Welcome to a site where we sometimes provide food for thought, and often provide information about the Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation.
The Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation will induct a class of 45 into its Wall of Honour at its inaugural banquet in Okotoks, Alta., on July 29. . . . Here’s an opportunity for you to meet the five Pioneers who will be honoured . . .
GEORGE (BUS) AGAR
(May 3, 1919 — April 26, 1999)
A native of Saskatoon, he was a long-time scout with the Oakland/California Golden Seals. . . . Turned to scouting after a professional playing career that began with EHL’s Atlantic City Gulls in 1939-40. . . . Won the USHL’s 1947-48 scoring title by 21 points with Houston Huskies under coach Toe Blake. . . . After retiring as a player, he coached in the old WHL (Victoria Cougars, Los Angeles Blades) before spending six seasons (1964-70) with Saskatoon Blades. . . . When he retired in 1953 was one of three players with 300 career goals in pro hockey. The others? Maurice (Rocket) Richard and George (Wingy) Johnston, then of the WHL’s Tacoma Rockets. . . . Was selected as B.C.’s athlete of the year for 1956 when he was player-coach of Allan Cup-champion Vernon Canadians.
FRANK CURRIE
(Feb. 11, 1913 — Feb. 26, 1998)
From Calgary, he was a latecomer to the scouting game, joining Toronto Maple Leafs as western scout in 1961 at the age of 48. Was with the Leafs for 27 years. . . .When he retired at 75, Leafs owner Harold Ballard offered: “You’re going to be a Leaf ’til you die.” . . . Coached Edmonton Flyers to 1948 Allan Cup championship. In 1954, he and Calgary Stampeders won the first Edinburgh Trophy, which was contested for four years (1954-57) between champions of the pro Western and Quebec Hockey Leagues. . . . Final coaching season (1960-61) spent with EPHL’s Kitchener-Waterloo Beavers. . . . Was inducted into Alberta Sports Hall of Fame as a hockey builder in 1991 and in 2005 as a member of the 1947-48 Flyers.
MURRAY (TORCHY) SCHELL
(April 28, 1926 — Dec. 8, 1981)
A native of Kinmount, Ont., he was born Murray Godfrey Schell. Was known as Torchy because of his flaming red hair, most of which was gone by his 40th birthday. . . . Joined the RCMP in Toronto in 1947; retired as staff sergeant in 1969. . . . Spent most of his RCMP career in various Saskatchewan communities. . . . Hired by Toronto Maple Leafs as western scout in 1969. . . . Moved to NHL Central Scouting in 1975. Was working for CS when he died in Kinmount while visiting his mother prior to attending a hockey game in Niagara Falls. . . . Was a huge collector of hockey memorabilia. . . . Hand injury ended playing career in junior. . . . An uncle to former WHL star Guyle Fielder. . . . During scouting years, he worked summers as assistant equipment manager with Saskatchewan Roughriders.
DANNY SUMMERS
(March 25, 1924 — July 15, 1999)
A Winnipeg native, he returned from serving in the Second World War to play end and fullback — he wore No. 35 — for football’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1945. . . . A defenceman as a hockey player, he had an 18-season professional career. . . . Won an AHL title with Providence Reds (1949), a WHL title with Winnipeg Warriors (1956), two IHL championships with St. Paul Saints (1960, 1961) and an Allan Cup with Winnipeg Maroons (1964). . . . As a scout, he split 20 years between Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks. . . . Inducted into Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 1993 and Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
CECIL (TINY) THOMPSON
(May 31, 1903 — Feb. 9, 1981)
Born in Sandon, B.C., he had a stellar playing career as a goaltender over 10 seasons with Boston Bruins and two with Detroit Red Wings. . . . With Boston, he won four Vezina Trophies, and a Stanley Cup in his rookie season (1928-29). . . . First NHL goaltender to be credited with an assist (1936). . . . Holds Bruins’ record for career shutouts (74). . . . After retiring as player, coached two seasons (1940-42) with AHL’s Buffalo Bisons before serving in Royal Canadian Air Force. . . . Joined Chicago Black Hawks as chief western scout in 1945 and was there through 1976-77. . . . Nicknamed Tiny in minor hockey where, as a teenager, he was tallest player (5-foot-10) on his team. . . . Inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959.
The Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation will induct 45 members of the scouting fraternity into its Wall of Honour this summer.
The banquet is scheduled to be held in Okotoks, Alta., on Monday, July 29.
Comprising three Matrix screens, the WCPHSF Wall of Honour video presentation will be on permanent display at the Centennial Arena in Okotoks.
