It was possibly the best compliment a person could give Craig Patrick -- and it had to do with something he wasn't able to accomplish.

"You know, when you think about it, the Rangers probably never should have let him go," mused Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman as he replayed the moments of Patrick's life in his head. "He did a great job there, and he probably would have done even better. But then, who knows what would have happened in Pittsburgh."

	Pittsburgh GM Craig Patrick built the Penguins' 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup winners.

Such is the impact of Craig Patrick, who will be enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame Monday in Toronto as part of the Class of 2001. Had the Rangers been smart enough to keep the wily young GM back in 1986, maybe they would have broken the Stanley Cup curse a little earlier and won a couple of championships. But then, you might be watching the Houston Penguins.

"He's been able to find a way to be successful no matter where he's been," Bowman said.

Which makes him just the latest in the long line of Patricks -- a lineage that has helped define the NHL. Craig is the fourth Patrick to be enshrined in the Hall, joining dad Lynn (1980), grandfather Lester (1947), and great uncle Frank (1958).

In the early 1900s, Lester and Frank helped establish the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, whose Vancouver Millionaires (1915) and Victoria Cougars (1925) won the Stanley Cup. Lester then moved east and started the New York Rangers in 1926, helping the franchise to Stanley Cups in 1928, 1933 and 1940. Lynn and Muzz Patrick (Craig's uncle) also played with the Rangers for several years, with Lynn going on to coach the Rangers, Bruins and the Blues.

Maybe that's what makes the younger Patrick's accomplishments so significant and ironic. When he was hired by the Rangers as Director of Operations in 1980, he was just 33. A year later, he became the youngest GM in Rangers history. While there was some pressure in following the Patrick name through New York, Craig fared quite well, helping push the Rangers from a 30-36-14 team in 1980-81 to 39-27-14 in 1981-82 and eventually to 42-29-9 in 1983-84 -- drafting All-Star goaltender Mike Richter along the way. However, a dip in 1984-85 sent the Rangers looking in a new direction and Patrick looking for a new place to make his name.

"I was proud of the work we did in New York. I had no experience, really, in administration and I learned a lot along the way," Craig said. "And as for getting fired, that's the best motivation in the world."

He spent two seasons as director of athletics at the University of Denver, his alma mater, and eventually landed with the Penguins, being named head coach and GM on Dec. 5, 1989. Pittsburgh had a dismal hockey history, but it was an ironically fitting place for Patrick to become a pioneer of sorts. And just like Lester and Frank had done years before in the hockey wilderness, Craig Patrick made a name on his own.

First, he brought in Bob Johnson as coach and Bowman as director of player development. Then, he and his staff grabbed Jaromir Jagr with the fifth pick in the 1990 entry draft and signed Islanders great Bryan Trottier as a free agent. He then traded for Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy, Peter Taglianetti, Jiri Hridna, Gord Roberts and Scott Young earlier in the season and pulled off a trade deadline coup when he picked up Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings from Hartford for John Cullen, Jeff Parker and Zarley Zalapski in March.

The pieces fell together perfectly and the Penguins went on to win their first Stanley Cup in 1991.

Patrick called on Bowman to move to the bench following the death of coach Johnson in 1992. The Penguins overcame the loss of Johnson and claimed its second consecutive title.

The wheeling and dealing never stopped for Patrick. Since the Penguins last Cup, he lost Mario Lemieux's services to Hodgkin's disease and then had to start making moves to keep the franchise financially afloat. He lost Francis as a free agent and practically had to give away Jagr last summer to get out from under the star's contract.

	Craig Patrick had a modest eight-year NHL career as a player with stops in California, St. Louis, Kansas City and Washington.

But in that span, the Penguins kept winning, taking five divisional titles in eight years, and finishing with the second-best regular season in the 1990s, trailing only the Red Wings.

Despite the financial and personnel woes, Patrick has compiled a 474-339-105-9 record as the Penguins' GM and his team has made the playoffs for 11 consecutive seasons. The Penguins missed the playoffs for six of seven seasons before he arrived.

That's some accomplishment for a guy who has had to walk a fine budgetary line.

Mario Lemieux selfishly calls him, "the best general manager in the game today," and others agree. Patrick was selected as The Sporting News NHL executive of the year in 1997-98 and 1998-99 in a vote by other NHL general managers.

"Obviously, everyone has to operate within their own budget constraints and Craig has done a good job at that," Dallas Stars GM Bob Gainey said. "But I think even more important than that is the fact Pittsburgh is now a hockey town. When you went through there in the '70s and '80s, there was always the feeling that it was a second-tier sport, that it was still minor league. But not anymore, and I think that is an accomplishment worth noting."

At age 55, Patrick still has plenty to accomplish. An assistant coach on the 1980 gold medal USA Olympic men's hockey team, he returns to the Olympics this season as GM for the United States. He has helped Lemieux and the Penguins fight through bankruptcy court and continually pushes the team to remain competitive in the standings. And with each challenge, his smile just gets a little bigger.

"It's funny, my family didn't want me to get into hockey, they wanted me to find something else to do," Patrick said. "But I wasn't going to have any of that. They always say, you find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. That's how I've always felt."

In fact, Patrick said he remembers back to his days in kindergarten when teachers would warn his parents that he was already hockey obsessed because he only drew pictures of hockey rinks. Born in Detroit, he played junior hockey with the Junior Canadiens in Montreal and then helped the University of Denver to NCAA championships in 1968 and 1969. He played 401 NHL games with California, St. Louis, Kansas City and Washington before joining the management game.

Along the way, he said, living up the Patrick name was never a burden, never a bother.

"You've got a kid who loves hockey and he's been able to be around it every day of his life," Patrick remarked. "I'd say that's a blessing."

Mike Heika is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News.