Wayne Gagné (born June 27, 1964) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player.

Career

Wayne Gagné began his college career at

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pen ...

in 1983 in Bill Wilkinson's second recruiting class. The small defenseman was an instant hit for the Broncos, scoring 43 points in 41 games in his freshman season. After declining slightly in his sophomore year he exploded for 76 points as a junior, leading all defensemen in scoring and becoming the first AHCA First Team All-American for Western Michigan (with

Dan Dorion Daniel Norman Dorion (born March 2, 1963) is an American former professional ice hockey right winger who played four games with the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1985–86 and 1987–88. The rest of his career, ...

). Gagné was instrumental in helping WMU win their first CCHA Tournament, being named to the All-Tournament Team, as well as their first NCAA Tournament appearance. Gagné performed even better in his senior season, finishing the year with the NCAA record for assists (76) for any position and points (89) for a defenseman in a season. Additionally, he also finished with the most career assists (199) and second most points for a defenseman (241) behind only Ron Wilson (Records current as of 2019). Gagné was named as the CCHA Player of the Year and was Runner-Up for the

Hobey Baker Award The Hobey Baker Award is an annual award given to the top National Collegiate Athletic Association men's ice hockey player. It has been awarded 41 times. It is named for Hall of Famer Hobey Baker, who played college hockey at Princeton Universit ...

. After graduating Gagné played briefly for the Canadian National Team before beginning his professional career. He was drafted by the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

in the

1987 NHL Supplemental Draft The 1987 NHL Supplemental Draft was the second NHL Supplemental Draft. It was held on June 13, 1987. Selections by round Round one The first round was limited to teams that missed the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs. Round two See also *1987 NHL E ...

. He played at the top level of

minor league hockey Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

in North America for two seasons, putting up good numbers, but his small stature was an impediment for

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

teams who mostly employed large players as defensemen. With the NHL an unlikely possibility, Gagné headed to

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in 1989, playing two seasons with SC Lyss. He finished second in team scoring both seasons, helping the team to stave off

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

twice. Gagné spent the final three seasons of his career playing for five teams in five countries, ending as the leading scorer for

Hellerup IK Hellerup IK or HIK is a Danish sport club from Hellerup. Their football team currently plays in the Danish 2nd Division. HIK consists also of a handball and a tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a ...

in 1994.

Honors

Gagné was inducted into the Western Michigan Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001 and was named to the CCHA All-Time First Team in 2013.

Career statistics

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gagné, Wayne 1964 births Living people Canadian ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Toronto Baltimore Skipjacks players Western Michigan Broncos men's ice hockey players Sherbrooke Canadiens players Peoria Rivermen (IHL) players Kalamazoo Wings (1974–2000) players SC Lyss players Brantford Smoke players Rotterdam Panda's players Gentofte Stars players AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans Montreal Canadiens draft picks National Hockey League supplemental draft picks