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Cam Russell
Athlete
It may be hard to picture now, but Cam Russell was a skilled
offensive defenceman who rarely took penalties when
he was a minor hockey player.
It wasn’t until he got to the higher levels
that he adopted the rugged stay-athome
style that produced a 10-
year NHL career.
“Growing up I scored a lot of
points and was almost always
voted most gentlemanly player
on my teams. I used to always
win those Esso medals for
most sportsmanlike,” the Cole
Harbour product said with a
laugh. “The role I played as
a kid was as a power-play
guy and just an all-around
defenceman. It was more
when I went to Chicago
and I was looking
around and seeing that
role had been taken by
four or five other guys;
I thought ‘what can I
do to stay here?’ It
was just a matter of
survival. I just had
to figure out
what to do
to make
it.”
by Willy Palov
As a third-round
pick trying to make the
Blackhawks in the late 1980s
and early ‘90s Russell used
his six-foot-four, 200-pound
frame to his advantage, literally
fighting his way into the big
leagues. He accumulated
872 penalties to go with
30 points during a
10-year, 396-game
NHL career, mostly
in Chicago. In 1991,
Russell’s Hawks made
the Stanley Cup final
which they eventually lost
to Pittsburgh.
“I was always the type
of guy that found it hard to
look in the mirror if I didn’t
do what I was supposed to do
out there,” said Russell, who
also spent half a season with
the Colorado Avalanche.
“I think deep down
everyone knows
what needs
to be done.
It wasn’t easy, but
for me,
living with the guilt or
not
being able to look at myself in the
mirror would’ve been a lot harder.”
Long-time teammate Stephane Matteau was
quick to say how highly Russell was regarded in the
dressing room for always having his friends’ backs.
“I played four years of junior with him in Hull and
then we played together in Chicago, so I got to know
him really well,” Matteau said. “To me, he was the gutsiest
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