CALGARY — The Ugly Duckling.

That’s what the front-page headline screamed under Kevin Sawyer’s mugshot the morning after one of the strangest, nastiest and most memorable nights ever staged inside the Saddledome.

Sawyer was public enemy No. 1 after he and his Anaheim Mighty Ducks had spent the previous evening helping turn an ordinary Calgary Flames loss into an NHL demolition derby still talked about today. 

Twenty-five years later, there’s a delightful twist to the story.

Only now he’s wearing a headset.

Sawyer will debut Thursday as Sportsnet’s rink-side colour commentator on Flames broadcasts (9 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. MT), and while plenty of Calgary viewers may be wondering who he is, they’re about to find out he has a rather intimate history with this franchise.

He later came an autograph away from becoming a Flame himself.

But first came that night.

32 Thoughts: The PodcastHockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.Latest episode

32 Thoughts: The Podcast

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.

Sawyer was in his first full NHL season after five years in the minors. He was undrafted, 208 pounds, and knew precisely what his job was.

“I was a fourth-line mucker, grinder, fighter,” the 52-year-old native of Christina Lake, B.C., said. “Chip and chase, get on the body,........

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