Clint Malarchuk file

Age: Residence:

Las Vegas Thunder:

Notable: Spent 10 years as an NHL goaltender with the Quebec Nordiques, Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres. and NHL veterans who introduced Southern Nevada to professional hockey long before Las Vegas was granted an NHL expansion franchise. “When all this started, I started calling people I haven’t talked to in a while.”

Malarchuk joined the Thunder in 1993, after compiling a 141-130-45 record and 3.47 goals against average in 10 NHL seasons. During the team’s first training camp in Regina, Saskatchewan, when demons began buzzing his crease, he went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Thus began a stint of sobriety that lasted eight years.

He literally became the Thunder’s poster child — his image appeared on billboards around town — as well as a spokesman for the Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation.

He was seeing the puck and life outside the rink clearly. Instead of feeling anxiety, he was feeling the Thunder.

The Boston Bruins offered him a deal, a second chance at the NHL limelight. Malarchuk said he’d rather play in Las Vegas. When his contract was renegotiated, he was paid in livestock.

He was fond of wearing a black cowboy hat, but he will be remembered as one of the good guys in Las Vegas’ evolution as a hockey town.

“Las Vegas was just starting to boom, and we were big dogs, right?” Malarchuk said of the Thunder, who averaged 8,018 spectators during their inaugural season to finish fourth in attendance behind International Hockey League teams in major league cities Milwaukee, Atlanta and Cincinnati.

“I had a choice to play on the Canadian Olympic team or go to Vegas. I took Vegas. Those were some great years.”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal. com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.