Forward Jaden Lindo keeps adding pages to the script.
Queens University forward Jaden Lindo.
Lindo, a main subject in award-winning filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s“Soul on Ice, Past, Present & Future” black hockey history documentary, helped power Canada’s Queens University to the Ontario University Athletics championship Saturday.
Lindo, a 2014 Pittsburgh Penguins sixth round draft pick, scored two goals for the Queens University Gaels in their 4-1 win over the University of Guelph Gryphons.
“Actually, it’s one of the best feelings I’ve had in my whole hockey career,” Lindo, 23, said Monday. “It’s been a long time since I’ve won a championship. The last time was minor hockey. Before I committed to Queens I told my coach I wanted to compete for a championship. And to do it in front of our home fans, it was an unbelievable experience.”
The victory gave the Gaels their first Queen’s Cup title since 1981 and Lindo was named Most Valuable Player of the championship game.
“I didn’t even know they gave out an MVP for the game,” he said. “Our speakers weren’t working too well, I couldn’t hear what they were saying and all the guys were calling my name and I was, like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I just skated up, and it was amazing.”
Forward Jaden Lindo and his Queens University teammates celebrate winning the Ontario University Athletics championship on Saturday (Photo/Courtesy Jaden Lindo).
The Gaels now compete for Canada’s U Sports national championship in a tournament that starts Thursday in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
For the “Soul on Ice” documentary, Mason followed Lindo, then a forward for the Ontario Hockey League’s OwenSound Attack, through the high of awaiting the 2014 National Hockey League Draft and the low of suffering a severe season-ending knee injury that jeopardized his draft prospects.
The 2018-19 Queens University Gaels. The team won the Ontario University Athletics championship Saturday. Forward Jaden Lindo was the game’s MVP.
The dramatic arc in the film ends with the Penguins taking the injured Lindo in the sixth round with the 173rd overall pick in the draft.
But things didn’t work out, and Lindo and the Penguins parted ways. He was traded by Owen Sound to the Sarnia Sting in 2016-17. He scored 35 points (21 goals, 14 assists) in 58 regular season games with the OHL team.
He joined the Queens University team in 2017-18 and scored 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists) in 21 regular season games. He had 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) in 12 regular season games but he came up big in the playoffs with 8 points (5 goals, 3 assists). He missed three months of the season recovering from a concussion.
“I was pretty upset when things didn’t happen the way as planned with Pittsburgh,” he said. “I didn’t believe it was all over. Playing in the NHL is my goal and has always been my dream. I’m at Queens right now, it’s a great program and I’m maturing as a young man. I’m happy where I’m at and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
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Jim Paek won two Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh, coached for his native South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and helped develop players for the Detroit RedWings farm team in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
But the retired National Hockey League defenseman recently called Nottingham, England, “home.”
Paek and his family spent the Christmas holiday in Nottingham, the place where he closed out his professional playing career with the Nottingham Panthersin the early 2000s.
“We like to call this home, in Nottingham,” Paek told team General Manager Gary Moran on Panthers TV. “This is where my daughter was born. She wanted to come back and have a little feeling of Christmas, and we sure have received that here. Met a lot of great friends that we made in the past, and it’s been absolutely great.”
Paek became the NHL’s first Korean-born player when he joined the Penguins in the 1990-91 season. He helped anchor Pittsburgh’s defense during the team’s back-to-back Stanley Cup run in 1990-91 and 1991-92.
Jim Paek played defense on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ back-to-back Stanley Cup teams in the 1990s (Photo/Pittsburgh Penguins).
He appeared in 217 NHL regular season games with the Penguins, Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators, tallying 5 goals and 29 assists. Paek played in 27 Stanley CupPlayoffs games, scoring a goal and 4 assists.
After bouncing around the old International Hockey League, Paek crossed the pond and joined the Panthers in 2001-01. He signed on to play for the Anchorage Aces of the defunct West Coast Hockey League the following season but returned to Nottingham after 40 games with the Alaska team.
“To be honest, it was hard, it was hard to be in Anchorage, Alaska,” Paek told Panthers TV. “I will never forget the first time coming back (to Nottingham) and stepping on the ice. What a tremendous reception I got.”
Paek played in 84 regular season games for the Panthers, scoring 4 goals and 31 assists. He had a goal and 7 assists in 29 BISL playoff contests before hanging up his skates in 2002-2003.
But his blades didn’t stay in the closet long – coaching opportunities beckoned in North America and beyond. Paek served as an assistant coach for the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s American HockeyLeague affiliate, from 2005-06 to 2013-14.
In 2014, South Korea hired Paek to coach its 2018 Winter Olympic men’s hockey team and to basically build a national hockey program from scratch.
The South Korean men failed to register a win at the home-ice Winter Olympics and Paek’s squad was outscored 14 to 1 in three games. Still, he established a foundation that the country’s sports brain trust hopes will translate into wins – and medals – in the near future.
