Gomez’s skill, swagger leads to U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction
Forward won Stanley Cup twice with Devils, ‘believed in his abilities’
Scott Gomez’s favorite USA Hockey memory originated with the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
Gomez was 16 at the time and with South Surrey of the British Columbia Hockey League for an exhibition game in Hope, British Columbia. He wasn’t playing that night, though, so he and another United States-born teammate watched the deciding game of the World Cup on television. The U.S. defeated Canada 5-2 to win a best-on-best tournament for the first time.
“We were going crazy,” Gomez said. “That right there, that was our 1980 moment. That right there took us to another level, meaning we’re the best American-wise. That group was our idols.”
Fast forward to the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and Gomez, who was a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the New Jersey Devils by then, found himself playing alongside many of his heroes from the 1996 U.S. team.
“I can’t even explain being in a room with Billy Guerin and Tony Amonte, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Chris Chelios, Mike Modano, Keith Tkachuk, Dougie Weight,” Gomez said. “Just the way those guys were around one another, because they kind of grew up together, it was the time of my life.
“Still one of the best highlights I ever had was being with those guys.”
Gomez will be in the company of his idols from the 1996 World Cup team again when he joins them in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. The forward, who will turn 46 on Dec. 23, will be inducted along with the rest of the 2025 class -- his former Devils teammate Zach Parise, former San Joe Sharks teammate Joe Pavelski, standout women’s player Tara Mounsey and photographer Bruce Bennett -- at a dinner and ceremony in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Dec. 10.
Getting the call that he’d been voted in made Gomez think back to his first USA Hockey camp in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the under-16 select team. That was where a slick-passing, awkward-skating forward from Anchorage, Alaska, with Mexican-Colombian heritage, first saw how he measured up against the top players his age from around the country.
“That’s where it all started,” Gomez said. “It was the best of the best and where do you match up? It’s funny how those camps work because everyone goes from, ‘Who’s that guy?’ and by the end of that it was, ‘This guy from Alaska, this Mexican pigeon-toed kid,’ I was right up there. It literally takes you to another level.
“You see where you’re at and you kept going from there every year with the national teams making it.”
Gomez went on to represent the U.S. in the 1998 and 1999 IIHF World Junior Championship and 2006 Torino Olympics, in addition to his 2004 World Cup experience. Selected by the Devils with the No. 27 pick in the 1998 NHL Draft, Gomez played 16 seasons in the NHL with the Devils, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Sharks, Florida Panthers, St. Louis Blues and Ottawa Senators and had 756 points (181 goals, 575 assists) in 1,079 regular-season games.
He became the first Latino to win the Calder Trophy, voted as the NHL's top rookie, in 1999-2000 when he led first-year players with 70 points (19 goals, 51 assists) in 82 games. The Devils reached the Stanley Cup Final in three of his first four NHL seasons, winning the Cup in 2000 and 2003 and losing to the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. He finished his career with 101 points (29 goals, 72 assists) in 149 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
“He carried the puck through center ice as well as anybody,” said Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 and the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012. “He was very deceptive with the way he skated. He looked like his skating wasn’t perfect, but more sort of deceptive than you could imagine, especially on the power play. He came through and then, of course, on the power play, his hockey sense and his creativity, he knew how to lay a pass.”
© Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
Brian Gionta, a 2019 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, met Gomez at that U16 selects camp in 1996 and benefitted from Gomez’s passing skills at several stops throughout their careers with USA Hockey, New Jersey and Montreal. Playing on a line with Gomez and Patrik Elias, Gionta scored 48 goals in 2005-06 to set the Devils’ single-season record.
“Classic ‘Gomer’ was him coming through the neutral zone, head up and just kind of shimmy shaking and then distributing it out from there,” Gionta said. “That’s what he was the best at, and I think he was ahead of that generation now where you see it happen more often. I wanted to get to the spots to score goals and so it was basically for me, ‘How do I match his speed to get the puck where I want it?’
“I was always just trying to find spots for him to find me. That’s why it worked. He was a passer, and I wanted to be the shooter.”
