Brendan Shanahan tells a story, which he repeated Thursday on NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s satellite radio show, about growing up as a Maple Leafs fan and meeting former Toronto captain Rick Vaive during the summer of 1983.

“When I was 14 years old I was skating in the summertime at a rink in Toronto,” Shahanan recalled. “Rick Vaive happened to be skating at an adjoining rink and we were actually in dressing rooms that were right next to each other.

“I went in when he was sort of settled and asked him for an autograph. I didn’t get the best response from Rick Vaive at that time.”

It was not a moment Shanahan would forget.

The Devils made him their first selection and the second overall pick in the 1987 entry draft and he went straight to the NHL as a rookie with the team in 1987-88.

“Fast forward four years later and Rick Vaive is waiting for a meaningless faceoff in Buffalo,” Shanahan said. “He’s now playing for the Sabres. He’s lined up next to some 18-year-old kid from New Jersey. When the puck dropped, I attacked Rick Vaive.

“It was a quiet, uneventful game. He couldn’t believe the rage I had, not only in attacking him, but it took two (linesmen) to restrain me afterwards and throw me in the penalty box.”

Vaive was dumbfounded.

“He said to one of my teammates at the time, Jim Korn, ‘By the way, what’s wrong with that kid and why was he coming after me?’ ” Shanahan recounted. “Jim Korn said, ‘Apparently he asked you for an autograph when he was a little kid and you weren’t that friendly to him. So he’s harbored those feelings since then.’ ”

Now that Shahanan is working for the league as vice-president of hockey and business development, the Devils can only hope he doesn’t still hold grudges, because the way he was cut loose from the team just before the regular season began left him somewhat stunned.

“I would be lying if I said it didn’t come as a little bit of a shock,” Shanahan said in a conference call with reporters. “Looking back now, I can say that, although it was just another exhibition game that sort of goes under the radar, I got the puck late in the third period and scored a goal on the last shot I took on net.

“So that’s not the worst way to finish. But I was disappointed. At the same time, I immediately tried to focus on the future and moving ahead. You know, I’ve reached out to my teammates there, obviously, to thank them and tell them what a good experience I had there. But I think very shortly after getting over that initial shock, I started moving forward and thinking ahead.”

Shanahan said he had a chance to hook on somewhere else.

“I think I did take some time away from the game to sort of really reflect on whether I wanted to go somewhere else and play a 22nd season,” he said. “There were a couple of teams I was in contact that had expressed some interest to my agent with that were a little further away.”

So he decided to take a position with the league.

At some point he might consider a role as general manager or coach, but not likely.

“It has not been that long since I left the ice,” he said. “Right now I’m just really excited about doing my job here at the NHL and having an opportunity to work on the hockey side, but also learn the business side. There is so much to be learned and I am really excited about the opportunity. I’ll be seeing a lot of the off-ice business, but I’ll be watching a lot of games and it’s also my intention to be at a lot of games.”

The league certainly knows that his memory is good.

There is a postscript to the Vaive story.

“Three years ago, he came up to me at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and introduced me to his 14-year-old son,” Shanahan said. “I signed the autograph, took a picture and gave him a piggy-back. I didn’t want karma to come back and get me.”

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Seven members of the 1995 Stanley Cup championship team, which will be honored before Saturday night's game against the Detroit Red Wings, will be arriving by limo at the Market Street side of Championship Plaza at the Prudential Center at 6 p.m.

They will walk a red carpet through into the Prudential Center. They are Valeri Zelepukin, Mike Peluso, Chris McAlpine, Jim Dowd, Bruce Driver, Ken Daneyko and Tom Chorske.

Martin Brodeur, Brian Rolston, Chris Terreri and Scott Stevens will also be acknowledged in the pre-game ceremony.