The Korea Ice Hockey AssociationrewardedPaekwith a three-year contract extension in June. He’s on a mission now to make sure that South Korea’s men’s and women’s teams qualify for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
“After the Olympics, I felt I wasn’t done yet,” Paek told Panthers TV. “I needed to do more with Korean hockey and, hopefully, we can move along, progress, and develop nicely.”
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Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby and Colorado Avalanche sniper NathanMacKinnon were traded – to Kenya.
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby.
Crosby and MacKinnon donned the jerseys of the Kenya Ice Lions and skated with the 12-member team from the African nation in Toronto.
Tim Hortons helped arrange the Lions’ trip to Toronto and surprised the team with visits by Crosby and MacKinnon.
“It is a dream to not only have the chance to play in Canada, but to play – for the first time – in full gear alongside two of the greatest players of the game,” says BenardAzegere, the Ice Lions captain said in a statement about the event. “When we first started playing in Kenya, we didn’t even have full equipment, but now not only do we have that, we can say we’ve played a real game with some All-Star teammates.”
“I was honored to be able to join the Ice Lions as they played their first game against another team,” Crosby said. “One of the things I love about hockey is how it’s able to reach so many people from so many countries around the world and bring them together.”
The Kenyan players skate twice a week at a rink at the Panari Sky Center Hotel in the capital of Nairobi, according to Adweek.There aren’t enough players in the African nation to put a second team on ice, so the Kenyan hadn’t faced another team until their trip to Canada.
In addition to bringing the ice Lions to Canada, Tim Hortons made a donation to Kenya’s youth hockey league to help the sport grow in that country.
“In Canada – and as a company – Hockey is part of our DNA,” Jorge Zaidan, Head of Marketing, Tim Hortons Canada said. “We are so inspired by the story of the Lions. Despite having no other teams to play against, the players on the Kenya Ice Lions’ passion for the game is unwavering. Their shared passion and love of the game knows no borders.”
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For those who want to see Willie O’Ree in the Hockey Hall of Fame, it’s time to put our money where our mouths are.
The Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee – the gatekeepers who decide who’s in and who’s not – is ramping up its decision-making process for the Hall Class of 2018.
Willie O’Ree made history when he entered the NHL with the Boston Bruins in 1958.
Selection Committee members have until April 15 to submit names of who they think are Hall-worthy. Those nominees are debated and voted on during an Elections Meeting in June. The annual Hall induction takes place in November.
While the Selection Committee has the most say in this process, there is an outlet for public input.
Its called the public submissions and it allows people to submit who they think are worthy of Hall entry in the Player, Referee/Linesman and Buildercategories.
The deadline for public submissions is March 15, so time is of the essence. Here is a link to how the process works and how you can make a submission.
It doesn’t guarantee that O’Ree will be nominated, but it lets Selection Committee members know that there’s heavy of support to let the NationalHockey League’s first black player into the the hockey shrine.
From hockey fans to players to hockey analysts, there are plenty of folks out there who want to see O’Ree in the Hall of Fame in the Builder’s category.
Change.org has a petitioncalling for O’Ree’s Hall induction for his “significant contributions to the game as a pioneer of the sport.”
Thirteen members city government of Fredericton, New Brunswick – O’Ree’s home town in Canada – sent a letter to the Hockey Hall of Fame urging O’Ree’s induction. Fredericton Member of ParliamentMatt DeCourcey added his voice with a floor speech last month in the House of Commons.
“A member of the New Brunswick Hall of Fame (and ) the Order of Canada, there remains but one honor to be bestowed this person who left such an indelible mark on this sport,” DeCourcey said. “Mr. Speaker, for his dedication as a builder, I am sure Frederictonians, New Brunswickers, Canadians and hockey fans around the world share the view that it is past time that Willie O’Ree be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.”
Karl Subban – the father of Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban, Vegas GoldenKnights goaltender Malcolm Subban, and Los Angeles Kings defensive prospect Jordan Subban – is sending a submission letter through an O’Ree Hall induction effort launched by Fredericton residents.
“He changed the game and he changed society and he changed minds,” Karl Subban wrote. “He changed hockey, which is now for everyone. Hockey needed him and so does the Hockey Hall of Fame. The time is right.”
Damon Kwame Mason, director of the award-winning “Soul on Ice: Past, Present & Future” black hockey history documentary, is also pushingfor O’Ree’s induction.
So are several major hockey writers and analysts.
No question for me. The work he has done as a Builder over the last 20+ years is incredible. He's still pounding the pavement, flying all over the place at age 82, to share his story and include everyone. https://t.co/gRUvYfd1ZB
The criteria for entry in the Hall of Fame as a Builder is “Coaching, managerial or executive ability, or ability in another significant off-ice role, sportsmanship, character and contributions to his or her organization or organizations and to the game of hockey in general.”