During an era when New Jersey was known for its defense, Gomez was a key cog in an underrated offense that was second in the NHL in goals in 1999-2000 (251) and led the League in 2000-01 (295). Alexander Mogilny was sixth in the NHL with 43 goals playing on Gomez’s line in 2000-01, and Elias tied for fourth with 38 goals playing with Gomez in 2003-04, when Gomez tied for the League lead with a career-high 56 assists.
Gionta was sixth in the League in goals in 2005-06, when in addition to having 51 assists, Gomez set career highs with 33 goals and 84 points.
“I think a goal-scorer would enjoy with a player like Scotty because he would hang onto the puck, and then all you had to do was get in the right spot and he’d find a way to get you the puck,” Lamoriello said. “He was a passer; he wasn’t a shooter. But he could draw players towards him and create holes and opportunities, and he did that very well.”
Gomez also brought a swagger -- and some light-hearted humor -- to a team filled with future Hockey Hall of Famers such as Mogilny (inducted this year), goalie Martin Brodeur, and defensemen Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer. Gomez’s confidence was evident during his first interaction with Lamoriello, about six months before the Devils drafted him.
While at training camp for the 1998 World Junior Championship in Hackensack, New Jersey, Gomez and the rest of the U.S. team attended a Devils game against the Rangers in nearby East Rutherford. Some of the players were invited into Lamoriello’s office to see his 1995 Stanley Cup ring.
Entering the office before Lamoriello arrived, Gomez and his teammates couldn’t help noticing the white marker boards displaying the Devils’ organizational depth chart, including a list of their top prospects.
“Someone said, ‘Hey, I’ll give you 20 bucks if you put your name on there,’” Gomez said. “I was like, ‘All right.’ So, I go up and put Gomez on the list. Then, Lou comes in and talks to us and at the end, he goes, ‘Does anyone have any more questions?’ I go, ‘Yeah, I do.’ And I turned and I go, ‘Why is my name so low on this list? I’m better than all these guys.’”
Gomez acknowledged, “I never would have done that,” if he’d known Lamoriello’s stern reputation and noted that USA Hockey officials in the room were not pleased.
“They were all waiting for Lou to do something,” Gomez said. “And Lou was like, ‘There’s something different about that kid.’”
“That’s a true story, absolutely,” Lamoriello said. “But you looked at it as somebody comfortable in his skin and certainly confident, which is what he had. He was confident in what he did. He believed in his abilities. Just every once in a while you had to have a nice talk.”
Gomez views it now as, “kind of like destiny,” that he ended up with the Devils and includes Lamoriello on a long list of his biggest influence, along with former teammates such as Brodeur, Stevens, Niedermayer, Gionta, Ken Daneyko, Bobby Holik, Randy McKay, Jim McKenzie, Turner Stevenson and Jay Pandofo, who is now coach at Boston University who Gomez said was “like an older brother.”
Going back further, Gomez credits his coaches in Alaska, Scott McLeod and Rob Larkey, his high school English teacher Lou Chandler, former Surrey coach Rick Lanz, and, of course, his parents, Carlos and Dalia. Growing up in a diverse community in Anchorage, Gomez considered himself, as a Mexican-Colombian American, part of the “melting pot” in Alaska.
“It was never like, ‘I’m a Mexican hockey player.’ You were Alaskan,” he said. “And it was funny because when I made the U.S. select-16 team, I’ll never forget I was in the locker room and it was like, ‘I’m the only brown guy in here.’”
It wasn’t until Gomez was repeatedly questioned about his heritage when he reached the NHL, though, that he began to understand he could be a role model for other Latino players. He remembers his father telling him, “Just go with it,” so when reporters would ask about being a Mexican-Colombian from Alaska, he’d joke, “They dropped me off at the border with a pair of skates and two bottles of tequila and magic happened.”
The number of bottles in the joke varied, but, ultimately, Gomez realized he could make the most impact with his play.
“It was part of the gig, but the thing with hockey was it didn’t matter,” said Gomez, who is in his first season as coach of Chicago of the United States Hockey League. “It was if you could play. And I’ve still got it today. Yeah, I grew up in Alaska. There was ice.
“It’s not an easy sport, but that was always my saying: ‘It doesn’t matter, the race. If a kid sees in whatever sport, if that kid can make it, that’s the result.’”
