Patrick Martin Verbeek (born May 24, 1964)
Played for: New Jersey Devils (1982–1989), Hartford Whalers (1989–1994), New York Rangers (1994–1996), Dallas Stars (1996–1999, 2001–03), Detroit Red Wings (1999–2001)
522 goals, 540 assists, 1,062 total points, 2,905 penalty minutes in 1,424 games
2x NHL All-Star Game selection (1991, 1996)
Stanley Cup champion (1999)
The point of an Unsung Hall of Fame, to me, anyways, is to recognize those players that don't always get brought up for their accomplishments, whether because they weren't thought of as a "star" or fell through the cracks of the usual scorers. As of the end of the 2025-26 season, the 108th year of the NHL*, there are just 50 players who have scored the big number of 500 goals (of those, 48 ended up with 500+ assists as well to achieve 1,000 career points*). Pat Verbeek, who played for five teams with varying levels of impact for 20 seasons, is one of those guys. Of the non-active guys with 500 goals that are not members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Peter Bondra, Keith Tkachuk, Patrick Marleau, and Verbeek, I figured Verbeek merited his own entry for his curiosities as a player. Hope you enjoy.
Born in Sarnia, Ontario to a family of farmers (specifically pigs, which earned him a momentary nickname of "Pig Farmer"), Verbeek played hard from the get-go as a youth in the junior hockey leagues for the Petrolia Jets and Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League (for the former, he started playing for them at the age of 15). In the 1982 NHL draft, Verbeek was drafted in the second round by the newly relocated New Jersey Devils*. Verbeek spent most of the 1982-83 season with the Wolves but made the NHL in March 1983. He ultimately played six games that year, scoring his first goal and recording his first assist on the same night of March 21 against Washington. He played center for his first two seasons before being switched to right wing in 1984-85 and was kept there on a long-term basis after 1986 (okay, actually Hockey Reference states he played left wing from 1989 to 1991, but work with me on this). In his first full season in 1983, the nineteen-year-old (weighing in at 190 pounds with a 5'9 frame, as seen here and also here) had 20 goals and 27 assists with 158 penalty minutes (the first of five 100+ penalty minute seasons with New Jersey). No story about Verbeek would be served without mentioning that his career almost was cut short near its prime: in May 1985, a farming accident cut off his thumb before his dad and brothers helped to get him to the hospital and save the thumb. Verbeek had 98 goals in his first five years but came across a scoring touch soon enough. In the 1987-88 season, playing 73 games, Verbeek had 46 goals and recorded 31 assists (what likely helped was a career-high 12-game streak of recording a point, as he had 9 goals and 11 assists from December 26 to January 19). Likely his highlight of that season was his first and only four-goal game on February 28, 1988 against the Minnesota North Stars in New Jersey. That year, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time ever. Admittedly, the most noted playoff moment for Verbeek for that year was an accident in which his skate cut the leg of Rod Langway that saw the future Hall of Famer knocked out for the rest of the playoffs. In the three rounds of postseason play, he had two points in the first round, six in the semifinals, and four in the Conference Finals as the Devils lost to Boston in seven games.
Verbeek had 26 goals and 47 total points (his last sub-50 point season until 1994-95) in what became his last season in New Jersey. He was traded for Sylvain Turgeon in June 1989 to the Hartford Whalers. In five full seasons with the Whalers, Verbeek ran through the gamut for the team, playing the full schedule four times (including the 1992-93 and 1993-94 years, when the season was 84 games long). He led the team in goals (both scoring 40+ goals each) and penalty minutes in his first two seasons. A brief holdout (he wanted to be paid at least $1 million a year, imagine that) and a cold stretch plagued him in 1991-92, but he was named team captain in 1992 and contributed 82 points on 39 goals and 43 assists, and he had 75 points in his last full year with the Whalers. With an impending free agency decision, the Whalers traded him midway through the strike-shortened 48-game 1994-95 season to the New York Rangers for a first round pick, a 4th round pick and two other players (the most noted player came from the first-round pick, which the Whalers used on Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 1995). After seven goals in 29 games for Hartford, Verbeek had 10 goals in 19 games to close the year out. After three first-round exits with Hartford, Verbeek made the second round for the next six years in a row. He was named to the All-Star Game in the 1995-96 season with a 41 goal/41 assist season in 69 games.