O’Ree fits this category because he has helped change the face of the game, not just by for becoming the first black man to play in the NHL when he took to the old Montreal Forum ice on Jan. 18, 1958 as a forward for the Boston Bruins – but he’s done since.
He has been an inspiration to a generation of young hockey players and fans of color. They look at this still-fit 82-year-old man, learn about the racial abuse he suffered in order to make it to the pros, and how he played in the NHL and minor leagues despite being blind in his right eye, and say “if he can do it, so can I.”
O’Ree has worked tirelessly as the NHL’s Diversity Ambassador since 1998, crisscrossing the United States and Canada to visit youth hockey programs affiliated with the NHL’s “Hockey is for Everyone” initiative.
His impact goes beyond getting more kids of color to lace on skates and grab sticks. O’Ree has also been a father figure, sounding board and role model for many of the minority players in the NHL today.
Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds recently said “Willie is not only a hero to me in hockey, but a hero in life.”
Pittsburgh Penguins tough guy forward Ryan Reaves vowed to have a big game in honor of O’Ree, who was in the house last month for the Pens-Kings game at PPG Paints Arena.
It was an honor to have you at morning skate, Willie O'Ree!
Coach Sullivan: “Willie is a testament to perseverance. He might have faced more adversity than any of us. I think he’s a great example of dedication. He’s been a great ambassador to the sport.”#HockeyIsForEveryonepic.twitter.com/v1b63RgPD8
Not known as a scorer, Reaves had a goal that night.
“Obviously with Willie O’Ree in the house it was pretty special,” Reaves told reporters. “He was a pioneer for players like me and it was nice to get him one.”
Reaves added: “That is somebody you look up to. He was big in the NHL, big in all sports for players like me.”
This years marks the 60th anniversary of Willie O’Ree making hockey history. Will the Hockey Hall of Fame make history this year and let Willie O’Ree in?
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Richard Park won’t say that South Korea’s men’s ice hockey team will win a medal in its Olympic debut at the 2018 Winter Games in February. But….
South Korean men’s hockey team Assistant Coach Richard Park. Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn/ Minnesota Wild
“It’s a short tournament and anything can happen,” Park told me recently. “You use the word ‘miracle,’ you think of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, the ‘Miracle on Ice.’ It’s happen before. If we can come close to matching that, or even duplicating it, it will be an amazing accomplishment.”
It’s been an amazing hockey journey for Park, a retired forward who played 14 seasons in the NationalHockey League for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, PhiladelphiaFlyers, Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks and New York Islanders.
The journey has come full circle for Park. He’s returned to the country of his birth to serve as assistant director and assistant coach for a South Korean men’s team that will compete in its first Winter Olympicswhen it takes to the Gangneung Hockey Center ice in PyeongChang, South Korea, on Feb. 15 to face the Czech Republic.
Park discusses South Korea’s upcoming Olympic experience, the rise of hockey in Asia, and reflects on his NHL career in the latest Color of Hockey podcast.
While Park won’t predict a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal for South Korea, he says that the 2018 Olympic hockey tournament will be dramatically different from previous Winter Games because the NHL isn’t releasing its players to compete for their countries.
“It doesn’t directly have an affect on us like other countries,” Park said of the absence of NHL superstars. “But it does have an affect on us because it changes the playing field for us. We’ll see. Hopefully we can turn that into an advantage.”
South Korea has already surprised the hockey world. Under Head Coach Jim Paek and Park, the team finished second at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship Division I Group A tournament in Kiev in April.
Richard Park was a forward for the Minnesota Wild for three seasons and is currently a development coach for the team (Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn/Minnesota Wild).
The showing earned South Korea a promotion to the IIHF’s top division, joining the ranks of the United States, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland and other hockey powers.
“Korea has never ever been close, let alone in the top division in the world of hockey,” Park said. “It’s huge. It’s big, it’s never been done before.”
Park’s team now faces the daunting task of trying to win in Group Aat the Olympic hockey tournament, a bracket that includes powerhouses Canada and the Czech Republic and always pesky Switzerland.
“It’s really the first time we’ll be playing at that caliber,” Park told me. “We’ll do okay.”
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“My wife and I had our wedding at a hockey arena and we had a ceremonial face-off between her and I,” Singh told me recently. “Life-sized Stanley Cup cake, mini-hockey sticks with out names engraved for everyone, we had hockey cards of ourselves and the stats were cool. My wife was “Rookie of the Year” because it was her first year teaching. It was a hoot.”
Hockey is as big a part of Singh as his Sikh faith and Canadian heritage. He combines them all when he gets behind the mic and calls games for “Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi Edition,” the sister broadcast to “Hockey Night in Canada.”
Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi Edition announcer Harnarayan Singh, right, with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
His classic call of the game-winning goal by then-Pittsburgh Penguins forward Nick Boninoin Game 1 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final made him a social media sensation and catapulted “Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi Edition” into the mainstream.
Singh isn’t an overnight sensation. He’s been calling games in Punjabi – Canada’s third-most spoken language behind English and French – since 2008 as part of “Hockey Night in Canada’s” effort to develop a more diverse audience.
You can hear Singh converse about his career, growing up Sikh in Canada, and the impact of “Hockey Night’s” Punjabi broadcast on the nation’s South Asian community in the latest episode of the Color of Hockey podcast.
Singh has achieved what many people thought he couldn’t: to become a prominent face of hockey while speaking Punjabi and wearing the turban and ample beard that signifies his heritage and faith.
“If this could happen to me, a guy from Brooks, Alberta, a small town in southern Alberta, and with how I look and with people telling me it was impossible, if my dream could come true, why can’t it for anyone else?” he said.
Still, Singh says he occasionally hears from viewers who challenge the need for a hockey broadcast beyond English or French.
“You do get these sorts of comments where a person, I think, might not understand where we’re coming from and why we’re doing this,” he said. “But when you explain to them how this is benefiting the sport of hockey and how beneficial this is to grow the sport of hockey, I think some of those perspectives can be changed.”
Singh says he and his “Hockey Night” Punjabi crew bring the masala – a spiciness – to their broadcast that reflects their South Asian roots and connects with their audience.
And they’ve had to be creative to do it as several hockey words and phrases don’t translate in Punjabi. So Singh made up his own, including the popular “chapared shot,” using the Punjabi word for slap in the face to describe a slap shot.
The Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi Edition commentators. Left to right, Randip Janda, Harnarayan Singh, Harpreet Pandher, and Bhupinder Hundal.
“The Punjabi community, they love to laugh, they love their food, they love their music, they wear vibrant colors, they talk loud,” Singh told me. “We try to incorporate those community characteristics on our calls and have fun with it.”
In doing so, Singh and his crew are helping members of Canada’s growing South Asian community weave themselves into the fabric of the country. Hockey is, after all, as Canadian as it gets.
Indians make up nearly 4 percent of Canada’s overall population and Sikhs account for less than 1.5 percent of the population. Canada has the world’s second-largest Sikh population outside of India with over 455,000 with most of them living in British Columbia and the Toronto area.
“When we first began the show I don’t think anyone could have even imagine the impact it would have on the community,” he told me. “First and foremost, I think it made the community feel proud of themselves that they had made it as a part of Canadian society.
“There’s also been some cool stories from people who say that at their workplace, having hockey in Punjabi and understanding the sport, has helped develop better relationships and rapport at work,” he added. “They’re able to talk about last night’s game. I mean, hockey is that water cooler topic in Canada.”
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Trevor Daley didn’t want to go para-sailing, mountain-climbing or club hopping with the Stanley Cup.
Trevor Daley wanted low-key family time with the Stanley Cup the second time around.
Instead of going buck-wild with the Cup, as some players who win it do on their designated day with Lord Stanley, the former Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman arranged a decidedly buck-mild 24 hours with the championship trophy.
“Not too crazy this year with it, try to stay a little bit more low-key than last year,” said Daley, who dashed around to show the Cup off to as many friends, family and well-wishers as possible in his hometown Toronto area after the Penguins won it in the 2015-16 season. “I was, like, ‘Man, I shared it with everybody else, I never got a chance to sit down and just stare at it’ and be, like, wow this is what you accomplished.’ My family, my kids never got a chance to sit down and hang out with it.”
Back-to-back Stanley Cup victories allowed Daley the opportunity to rectify that situation.
“My son’s birthday party just passed, but we told him that part of his birthday party would be hanging out with the Cup with a couple of his buddies in Toronto,” the veteran defenseman told me.
Trevor Daley and his family spend some quality time with the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).
Daley still managed to make time for a couple of public stops with the Cup Wednesday to show appreciation to the local folks who appreciate him. The kids at Toronto Professional Hockey School, a camp Daley attended as a minor hockey player, got a glimpse of the trophy many of the camp’s current attendees hope to some day hoist.
Unlike other major league sports, each player on a Stanley Cup-winning team gets to have the trophy for a day to do whatever. Phil Pritchard, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s white-gloved Keeper of the Cup, accompanies it on a summer-long journey.
The well-polished silver Cup and the gloved-one will travel thousands of miles through seven countries – the United States, Canada, Russia,Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Switzerland – in 100 days for players, coaches, and key staff from 2016-17 Penguins to savor for a day.
The team’s 2015-16 Cup win has a special place in Daley’s heart. He was the first player Penguins captain Sidney Crosby handed the Cup to after the team defeated the San JoseSharks, even though Daley missed the Stanley Cup Final because of a broken ankle.
