Selected by the Jets with the No. 10 pick in the 1988 NHL Draft, Selanne, a star for the Finnish club Jokerit, didn't make his NHL debut until 1992, neither club nor player in a rush to bring him to Western Canada before he was ready. He almost didn't arrive in Winnipeg at all, after the Calgary Flames signed Selanne to an offer sheet that was reportedly worth $1.5 million more than the Jets' offer. The Jets matched it, and Selanne's impact was immediate. He had 11 goals in his first 12 games, and his pace never slackened as he crushed Mike Bossy's 15-year-old rookie record of 53 goals. Selanne finished the season with 76, tying him with Alexander Mogilny for the NHL lead.
The night he broke the record, with a hat trick against the Quebec Nordiques, Selanne used a trademark burst of speed to beat a Quebec defenseman before celebrating by flinging his left glove in the air and pumping fake shots into it with his stick, and then hugging his teammates.
Such exuberance was another Selanne trademark, from the beginning of his career to the end. With chiseled good looks and an angular animation to his game, he exuded joy and looked upon attention from media and fans not as a burden but a compliment. He signed every autograph and answered almost every question. When Sports Illustrated wanted to do a major profile of him during his epic rookie year, Selanne graciously obliged. Of course, it didn't hurt that the magazine rented a sporty convertible for him to drive along the way -- roughly akin to plying a nursery-school kid with candy.
"Every day, Teemu finds something to be happy about," longtime teammate Paul Kariya said. "[He] gets as mad as anyone else when we lose, but I think he forgets it quickly. Teemu keeps everybody on an even keel. When things are going poorly, he's upbeat and he keeps everybody loose. When things are going well, he's the same, so we always know what to expect from him. Guys get down, but he's there picking us up."
Marty McInnis, another Anaheim teammate, marveled at how popular he was in all NHL precincts. His ebullience was as palpable as his speed, and fans tend to pick up on that.