Dudley fought his way to an NHL career

But it all began with a punch, fitting for a man whose last game ended with him challenging the entire opposing bench to fight.

Growing up in a little farming community 90 miles east of Toronto, Dudley, an effort to keep up with his two older brothers – one who “kicked the living snot out of me every day” – developed a tough, aggressive nature early . He played hockey as a kid and also played quarterback well enough to earntryout opportunities with the Canadian Football League. But that all took a backseat to his first love of lacrosse. He would rise to become one of Canada's top players.

“I was a little bit of a whack job in lacrosse,” Dudley admits. “When I played lacrosse it was something that I was so into, I was so intense. Guys, even on my own team between periods, they would just leave me alone. They didn’t want to talk to me and didn’t want to bother me. I just loved competing in that sport. It translated to hockey.”

As a 17-year-old, Dudley only dabbled in hockey, playing in the Brighton Industrial League, which he described as a “men’s league, with a lot of fighting.” A friend convinced him to try out for the Dixie Beehives, a local junior B team, and he claims he was the 150th best player of the 150 who showed up. Early on, the team’s captain slashed Dudley across the ankles and what happened next landed him in an NHL exhibition game after just a few months.

“I almost killed him,” Dudley said. “I left him on the ice. They stopped practice and asked me to come off the ice and they asked me if I would play hockey for them the next season.”

Halfway through the season and many punches later, Dudley was called up to a major junior St. Catherines team, which featured Marcel Dionne desperately needed a tough player. The plan was for Dudley to play the remaining 20-plus games with the Black Hawks, who would then trade him away. But there was one problem.

“I fought every game,” Dudley said. “They would have been hung if they traded me at that point. Every game, they’d start the ‘We Want Dudley’ chant. You have to remember, I played in the Brighton Industrial League the year before. All of sudden, there is 5,500 people at the games, standing room as deep as you can get it.”

Following the season -- the Black Hawks reached the Eastern Canadian finals -- the Minnesota North Stars gave Dudley a tryout. One of the last players sent down to the minors, he suffered the first of four knee injuries that would eventually end his career. The following year, he played for two more minor-league teams until it appeared he was done.

But it was lacrosse that led him back to the NHL. Morley Kells, a Canadian politician and founder of several professional lacrosse leagues, knew Dudley and he convinced Punch Imlach, the Stanley Cup winning coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, to give Dudley a tryout. Also a lacrosse fan, Imlach allowed Dudley to play both sports. He would train with the Leafs by day and then play lacrosse for Branford by night.

“You’re not exactly bosom buddies with Punch Imlach," Dudley said. " ... He used to call into the stands and I thought I was going to get cut today and he’d say, ‘How was the game last night?’ Somehow through that, they ended up signing me.”

Renewed, Dudley went to play in the American Hockey League for the Cincinnati Swords (51 games, 272 penalty minutes) and the next season, he was in the NHL, playing six games with the Buffalo Sabres. He played -- and fought a lot – until Floyd Smith took over as the Swords coach.

"The confidence had changed but I was down and I was going to be my whack-job self because that’s what I knew I had to do to stay and play pro hockey," Dudley said." Floyd Smith called me into the office one day and said, ‘I know you are a tough guy but don’t think you have to fight every shift.' ... That changed my whole life because it’s the first time that anybody ever said ‘You can play."'

Dudley played 64 games for Cincinnati that season and had 40 goals and 44 assists.

“There is a lot to recall, some good, some bad,” Smith said. “He was an aggressive kid, that was part of his game. But he was a good player. He played lacrosse and he was very physical and intimidating. ... I told him he was a hell of a lot more important on the ice than sitting in the penalty box. He didn’t know how good he was.”

The following year, Smith became coach of the Sabres, Dudley went with him and his time, it stuck. He played two seasons for the Sabres, jumped to the WHA for ano-cut, no-trade deal and headed back to Buffalo for three more seasons after the WHA folded. He appeared in the Stanley Cup finals twice (1975 and 1980).

This was all just unbelievable enough that Dudley appeared on the game show "To Tell The Truth" as a two-sport professional athlete. He stumped the panel of judges and he and his two impostors split the tidy sum of $500.

Dudley’s final NHL season as a player came with Winnipeg in 1980-81 and he did not go out with a whimper. Recovering from his fourth knee injury, he went down to Fredericton of the AHL to see if he could still play. He lasted seven games.

“I can remember it like it was yesterday,” Dudley said. “I was trying to catch a guy on a breakaway and I did, but my knee hurt so bad. I cross-checked him and there was a big brawl and I knew it was the end of my career. ... I dusted some guy. The last thing I did in pro hockey was challenge the other team’s bench. Not a lot of guys can say that. I was so [ticked] off because I knew this was the end. I got kicked out of the game and I skated off. After the game I called [Winnipeg GM John Ferguson] and I said I’ll never be able to play at the NHL level again.”

On a drive to his Florida home upon retirement, Dudley got a call from a friend who needed help running his minor league team in North Carolina. He ended up buying the team, running it and coaching it for four years. In another complex journey, Dudley would advance in front-office hockey, eventually coaching the Sabres and Florida Panthers. He scouted for the Los Angeles Kings and later moved up to stints as GM for the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, where he helped build the Stanley Cup winners of 2004. Along the way, Dudley resurrected several franchises, both minor and professional, as he became a sought-after evaluator of talent.

That is how he came to the Thrashers as assistant to Don Waddell at the start of last season. The two had worked together in stops in Flint, Michigan and San Diego. Dudley succeeded Waddell last month, becoming the second GM in franchise history. Though the Thrashers offer him a fight of another kind, his improbable run continues.

“I had an interesting career for a guy that had no right to play pro hockey,” Dudley said. “If you were a betting man, you would have bet against me.”

Roster moves

The Thrashers signed goaltenders Chris Carrozzi and Ed Pasquale to entry-level professional contracts.

Both played in the Ontario Hockey League last season. Pasquale, a fourth-round pick of the Thrashers in 2009, played for Saginaw where he posted a 27-17-2-3 record with a 3.17 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. Carrozzi, a sixth-round pick of the Thrashers in 2008, played for Mississauga last season where he posted a 19-10-5-5 record with a 2.36 goals-against average and .916 save percentage.