Crosby knew that it was a dream of Daley’s ailing mother, Trudy, to see her son hoist the Cup. Trudy Daley passed away a week later at age 51.
“Last year was obviously tough – the timing of the injury,” he told me. “But it did allow me to spend some more time with my mom. If I was playing, I wouldn’t been allowed to spend that much time with her. Looking back, having won the Cup, it was kind of a blessing that I got to spend some time with her last year.”
Daley, 33, said this year’s Cup is a little more special because he was able to play in the Final.
“Having gone through it twice now, back-to-back, I definitely felt more a part of it this year,” he told me. “Last year was very unfortunate, getting hurt and missing it. I remember after last year, I always thought about getting back to this point, and I was fortunate to get back to it so soon. I always thought about playing in the Final to see what it was like on that stage.”
Daley will perform on a different stage in the 2017-18 season. A free agent, he signed a three-year, $9.53 million contract with the Detroit Red Wings in early July. He moves to a new team, a new town and will play in a brand new arena.
“I’m excited for the new challenge and new opportunity,” he told me. “I had never been through the process of free agency before and didn’t know what to expect. When Detroit came calling, I was pretty excited about – just the history of the franchise. They were one of the first teams to come to me and show interest in me.”
Daley stressed that he’s joining a team that’s retooling, not rebuilding. The Red Wings finished the 2016-17 season with a 33-36-13 record and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 25 years.
Red Wings management and fans don’t expect that to happen again. Neither does Daley. He believes the Wings are “a team that wants to win, has a little chip on its shoulder, and is ready to make some noise next year.”
“I want to come in and be a guy who makes an impact right away, helps out in multiple areas” he told me. “I’m a guy that can add a little bit of offense and help push the pace a little bit – that’s what the league is about. I want to be able to bring all the right things that takes to help the team win each night and do it consistently.”
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound defenseman tallied 5 goals and 14 assists in 56 regular season games last season. He had a goal and 4 assists in 21 playoff games.
The 14-season vet has 78 goals and 200 assists in 894 career regular season games with the Penguins, Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks and 6 goals and 12 assists in 71 career playoff contests.
Daley is one of only seven black players to have their names inscribed on the Stanley Cup. The others are goaltender Grant Fuhr, Edmonton Oilers, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990; goalie Eldon “Pokey” Reddick, Oilers, 1990; goalie Ray Emery, Blackhawks, 2013; defenseman Johnny Oduya, Blackhawks, 2013, 2015; right wing Jamal Mayers, Blackhawks, 2013; defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, Blackhawks, 2010.
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My choices span eras – from a time when goalies stood up and sticks were actually made of all wood – to today’s fast-paced, high-tech game. You’ll recognize some of the players chosen for the team while others named may not be familiar to new hockey fans.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t affirmative action on ice. These current and former players have distinguished themselves at hockey’s highest levels – their Stanley Cup rings, NHL awards, Olympic medals or Hockey Hall of Fame inductions prove that.
So who would you choose for your all-time team? Share your picks via the Color of Hockey Facebook page or Twitter @ColorOfHockey.
In the meantime, let the debate begin!
Grant Fuhr,goaltender. Owner of five Stanley Cup rings, a seven-time National HockeyLeague All-Star, the first black player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003, and one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players, Fuhr is a no-brainer to be the All-Time team’s starting netminder.
Fuhr won all five Cups with the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s and early 1990s. But he also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, CalgaryFlames, and Los Angeles Kings in an NHL career that spanned from 1981-82 to 1999-00.
A 1988 Vezina Trophy winner as the league’s best goaltender, Fuhr is only one of six NHL goalies with over 400 wins.
His stats: 403 wins, 295 losses, 114 ties and a 3.38 goals-against average in 867 NHL games. Not bad for a player who many thought was washed up after a season with the Kings in 1994-95. His career was resurrected by a trade to the Blues and hooking up with fitness guru Bob Kersee, husband and trainer of Olympic Gold Medal sprinter Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Fuhr gave a special shout-out in his Hall of Fame induction speech to another person who influenced his life and career – Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player.
“It just shows that hockey is such a diverse sport that anybody can be successful in it,” Fuhr said in 2003. “I’m proud of that, and I thank Willie for that.”
Jarome Iginla become the NHL’s second black captain as a member of the Calgary Flames.
Jarome Iginla, right wing. Iggy will be the second black NHL player in the Hall of Fame after he retires. He should be a first-ballot inductee just for the length of his full name: Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tij Junior Elvis Iginla.
Iginla, whose father is Nigerian, is one of Canada’s most-decorated and loved players. He scored two goals that helped power Canada to a 5-2 win over the U.S. at the2002Winter Olympicsin Salt Lake City that gave the True North its first Olympic hockey Gold Medal in 50 years.