The first inductees feature five pioneers of the scouting fraternity, including Danny Summers, who returned from the Second World War to play for the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers before getting into scouting, and Murray (Torchy) Schell, who spent summers as an assistant equipment manager with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders while he was scouting.
Also being inducted will be 17 scouts from the Early Era (1968-80), including Elmer Benning, who put more than 1 million miles on one car while on the scouting trail; Pat (Paddy) Ginnell, who was a legendary junior coach before turning to scouting; and Del Wilson, a long-time scout who also was a founding father of the major junior WHL.
There also will be 20 scouts from the Modern Era (1981-present) inducted, including Vaughn Karpan, who has been a key figure with the Vegas Golden Knights; Al Murray, one of the architects of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s success; and Barry Trapp, who retired in August 2023 after more than 60 years in the game.
Rounding out the inaugural class will be Lorne Frey and the late Graham Tuer, both of whom had lengthy scouting careers in junior hockey.
Garnet (Ace) Bailey also will be honoured. Bailey scouted for the Edmonton Oilers and then the Los Angeles Kings. He was en route to the Kings’ training camp aboard United Airlines flight 175 when it crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Our selection committee did an excellent job of recognizing these candidates for the Wall of Honour,” Foundation president Erin Ginnell said. “These scouts are not only builders of the game that put thousands of players into the NHL and pro ranks, but also represented their teams and the game with class, professionalism and determination to succeed. “A lot of these honorees were real mentors to people like myself when I first started; they were always there with help travelling, directions, and generally just made you feel a part of the fraternity.”
The complete list of inductees (* – denotes deceased):
EARLY ERA (1968-1980): *-Elmer Benning, *-Bart Bradley, *-Lorne Davis, *-Gerry Ehman, *-Barry Fraser, *-Pat Ginnell, Ted Hampson, *-Charlie Hodge, Earl Ingarfield Sr, *-Lou Jankowski, Marshall Johnston, Bill Lesuk, *-Ian McKenzie, *-Gerry Melnyk, Bob Owen, *-Clare Rothermel, *-Del Wilson.
MODERN ERA (1981-present): Scott Bradley, Craig Button, John Chapman, George Fargher, Tony Feltrin, Bruce Franklin, Bruce Haralson, Archie Henderson, Les Jackson, Vaughn Karpan, Ross Mahoney, Bert Marshall, Wayne Meier, Al Murray, Gerry O’Flaherty, Kevin Prendergast, Blair Reid, Glen Sanders, Peter Sullivan, Barry Trapp.
JUNIOR: Lorne Frey, *-Graham Tuer.
As well, five scouts from Western Canada were honoured at the Sept. 30 startup banquet in Okotoks with the WCPHSF’s Recognition and Dedication Service Award. Those five are Ron Delorme, Glen Dirk, Garth Malarchuk, Don Paarup and Mike Penny.
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“Our committee’s selections were primarily based on years of combined service as a scout and/or an association to the scouting process,” Garth Malarchuk, the Chairman of the Foundation’s board of directors, said. “I think everyone who has been associated with the scouting fraternity will agree that this is a pretty impressive group of individuals that we will be honouring. “Trust me, our committee could easily have added another 15-20 deserving individuals to this list, but we had to cut it off somewhere.” Moving forward, we certainly don’t want to miss anyone and the plan is to keep adding individuals to our Foundation’s Wall of Honour on an annual basis.”
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The startup banquet on Sept. 30 was a rip-roaring success, highlighted by a roast of Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean, along with silent and live sweater auctions. If you weren’t fortunate enough to attend, you are able to find a highly entertaining video of Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman roasting MacLean at hockeyscoutsfoundation.com.
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Planning is well underway for the inaugural induction banquet on July 29 in Okotoks. Banquet details, including information on tickets, will be announced in the near future.
I’m a trucker and I’ll be on the job tomorrow at 5am as per my regular routine. I’m double vaccinated, and I haven’t contracted Covid once throughout the entire pandemic. Don’t believe the hype. Most of us wheelmen are also needlemen 💉 #KarenConvoy 🚛
It is time to let your imagination run wild for a few minutes. OK?
Just imagine that NHL teams only carried one goaltender. And let’s imagine that one team’s goaltender was injured during a pre-game warmup, played the first two periods, but then couldn’t continue.
If that team was the Pittsburgh Penguins, would Sidney Crosby go in goal for the third period? If it was the Edmonton Oilers, would it be Connor McDavid?
