Luce, Meehan share Mogilny stories

The story of Alexander Mogilny and the Buffalo Sabres began in Moscow at the 1988 World Junior Championship.

Mogilny dominated that tournament for the Soviet Union, leading all players in goals (9), assists (9), and points (18) en route to a silver medal. Don Luce, working as a director of player development for the Sabres, left the tournament with a report for general manager Gerry Meehan.

"I told Gerry he was the best player in the world at the time but chances of him coming were slim to none," Luce recalled. "So, we decided to take a chance and draft him in the fifth round."

Buffalo selected Mogilny with the 89th pick that summer, setting off a string of events that would make the forward the first player to defect the Soviet Red Army team for North America and later one of the most prolific offensive players in Sabres history.

With the Hockey Hall of Fame set to announce its Class of 2020 at 4:30 p.m. and Mogilny seeking induction on his 12th try on the ballot, we collected stories from Luce and Meehan about the trailblazing forward's defection and time with the Sabres.

Receiving the call

Luce had not yet spoken to Mogilny by the time he was sent to watch the forward play at the 1989 World Junior Championship in Anchorage, Alaska. It was there that Luce ran into Mogilny in the arena hallway, informed him he had been drafted by the Sabres, and offered his business card in case there were any questions.

Before he walked away, he asked Mogilny when he was going to score next.

"He said, 'Three against Canada,'" Luce recalled. "Because that was their next game, and he did. He scored three against Canada."

Even then, the idea of Mogilny donning blue and gold was far-fetched. Under Soviet rule, Mogilny's only route to the NHL was through defection, a dangerous path that had not yet been pursued.

Then the phone rang in Luce's office during spring 1989, a few months after his and Mogilny's introduction. On the other end was someone claiming to be the wife of Mogilny's agent.

"I didn't know if this was a prank caller or what it was, so I asked her to ask Alex what I said to him in Anchorage," Luce said. "She asked him, and she came back with the correct answer, so I knew it was him. So, I said, 'We'll be over.'

"I went down and told Gerry. That was 11 o'clock. We were on a plane at 1 o'clock going to Stockholm. Then it got interesting."

The defection

Luce and Meehan left immediately to meet Mogilny in Stockholm, Sweden, where Mogilny had just helped the Russian team to a gold medal at the men's World Championship.

Their first meeting, which Meehan said was primarily for identification purposes, took place at Mogilny's hotel. They were then scheduled to meet at his agent's apartment for dinner until a series of phone calls resulted in a change of plans.

"We went there but we got a communication from them last minute not to go there because they said, 'They're watching me,'" Meehan said.

Instead, they agreed to meet Mogilny and his agent, Sergei Fomitchev, at a shopping mall in Stockholm.

"He and his agent were standing in the doorway, like kind of hiding, and then as soon as they saw us we waved, we opened the door, and they dove into the backseat of the car and we drove away, just to make sure that, you know, obviously if he was being watched they would see us as well," Meehan said.

"I see these guys come out in the mirror, chasing him," Luce added.

Mogilny and Fomitchev remained with Luce and Meehan for the remainder of their time in Stockholm, a three-day operation that found two hockey lifers taking precautions befitting of secret agents. Meehan had been advised by a personal friend from the immigration office in Buffalo, Ben Ferro, to remain untraceable throughout the process. They switched hotels each night. When Meehan went to the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Luce spent hours driving Mogilny around the countryside.

Their prudence was warranted. Luce took Mogilny to a public call center to reach his parents, and the call was twice disconnected.

"He was only in there about five minutes," Luce said. "He came out and said, 'They know where we are.'

"You didn't know what was going to happen. You didn't know what they were going to do. Every time Gerry came from the embassy he said, 'We've got to be careful, they're after us.' You don't sleep easy when that's happening."

Luce and Meehan both recall arriving at the Stockholm airport for their flight to JFK and seeing all four of their names printed in a local newspaper. The details of their trip were all printed, save for the location of their final hotel.

The four men were escorted off the plane by federal agents upon landing in New York, after which Mogilny was interrogated.

"Alex, for a 19-year-old kid, he was pretty calm," Luce said. "I know because he told me afterwards, his parents said, 'Just go. Don't worry about us.' They did lose their jobs. [Alex] was sentenced to death for desertion. They had rough times to go through.

"… You figure, if you went to another country where you hardly know the language and the traditions and you're 19 years old, you're going to have some adjusting to do. You're not going to let your guard down right away. I think that took Alex a while to feel comfortable. That's a huge step for a 19-year-old kid. I don't know if an adult could do it. But he had a lot of courage."

Playing with Patty

Mogilny went on to pair with Pat LaFontaine to form one of the great tandems in NHL history, combining for 129 goals and 275 points during the 1992-93 season.

According to Meehan, it never would have happened if the New York Islanders had their way.

LaFontaine came to the Sabres in October 1991 in a trade centered around him and Pierre Turgeon. The deal had been a year in the making, beginning with rumblings about fruitless contract negotiations between the Islanders and LaFontaine.

"We came up with a formula where the key players were LaFontaine and Turgeon," Meehan recalled. "But before the trade was concluded, [Islanders general manager Bill Torrey] said, 'OK, I'll trade you LaFontaine but Mogilny has to be in the deal.'

"I said, 'Well, that's why I'm trading for LaFontaine, to play with Mogilny. So, it's Turgeon or it's not going to happen.' That's what really closed it."

Meehan ranks the tandem of LaFontaine and Mogilny alongside the French Connection as one of the best in Sabres history. Mogilny's 76 goals during the 1992-93 season remain a franchise record.

"With LaFontaine and him together, that made a perfect combination," he said. "Dale Hawerchuk, obviously, was a great backbone for those guys. The season was just a marvel. I mean, I remember one thing, I think Alex had more breakaways that he missed than he scored on.

"The question is, would he have scored 100 goals if he had scored on the breakaways?"