He scored 5 goals at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, but he’s best known for his assist on Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal that clinched another Gold Medal for Canada over the U.S.
Iginla has 625 goals, 675 assists in 1,554 NHL games, most of them with the Flames from 1996-97 to 2012-13. He has 37 goals and 31 assists in 81 playoff games.
But it’s the big trophy, the Stanley Cup, that Iginla covets most to cap his career. That Cup quest has taken him to the Pittsburgh Penguins, BostonBruins, Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings.
An aside: With all his accomplishments, why was Iginla left off the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players list? Just asking.
Bryan Trottier, center. A seven-time Stanley Cup winner – four straight with the New YorkIslanders, two with the Penguins and one as an assistant coach for the Avalanche – an eight-time NHL All-Star, and winner of both the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP and the Art Ross Trophy as its top scorer in 1979.
Of Metis, Chippewa, and Cree heritage, Trottier was the glue of the Islanders’ Cup dynasty. He won the Calder Cup as the NHL’s best rookie in 1975-76, a season in which he scored 32 goals and 63 assists.
He played 1,279 NHL regular season games between 1975-76 to 1993-94 and tallied 524 goals and 901 assists. He notched 71 goals and 113 assists in 221 playoff games for the Islanders and Penguins. He also performed a rare feat by representing the United Statesand Canada in international competition.
Trottier entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997 and is on the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players list.
Paul Kariya, left wing. One of the mightiest of the then-named Mighty Ducks of Anaheim when it came to goal scoring.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound wing played 15 seasons NHL with Anaheim, Colorado, St. Louis and the Nashville Predators. He scored 402 goals and 587 assists in 989 regular season games and 16 goals, 23 assists in 46 playoff contests.
He led the University of MaineBlack Bears to the 1993 NCAA Division I championship and won the Hobey Baker Award that year as U.S. college hockey’s best player. The Mighty Ducks chose him with the fourth overall pick in the 1993 NHL Draft.
Kariya was named to the NHL’s All-Rookie team in 1995 and was an NHL All-Star in 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-00 and 2002-03.
Kariya, whose Japanese-Canadian father was born in an internment camp during World War II, played on Canada’s 1994 Silver Medal-winning Winter Olympics squad and on the 2002 Olympic team.
Jim Neilson, defense. Nicknamed “Chief,” Neilson played at the dawn of the era of rushing defensemen like Bobby Orr and Brad Park. Part Cree, part Dane, Neilsonwas a 6-foot-2, 205-pound defenseman who was agile enough to occasionally play left wing.
N.Y. Rangers defenseman Jim Neilson zeroes in on Montreal Canadiens goaltender Loren “Gump” Worsley (Photo/Courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame).
But D was where Neilson’s heart and mindset were and he helped solidify the Rangers’ blue line from 1962-63 to 1973-74. He finished his career playing for the old CaliforniaGolden Seals, Cleveland Barons and the WHA’s Edmonton Oilers.
“I don’t go out of my way to score goals,” Neilson once told Inside Hockey. “I get a much better feeling when I break up a scoring play or block a shot.”
Neilson scored 69 goals and 299 assists in 1,023 NHL games and 2 goals and 16 assists in 65 post-season contests.
His numbers aren’t as eye-popping as offensive-minded Hall of Famers Orr, Park, Paul Coffey, and Ray Bourque. But his talent level can’t be disputed. He was an NHL All-Star in 1966-67, 1969-70, and 1970-71.
Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban.
P.K. Subban, defense. Subban is currently in his playing prime, yet he’s already accomplished enough to earn a spot on this list.
He won the James Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenceman in 2013. He was a member of the Canadian team that won the Gold Medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi – although he only played 11 minutes during the entire tournament. He helped Canada capture gold at the International Ice Hockey Federation World JuniorChampionship tournaments in 2008 and 2009.
He has 73 goals and 245 assists in in 500 NHL regular season games and 13 goals and 36 assists in 74 career playoff games. Most of his career points came as a member of the Canadiens, the team that selected him in the second round with the 43rd overall pick of the 2007 NHL Draft.
Subban anticipated being a Canadien for life, establishing roots in Montreal and pledging $10 million to Montreal Children’s Hospital – the largest philanthropic commitment by any athlete in Canadian history.
But Subban was sent to the Predators in June 2016 in a controversial trade for defenseman Shea Weber.
SECOND TEAM
Ray Emery, goaltender. A netminder known for dropping the gloves as well as using them to make dramatic saves, Emery’s career is a tale of two goalies. He was the brash youngster who led the Ottawa Senators to the Stanley Cup Final in 2006-07.
Goaltender Ray Emery played for four NHL teams in his career.
After suffering a career-threatening hip injury, he morphed into a steady, mature veteran who served as a backup goalie on the 2013 Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks. But even as an aging vet, Sugar Ray enjoyed fisticuffs.
