Miracle on Ice: 35 Years Later, Where Are They Now?

Goalies

Jim Craig: Had a short career in the NHL, starting games with the Atlanta Flames, Boston Bruins and Minnesota North Stars. Never became a superstar. Now, resides in Boston where he divides his time between working as a sales strategist and doing motivational speaking tours. He has quite the story to tell.

Steve Janaszak: The only man on the US roster in 1980 not to get a game, Janaszak played just three NHL games in the early eighties with Minnesota and Colorado, and was a back-up for Team USA at the 1982 World Championships. Scarily, was working in the World Trade Centre for an investment company as close to six months before 9/11, before taking another job.

Defence

Ken Morrow: Played 550 regular season NHL games in the 1980s for the New York Islanders and won a Stanley Cup less than 6 months after wining gold at the Lake Placid Olympics and won three more Cups with the Isles in 1981, 1982 and 1983. Quite possibly the luckiest man in hockey. Now works for the Islanders in their scouting department, and is in their own Hall of Fame.

Mike Ramsey: Like Morrow, went to the NHL immediately after the Miracle. A four-time All Star, Rammer never won a Stanley Cup, though. Worked as a coach in Buffalo and in his home state of Minnesota, and has a son, Jack, who was drafted into the NHL by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2014 Entry Draft.

Bill Baker (assistant captain): Like so many on the Miracle squad, Baker played sparingly in the NHL, amassing just 143 games over three years. Now lives in Brainerd, Minnesota working as, of all things, an oral surgeon.

Jack O’Callahan (assistant captain): O’Cee, who damaged his ligaments in the 10-3 exhibition loss to the Russians before the Olympics, played in the minors and then the NHL after the Miracle, first with Chicago and then New Jersey. He never won a Stanley Cup. Now runs Beanpot Financial, and was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999.

Bob Suter: Retired from hockey in 1982 without playing a single game in the NHL, though he represented America in the 1981 World Championships and played some time in the Central Hockey League.  Died last year, of a heart attack, at age 57. His son, Ryan, is a two-time Olympian, and a legitimate superstar in the NHL, playing now with the Minnesota Wild, and previously in Nashville.

Forwards

Mark Johnson: Son of the legendary coach ‘Badger’ Bob Johnson, the two-goal hero of the Miracle game went on to play 669 NHL games between 1980 and 1990, and was voted to the NHL All-Star Game roster in 1984. Has coached at the top level of female hockey, both with Wisconsin’s squad and at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, where Team USA won silver under Johnson’s tutelage.

Rob McClanahan: Had a three-year professional career that alternated between the NHL and the second-tier American Hockey League. Represented Team USA at the 1981 Canada Cup tournament.  Works as a financial broker in Minnesota, where he keeps a close eye on his alma mater, the University of Minnesota’s hockey program.

Dave Silk: The cousin of controversial Mike Milbury, Silk played for four NHL clubs (including his childhood team, the Boston Bruins) before a career in Europe beckoned. A member of the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame, Silk remains in Boston, and maintains close friendships with Jack O’Callahan and the last two men to be cut from the 1980 train-on squad, Jack Hughes and Ralph Cox. Worked at Bear Stearns Investments before it’s collapse and sale to JPMorgan Chase.

Neal Broten: The Broten family is hockey royalty in Minnesota. Neal, the older brother of Paul and Aaron, played 1099 NHL games and became the first American to score 100 points in a season in 1985-86. He won a Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 1996, scoring the winning goal in Game Four to clinch against a Detroit squad that had his 1980 counterpart Viacheslav Fetisov. He was the first American to score a Stanley Cup-clinching goal. Fought Wayne Gretzky once.

Dave Christian: Holds the record for the fastest NHL goal, scored seven seconds after a face-off, and was an NHL All-Star in 1991, in amongst more than 1000 NHL games for Winnipeg, Washington, Chicago, Boston and St Louis. His nephew is Islanders player, Brock Nelson.

Steve Christoff: Played just 248 NHL games, including for Minnesota in the 1981 Stanley Cup Finals, where the North Stars lost to a New York Islanders squad that featured Christoff’s Miracle teammate Ken Morrow.

Mike Eruzione (captain): Famously never played another pro hockey game after Lake Placid, deciding that nothing he could achieve would ever come close to topping his Olympic experience. Now a darling of the motivational speaking circuit. As Herb Brooks once famously said, “Mike Eruzione believes in free speech, he’s just never given one.” His game-winning goal in Lake Placid, and the celebration that followed, will never be forgotten.

John Harrington: A short pro career led into coaching, where, amongst other stops, he was head man at the University of Denver, Saint John’s in Minnesota and, strangely enough, the Slovenian national team.

Mark Pavelich: A noted recluse, attended the wake for late coach Herb Brooks but not the funeral, and not the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics where the team were involved in the Opening Ceremony. Played 355 NHL games for the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars and San Jose Sharks. Became the second Miracle player to put his Gold medal up for auction, with bidding starting at $62,500.

Buzz Schneider: Represented America at the 1976 Olympic tournament, as well as in Lake Placid. Worked with the Turkish national squad in recent times. His own son, Billy, portrayed him in the 2004 film, Miracle.

Eric Strobel: Played half a season of AHL hockey for the Rochester Americans before breaking his ankle in the spring of 1980. He retired from hockey thereafter. Suffered a minor stroke in 2006, but leads a normal life regardless.

Phil Verchota: Never played in the NHL. Represented America at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo and retired following that tournament. Became senior vice president of First American Bank in Willmar, Minnesota, and was honoured as one of the 50 best players in the long history of the University of Minnesota.

Mark Wells: Spent a long two years in the minor leagues after Lake Placid, and retired in 1982 without having played an NHL game. Was the first man to sell his gold medal, needing the money for medical bills after he fractured a vertebrae working at a restaurant in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Defied doctor’s orders to make the 2002 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Lives every day with a degenerative disease affecting his spine and neck.

Coaching Staff

George Nagobads (team physician): The veteran team physician, Latvian-born, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. Maintained a long and close friendship (and working relationship) with Herb Brooks that began at the University of Minnesota. 

Craig Patrick (assistant coach): Won 2 Stanley Cup titles as General Manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, ironically, with 1980 mentor Herb Brooks’ great rival Bob Johnson coaching.  Was responsible for drafting Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. Named General Manager for Brooks’ 2002 Olympic squad.

 
Herb Brooks (head coach): Coached in the NHL with the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Minnesota North Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins. Coached Team USA at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Coached France at the 1998 Olympics. Posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame after losing his life in a single-car accident in 2003, precipitating a Miracle team reunion. St Cloud University’s hockey centre was renamed in Brooks’ honour in April 2013. Portrayed by Kurt Russell in the movie Miracle, which was dedicated to Brooks, who died before the release, saying, “He never saw it. He lived it."