jose Sharks games on FSN Bay Area in 2006–07. That role ended mysteriously midway through the Sharks’ playoff series with Detroit, when the Sharks announced he would not return for Game 3 for personal reasons. No further explanation was given.