Still, Emery, a 2001 Ottawa fourth-round draft pick, was one of the best puck-stoppers in the business. He compiled a 145-86-28 win/loss/overtime loss record in 287 regular season games from 2002-03 to 2014-15.
He appeared in 39 playoff games for Ottawa, Philadelphia and Anaheim and had a 21-17 record.
Tony McKegney, left wing. McKegney was the NHL’s first high-scoring black player, the first to score more than 20 goals in a season.
He scored 20 or more goals for five straight seasons from 1979-80 to 1983-84. His best season: 40 goals and 38 assists in 80 games for the Blues in 1987-88.
McKegney tallied 320 goals and 319 assists in 912 games from 1978-79 to 1990-91 for Buffalo, St. Louis, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.
McKegney’s route to the NHL was rooted in racism. He initially signed a contract with the Birmingham Bulls of the defunct World Hockey Association, but the team’s owner had second thoughts after fans in Alabama complained about the prospect of having a black player on the team’s roster. So McKegney, the 32nd player chosen in the 1978 NHL Draft, joined Buffalo instead.
Tony McKegney was a high-scoring forward for Buffalo, St. Louis, Detroit, Quebec, N.Y. Rangers. and Minnesota North Stars (Photo/Buffalo Sabres Archives).
Angela James, center. The first woman of color inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010, James was a trailblazer regarded as the Wayne Gretzkyof women’s hockey. She was a dominant player in the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association in the late 1970s and a fixture on Canada’s international women’s teams.
She led Canada to a Gold Medal at the first International Ice Hockey FederationWomen’s World Championship in 1990, scoring 11 goals in five games. She powered Canada to gold medals in 1992 in Finland, 1994 in Lake Placid, and 1997 in Kitchener, Ontario.
James was also a force for Canada on gold medal teams in 1996 and 1999 at the Three Nations Cup tournament.
Despite those impressive credentials, Canada left James off its roster for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan- the first Winter Games that women’s hockey was featured.
Canada’s Angela James is one of two black players in the Hockey Hall of Fame (Photo/Courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame).
The snub didn’t stop the accolades from rolling in. James was inducted into the Black Hockey and Sports Hall of Fame and the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
She was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 2008 along with fellow Canadian Geraldine Heaney and the United States’ Cammi Granato. James entered Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
The Canadian Women’s Hockey League introduced the Angela James Bowl, a trophy awarded to the league’s leading scorer, in 2008. An indoor ice rink in Toronto’s Flemingdon Park was renamed the Angela James Arena in 2009, making it one of the few skating facilities in North America named after a black person.
Forward Reggie Leach, Number 27, scored 19 goals in 16 playoff games in 1975-76.
Reggie Leach, right wing. Nicknamed the “Riverton Rifle” for his Manitoba hometown and his lethal shot, Leach scored 381 goals and 285 assists in 934 NHL regular season games with the Flyers, Bruins, Red Wings, and California Golden Seals from 1970-71 to 1982-83.
He was a prime-time Stanley Cup Playoffs performer with 47 goals and 22 assists in 94 career post-season games.
He scored 19 playoff goals in 1976 – 5 of them in one game against the Bruins. Leach is the only non-goaltender to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable playoff performer while skating for a losing team. The Canadiens defeated the Flyers for the Stanley Cup in 1976.
The proud member of the Ojibwe Nation is the only member of the Philadelphia Flyers’ famed LCB Line – Leach, center Bobby Clarke, and left wing Bill Barber – who isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame, which many hockey aficionados regard as an injustice.
Trevor Daley, D, Pittsburgh Penguins
Trevor Daley, defense. A smooth-skating, offensively-talented and defensively-responsible player who began his NHL career with the Dallas Stars in 2003-04. Daley reached the 20-point mark seven times during his tenure with Dallas.
He has 78 goals and 200 assists in 894 regular season games. He has 6 goals and 11 assists in 69 playoff games – and counting.
An ice-time eater, Daley averaged 21 minutes per game for Dallas between 2008 and 2015. Still, the Stars traded Daley to the Blackhawks for forward Patrick Sharp. After 29 games the Hawks dealt Daley to the Penguins in December 2015.
There, Daley became a cog in Pittsburgh’s drive to the Stanley Cup last year, though an ankle injury prevented him from playing in the Final against the San Jose Sharks.
That didn’t stop Daley from being the first Penguins player to be handed the Cup from team captain Sidney Crosby for a skate after winning it. The gesture fulfilled a wish from Daley’s ailing mother to see her son hoist the Stanley Cup.
A week later, Trudy Daley passed away from cancer at age 51.
Alec Martinez, defense. A two-time Stanley Cup winner, Martinez has been a steady puck-moving defenseman since his first full season the Kings in 2009-10. Los Angeles selected Martinez from Ohio’s Miami University in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL Draft.