Because that’s exactly what happened with the Estevan Bruins during a game in 1967-68, the second season of what is now the WHL.
I had never heard this story from the annals of WHL history until stumbling on it while doing some research on Saturday.
I was looking for a goaltender, any goaltender, who might have started his WHL career by going 20-plus games without a regulation-time loss.
The Bruins — Scotty Munro was the general manager and Ernie (Punch) McLean the coach — had opened the 1967-68 season with a 22-game winning streak, so I started there.
Gord Kopp was Estevan’s goaltender — teams only carried one goaltender — so he had opened the season with 22 straight victories.
Gord Kopp, during a brief stint with the EHL’s Charlotte Checkers.
Unfortunately, WHL statistics from the early seasons are embarrassingly scarce. So I was relying on newspapers.com where a subscriber is able to access a whole lot of newspapers, including the Brandon Sun, Edmonton Journal and Regina Leader-Post.
Through these newspapers, I was able to ascertain that the Bruins won their 22nd straight game on Dec. 10, 1967, beating the host Swift Current Broncos, 9-6.
However, Kopp was injured in the warmup, suffering a broken nose and a bad facial cut. I think it’s safe to assume that Kopp took a puck to the face. I don’t know whether he wore a mask with the Bruins, although I did find a photo of him wearing one of those form-fitting Fibreglas masks from a time in his brief minor pro career.
Anyway, he played the first two periods in Swift Current before apparently deciding that he couldn’t continue.
This is where things get interesting because it was F Jim Harrison, perhaps the Bruins’ best player, who donned the pads and played the third period. Not only that, but Harrison had scored three goals through 40 minutes. While I wasn’t able to find out how many saves he made in the third, the Bruins did hold period leads of 5-3 and 7-3. So the Broncos outscored the visitors 3-2 with Harrison in goal.
(Harrison finished that season with 75 points, including 32 goals, in 46 games. F Gregg Sheppard led the team with 81 points, 35 of them goals, in 58 games.)
But when is the last time a WHL player — or any junior player for that matter — had a hat trick and played goal in the same game?
Still, the Bruins came out of that game boasting a 22-0-0 record.
And then came Dec. 12, 1967, and a game in Saskatoon against the Blades.
“You have to concede the Bruins win No. 23 tonight when they take on the Blades in Saskatoon,” wrote Ron Campbell in that day’s Regina Leader-Post.
With Kopp unavailable, the Bruins brought in Ed Dyck, who had turned 17 on Oct. 29, from the junior B North Battleford Beaver-Bruins. With Dyck in goal, the Bruins dropped a 4-3 decision to the Blades before 1,410 fans.
Estevan took a 2-0 lead on first-period goals from Harrison and D Dale Hoganson, but F Orest Kindrachuk got the Blades to within one before the period ended. F Ron Fairbrother pulled Saskatoon into a 2-2 tie with the only goal of the second period, then gave his guys a 3-2 lead at 5:46 of the third.
F Greg Polis scored for Estevan at 6:18, only to have F Jim Nicholls score what proved to be the winner, at 10:59, as the Blades improved to 7-12-3.
“Those Blades played a whale of game,” Munro told Jack Cook of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. “We were bound to lose one eventually, and I’m glad we didn’t give it away. Blades were good enough to take it tonight.”
BTW, Cook reported that “there was no shortage of professional scouts at the game with five NHL clubs represented by nine men . . . including Dennis Ball, Danny Summers, Lorne Davis, Metro Prystai, Johnny Walker, Bud Quinn and Rudy Migay.”)
Cook also wrote: “Young Dyck, playing in his first junior A game, was remarkably calm and had little chance on the four shots that beat him.”
Dyck played four straight games with the Bruins. He beat the Oil Kings, 5-3, in Edmonton on Dec. 13, then dropped a 2-1 decision to the Buffaloes in Calgary the next night. (The Buffaloes had been 0-17-2 in their previous 19 outings.) On Dec. 16, Dyck beat the visiting Buffaloes, 7-4.
Dyck would go on to a couple of stellar seasons with the Calgary Centennials, and would spend three seasons in the NHL and one in the WHA.
Kopp returned for a Dec. 17 game against the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings, and stopped 23 shots in a 5-0 victory for his 23rd straight triumph.
However, Kopp’s run ended four nights later with a 4-1 loss in Brandon. The Wheat Kings outshot the Bruins, 28-20 in that one, as Brandon head coach Elliott Chorley chose to use only six forwards and four defencemen for most of the game. Yes, it was a different game in those days.