After New York did not want to sign him for the salary he would be tabbed for, he signed with Dallas in the 1996 offseason. He reached 1,000 games in his first year with Dallas and had another 50-point season. By this point in his career, he had 430 goals and 873 total points in 1,065 games. Being 115th in points scored in their first 15 seasons implies, that, well, they were around long enough to contribute*. Verbeek was hurt to start the 1999 playoffs but played 18 games as Verbeek reached his only Stanley Cup Final versus Buffalo. One of his three goals that year was in Game 5 to help seal a 2-0 win (the next game, he played nearly 30 minutes in the triple-OT classic that Dallas won for Verbeek's one Stanley Cup victory). Verbeek (now with 478 goals in 17 seasons) was not re-signed by Dallas and in fact was not signed until November by Detroit. In 68 games, he achieved two milestones: February 27, 2000 had him get an assist on a Steve Yzerman goal to garner his 1,000th point before March 22, 2000 saw him record a two-goal night for history, with the second goal being the one where Verbeek collected his 500th goal, which you can see with this video. He finished with 22 goals that year, making it the thirteenth time that Verbeek had 20 goals in a season. Not for nothing, but when he did so at the end of the 1999-2000 season, only 29 other players had at least thirteen 20-goal seasons (for reference, Verbeek was tied with Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Brian Bellows, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Bryan Trottier, Guy Lafleur, Bobby Hull [doesn't account for his WHA seasons], Alex Delvecchio, and Jean Beliveau (for reference, 62 players now have had thirteen or more 20-goal seasons). Verbeek had 15 goals in his penultimate year as a hockey player and re-signed with Dallas in 2001. He had 20 points in 64 games before suffering a torn groin muscle on April 1, 2002, that ended his season and ultimately served as his final game. Of the eight players to have recorded a 40-goal season with 200 penalty minutes (as seen here), Verbeek is the only one to have done it three times.
Sure, he wasn't a world-beating goalscorer, but Pat Verbeek reaches the very definition of an unsung Hall of Famer in grinding out a respectable and dependable career for as long as he did. Verbeek didn't spend time wondering about what to do after his hockey career ended, as he soon became a broadcaster and got a job with the Red Wings as Director of Professional Scouting in 2010, slowing rising to assistant GM (in both Detroit and Tampa Bay) before becoming the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks in 2022. To close, I'll let a quote of his stick out, one from the early days (read: 1993) that sounds fitting for all that came to pass for him as a player:
On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Pat Verbeek to the Hall.
N O T E S
Photo credit: Pat Verbeek - Wikipedia
*If the NHL that had actual balls, they would take the lead of the NFL and acknowledge the alternative league that ran beside them in and their stats with the WHA, which would benefit the good name of Marc Tardif.
*For those curious about players with less than 500 goals that ended up with 1,000 points, 55 players are a member of that club as demonstrated in this link.
*Technically the team wasn't officially named the Devils until after the draft (June 9 for the draft, June 30 for the name), but you get the idea. Unlike certain teams in Utah, the Devils actually knew how to brand themselves from the jump. Did you know that the names considered for New Jersey were the following: Americans, Blades, Colonials, Lightning, Meadowlarks, Meadowlanders, Coastals, Generals, Gulls, Jaguars, and Patriots?. Jeez.
*If you want to go with "but what about comparing his first ten years to his last ten? I have that covered for you: 548 points in his first ten years doesn't even crack the top 200, but his 514 combined from his 11th to 20th seasons is 48th, right in the zone above and below a few HOFers.
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