Since then, Martinez has tallied 48 goals and 99 assists in 419 NHL regular season contests. He has 6 goals and 10 assists in 60 career playoff games.
In 2014, Martinez became the first NHL defenseman to score clinching goals in two playoff series in the same season. One goal was the Game 5 overtime winner against the Rangers that clinched the Stanley Cup for the Kings.
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Wayne Simmonds does it all for the Philadelphia Flyers – scores, fights, checks.
Now add one more thing to the lanky, but strong forward’s profile: fashion model.
Simmonds, along with fellow forward Jakub Voracek, were tapped to show off the jersey the Flyers will wear when they face the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 2017 Coors Light Stadium Series game on February 25, 2017, at Heinz Field, home of the National Football League’sPittsburgh Steelers.
Simmonds tops the Flyers in goals with 15. He also has 11 assists for 26 overall points in 29 games. Voracek leads the team in scoring with 10 goals, 18 assists for 28 points in 29 games for the Orange and Black.
Philadelphia Flyers forwards Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek model the team’s Coors Light Stadium Series jersey.
Jerseys designed for the NHL’s outdoor games have been hitor missover the years.
The Flyers appear to have taken a line from the classic film “Passenger 57”to heart in creating a mostly black uni with the orange stripes on the sleeves and bottom, and an orange nameplate with black lettering on the back.
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley devised the plan years ago. All he needed was the Stanley Cup to hatch it.
Daley accomplished that last month when the Penguins defeated the San JoseSharks in the Stanley Cup Final, meaning that his plan for what he’d do on his day with the Cup would finally come to fruition.
Unlike other major league sports, each player on a Stanley Cup-winning team gets to have the championship trophy for a day to do whatever. Phil Pritchard, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s white-gloved Keeper of the Cup, accompanies the trophy on a summer-long journey through Canada, the United States, Russia, wherever a championship player resides.
“I’m going to bring the cup back home to where I grew up and around my neighborhoods that I grew up around playing hockey,” Toronto native Daley told Texas’ SportsDay earlier this month. “I can’t wait. Like I said, I’ve been thinking about that day for a really long time. Now that it’s come true it’s amazing.”
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley, center, brought a friend with him to a local ice rink – the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).
Daley took Stanley on a mini whistle-stop tour of sorts during his Cup time that stretched Friday into Saturday. First stop: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where he played major junior hockey for the Sault Ste. MarieGreyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League before the Dallas Stars made him their second round pick in the 2002 NHL Draft.
Then it was on to home town Toronto for some public and private quality time with Lord Stanley’s trophy.
The Penguins’ Stanley Cup victory capped a bittersweet 2015-16 season for Daley. He was traded from the Stars to the Chicago Blackhawks before the season began, then dealt by the Hawks after 29 games to the Penguins.
Sitting on the dock of the bay, Trevor Daley and the Stanley Cup watch the tide roll away (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).
He skated with a heavy heart as his mother, Trudy Daley, battled cancer. Her dying wish was to see her son hoist the Cup. Penguins team captain Sidney Crosby made sure that happened, handing Daley the Cup first even though Daley missed the San Jose series because of a broken ankle.
He was all smiles as he skated briefly and gingerly with the 123-year-old, 35-pound trophy that has the names of 2,000 Cup-winning players and coaches inscribed on it.
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley and son with the Stanley Cup in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).
“She was pumped, she was excited,” Daley told SportsDay. “She got to see my son out there on the ice with me too so she was really excited about the whole situation. She said before the game …’It’d be nice if they win this for you tonight so you can come home and see me soon.'”
Trevor Daley and Lord Stanley hanging out at the firehouse on Daley’s day with the Stanley Cup (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).
She didn’t live to see her son’s day with the Stanley Cup. But, as part of a plan he devised so long ago, Trevor Daley’s family, friends, and others he encountered along his hockey journey had a chance to bask in Lord Stanley’s silvery glow.
“The day after he won the Stanley Cup, he called me and said ‘the Cup is coming home,’” Ryan Land, who organized a Cup-viewing for Daley at The Spice Route bar in Toronto, told The Toronto Sun. “Two weeks later, he called me with a date and said ‘plan me a Stanley Cup party and here’s what I want to do.”
Trevor Daley introduced the Stanley Cup to his old neighborhood playground (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).
When the names of the 2015-16 Penguins players are added to the Cup, Daley will join the small fraternity of black players with their names immortalized on the trophy: goaltender Grant Fuhr (Edmonton Oilers – 1985, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990), goalie Ray Emery (Chicago Blackhawks – 2013), defenseman Johnny Oduya (Blackhawks – 2013, 2015), wing Dustin Byfuglien (Blackhawks – 2010), and netminder Eldon “Pokey” Reddick(Oilers – 1990).