Chorley had Larry Romanchych between Jack Wells and Bob Young, although Young was injured early on and Gerald Canart slid into that spot. The other forward unit featured Jack Borotsik between Ray Brownlee and Bob Clyne, who scored twice. The defence pairings had Bill Mikkelson with Mark Kennedy, and Jack Criel with Jim Wilton.
At that point, the Bruins were 25-3, with Kopp at 23-1 and Dyck at 2-2.
In the end, however, it turned out that Kopp didn’t start his WHL career in 1967-68. As I learned with more digging, Kopp played some in 1966-67 when Prince George native Pete Neukomm was the Bruins’ starter. (Kopp actually lost his final appearance of 1966-67, 3-2, to the visiting Regina Pats.)
All told, Kopp got into 103 games with Estevan over the 1967-68 (55) and 1968-69 (48) seasons. In 1967-68, he played in 55 of the team’s 60 regular-season games, with a 2.76 GAA, .902 save percentage and six shutouts. He was 3.33 and .900 without a shutout in 1968-69. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any statistics from 1966-67.
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All of this was necessary because the WHL wasn’t able to confirm whether G Daniel Hauser of the Winnipeg Ice had set a record or was near a record when he went into Saturday’s game in Saskatoon with a career mark of 22-0-2.
Hauser, who turned 18 on Jan. 29, was 7-0-1 with Winnipeg in the development season of 2021. This season, he was 13-0-1 before the Blades beat the Ice, 7-2, on Saturday night.
It would seem that Hauser does indeed hold the record for longest unbeaten streak by a goaltender to begin his WHL career, at 22-0-2. Perry Bergson of the Brandon Sun pointed out that Scott Olson, a native of Bloomington, Minn., who spent parts of three seasons (1977-80) with the Wheat Kings, started his career on a 15-0-3 run. We will assume, unless we hear differently, that Olson held the record before Hauser’s arrival.
The 5-foot-11, 160-pound Hauser, from Chestermere, Alta., was a sixth-round selection by Winnipeg in the WHL’s 2019 draft.
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When you go down a rabbit hole like I did in chasing Gord Kopp and the Estevan Bruins, you stumble on things like this . . .
The Bruins beat the visiting Weyburn Red Wings, 5-1, for their 20th straight victory on Dec. 5. The next day, The Leader-Post reported: “The Bruins moved one step closer to the all-time junior hockey win streak mark set at 25 by the now-defunct Portage Terriers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 1942.”
Of course, the Bruins didn’t quite get there.
Tweet of the week — Sunaya Sapurji (@sunayas), after Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers repeated the nonsense about the validity of U.S. President Joe Biden’s election victory in a Friday interview with ESPN: “Has anyone gone from ‘He could host Jeopardy!’ to ‘Legit horse paste conspiracy loon’ faster than Aaron Rodgers!?!”
John Stockton, the NBA Hall of Fame guard who starred at Gonzaga, has had his season tickets suspended by the school because he refuses to wear a mask at men’s basketball games. In an interview, Stockton, a devout anti-vaxxer, told Theo Lawson of the Spokane Spokesman-Review: “I think it’s highly recorded now, there’s 150 I believe now, it’s over 100 professional athletes dead — professional athletes — the prime of their life, dropping dead that are vaccinated, right on the pitch, right on the field, right on the court.” . . . Lawson also wrote: “During the interview, Stockton asserted that more than 100 professional athletes have died of vaccination. He also said tens of thousands of people – perhaps millions – have died from vaccines.” . . . Yes, we are in this for a long time yet.
Dwight Perry, in the Seattle Times: “Robot umpires — or ABS, the Automated Ball and Strike System — will be used in Triple-A games this season, Major League Baseball announced. So now players will be subjected to a whole different kind of annoying robocalls.”
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A reminder from Perry: “Only 22 days till pitchers and catchers don’t report.”
The Fredonia State Blue Devils are an NCAA Division III team that plays out of the State University of New York in Fredonia. . . . And here’s a goalie goal from the Blue Devils’ Logan Dyck, a 22-year-old from Calgary . . .
Following consultation between @theSJHL, @mjhlhockey, and the respective governmental bodies, the 2022 SJHL/MJHL Showcase, scheduled for Jan. 25-26 in Winnipeg, MB, has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.https://t.co/QFhFNHlr1h
Daniel Hauser of the Winnipeg Ice had set a record or was near a record when he went into Saturday’s game in Saskatoon with a career mark of 22-0-2.
TAKING NOTE 