Tibbetts story truly remarkable

TAMPA, Fla. - Mario Lemieux isn't the only Penguins player making an extraordinary comeback after 3 ½ years off the ice.

The Billy Tibbetts Story might be even more incredible.

Tibbetts had played only one season of pro hockey - 1995-96 in the East Coast Hockey League - before arriving at Penguins camp in September.

It's almost unheard of for a player to jump straight from the ECHL to the NHL.

It is unheard of for somebody to do it after a 3 ½-year prison term, but that's exactly what Tibbetts has done (he made a three-month stop in the American Hockey League on his way).

Tibbetts isn't sitting around collecting splinters, either. He was promoted to the third line in a 6-3 victory Friday at Florida.

That was a long ways from Suffolk University, a Division III Massachusetts school where Tibbetts first touched the ice upon being released from prison in the fall of 1999. His brother was a volunteer with the Suffolk hockey team and got permission for Tibbetts to join a practice. Tibbetts couldn't remember how to cut his stick.

'I had a bad lie and was missing all these passes,' he says. 'I was wicked out of shape. I could only go one way up the ice. I couldn't make it back.'

That changed quickly. Tibbetts had worked himself into prime physical condition at a hard-core prison called MCI-Norfolk. He had gained 40 pounds of muscle. He hit the weights daily and spent hours playing pick-up basketball and softball with his fellow inmates.

Anything to keep his sanity. Anything to keep his NHL dream alive.

Neil Shea is the Penguins scout who convinced Penguins general manager Craig Patrick to give Tibbetts a chance. Shea knew Tibbetts from Boston hockey circles. He says Tibbetts' athletic genes helped him regain his hockey skills so quickly.

'He's an incredible athlete, genetically,' Shea says. 'His father, at 160 pounds, was a heavyweight boxing champ in the Ivy League at Harvard, and a great football player.'

Tibbetts soon rediscovered his powerful stride. The desire never left. He worked a construction job but would skip lunch to skate. He was the hungriest hockey player in the free world.

'I believed in myself, and I worked my (butt) off,' he says.

When Shea played against Tibbetts in a pick-up game during the fall of 1999, he did a double-take. This was an NHL-calibre player, Shea thought. He approached Patrick with the 'crazy' idea of signing Tibbetts.

Patrick told Shea to research Tibbetts' situation.

Shea found that in 1994, Tibbetts was convicted of statutory rape and that the incident occurred at party in 1992. Tibbetts was 17; the girl was 15.

Shea says Tibbetts pled guilty to a sex act, not a rape act. The act fell under the general categorical description of rape, Shea said.

Tibbetts was put on parole but violated it within months when he shot a friend in the rear end with a bb gun. The violation meant Tibbetts had to serve his jail time.

Shea is convinced that Tibbetts matured in prison. He spent many hours with Tibbetts and concluded that he was 'a good kid.' He believed strongly that Tibbetts could help the Penguins without embarrassing them.

His research completed, Shea went back to Patrick.

'I said, 'Craig, I've played some pro hockey, I played with a lot of guys, including Kevin Stevens and other NHL guys, and I haven't skated against a guy who's been this powerful and this quick,' Shea said. 'Craig said, 'What's he looking for?' I said, 'A tryout,' and Craig agreed to give him one.'

But the word was out. Shea said that Tampa Bay, Phoenix and a few other NHL teams wanted Tibbetts. Patrick decided to sign him to a one-year contract worth $400,000 if he played in the NHL.

All he needed was Tibbetts' signature.

On April 9, 2000 - exactly 345 days after Tibbetts left prison - he and Shea walked into Patrick's press-box perch at the Fleet Center in Boston. The Penguins were about to play their season finale. Patrick shook Tibbetts' hand and asked him to sign a few documents.

'Billy's hand was shaking,' Shea says. 'He was crying. He turned around and said to Craig, 'I won't let you down.' '

The adjustment hasn't been perfectly smooth. Nobody expected it would. Some of Tibbetts' teammates are concerned about his short fuse.

But at this moment in time, Tibbetts is an NHL player - and a legitimate one at that.

It's quite a story, but it's full of unanswered questions. Tibbetts, 26, is keeping the answers to himself for now.

'It'll all come out in my book,' he says.

Joe Starkey covers the Penguins for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.