Rosaire Paiement • Joseph Wilfrid Rosaire Paiement

Height: 5-11
Weight: 170
Shoot: R
Born: 12 Aug 1945, Earlton ON

Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)

year	team	gp	g	a	pts	pim		gp	g	a	pts	pim
1972-73	Chicago	78	33	36	69	137
1973-74	Chicago	78	30	43	73	87		18	9	6	15	16
1974-75	Chicago	78	26	48	74	97
1975-76	New England	80	28	43	71	89		17	4	11	15	41
1976-77	New England	13	5	2	7	12
	Indianapolis	67	18	25	43	91		9	0	5	5	15
	Totals (2 teams)	80	23	27	50	103
1977-78	Indianapolis	61	6	24	30	81
	Totals:	455	146	221	367	602		44	13	22	35	72

• Brother of Pierre Paiement.

Hang on Chicago, Here Comes Rosie • by Reid Grosky • The Hockey Spectator • September 1972 Just think, Rosaire Paiement and Reggie Fleming are both playing for the Chicago Cougars — perhaps on the same line before the season is over. They'll probably name it the Crunch Line. Face masks will be worn by the entire opposing team. When the Cougars play in New York, they'll hold the event in the Felt Forum instead of the ice rink. The playing arena will be 16 feet square with ropes around it. If the WHA awards a tag team title, Paiement and Fleming have got to win it. They'll probably come up with a new penalty — two minutes for mugging. Rosie and Reggie are two of the tougher hockey players around, Chicagoans remember Fleming when he was an aspiring light heavyweight with the Black Wawks. Today at 36, he is a little long in the tooth, but still short in the temper. Paiement remembers when Fleming played with Buffalo two years ago, Paiement's first season with the Vancouver Canucks. The two toughies tangled and it almost registered on the Richter scale. When asked who won, rowdy Rosie beams confidently, "You'll have toask Fleming about that." Now that they are together, the Cougars may intimidate some teams into defeat before the first WHA season ends. There is not a full or Sanderson on the Chicago team, but the Cougars believe they have the next best thing in Paiement. The hockey performance of the 27-year-old forward-center was summed up once by Bud Poile, general manager of the Canucks: "He scored 34 goals and won 44 fights," Poile said. Paiement, a 5-11, 170-pounder, claims that "I've never lost a fight on the ice." It is only a slight exaggeration. The one fight he did lose was a frightening one against a puck. It struck him in the eye last December in a game with the Boston Bruins. "The first thing the doctor told me was it looked like I might never play hockey again," Paiement recalls. In spite of those soothing words, Paiement returned a month later. Now he is back at full strength, healthy and wealthy. But the big question is, was he wise to jump to the World Hockey Association? Paiement, who is being billed as the Cougars' superstar and who likes the billing, has no reservations. "It's not just the money," he says, "it's the challenge. I want to be the big man in Chicago, I want to be the man they look to." Paiement already has reached that goal. Depending on who you talk to in the Cougars' front office, Rosie this year will score 50 goals, assist on 50 goals, win the league's MVP award, emerge as the league's No. 1 policeman, and lead the Cougars to the World Cup. Paiement will not deny any of this. He admits, however, that he will settle for a mere 35 goals while he is getting acquainted with his new linemates. "But in a good year I think I could score 50," he declares. "I always said I'd score 50 in the NHL some day." Paiement, of course, never did. He scored 61 in the minors once, set a penalty-minutes record, then experienced two of the most yo-yo years imaginable in Vancouver. After a brilliant season in 1970-71, he went downhill faster than Jean Claude Killy. In addition to his eye injury last year, Rosaire had contract tiffs with management, reported to camp late and out of shape, and skated through 37 excruciating games without a goal. "People were sending me lucky charms and I was carrying them around," says Paiement, who was coaxed to a hypnotist in a publicity stunt to end the goal drought. "I told him even before we started that he couldn't hypnotize me," Rosie remembers, "I don't believe in that kind of thing." Paiement got two assists the following night but never revisited the hypnotist. Rosie was looking for goals. It is undoubtedly a tribute to Paiement's hockey skills that after all this aggravation, the Canucks still want him back. The Cougars may have to settle the whole thing in the courtroom, not an unfamiliar place for the brash new team that already has filed suit against the entire NHL. Paiement admits to recent talks with the Vancouver management in which "they offered me almost as much as the Cougars." But he says he has no intentions of ever returning to the Canucks, who "didn't treat me right." "I believe in treating people right," he says. "I'll work hard in Chicago." In the off-season, Rosie stayed in shape. He worked in his father's lumber company, looked after his wife, who is expecting their second child, and ran three miles a day near his home in Earlton, Ontario. "If I'm physically okay, I'll give-people in Chicago a lot of exciting hockey," he says. How does Paiement view the WHA title race? "The good part about the league is everyone has a chance," he says. "If we have 18 guys who really want to play, who will work like the Russians, then we can win." The Cougars, it appears, have at least one of that kind in Rosaire Paiement.

Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1975-76 (by Reyn Davis) Corners are his domain ... Enter them strictly at your own risk ... Highly respected by his former teammates in Chicago ... "If you ever get into trouble on this club, the first one there to help you will always be Rosey", said Brian Coates, a teammate for portions of two seasons ... A very adept fighter whose pugilistic tendencies have not left a network of scars on his own handsome countenance ... An original WHA pioneer who, like Andre Lacroix, Danny Lawson and Gavin Kirk, has never missed a game since its beginning ... Has 50-goal potential, taking about 260 shots a season

Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1976-77 (by Dan Proudfoot) The trouble with Rosaire Paiement, if you want to look for troubles, is that he isn't Rosy often enough. When the blood is pumping and Rosy's temper is working, he's an extremely effective forward who can shoot goals himself and create more opportunities with his strong fore-checking. "We hope he responds to the responsibility of being a leader," says coach Harry Neale. "Somebody showed the way when he was a rookie. Now it's his turn." Paiement earned four goals and 11 assists in the playoffs. That has to be considered a good sign.

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