Kindersley players inducted into SJHL Hall of Fame

Kevin McBain
of The Clarion
with files from Harland Lesyk

It was a day full of fun at the Iron Horse Klippers Celebrity Golf tournament and SJHL Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday.

It was a beautiful day for a round of golf. Sixty-three players making up 14 teams with local Klippers supporters and celebrities hit the course for an 18-hole scramble tournament.

Following the tournament, players returned to the Co-op arena for a great supper catered by the Kindersley Inn, followed by the Hall of Fame inductions and speeches.

Approximately 275 people were in attendance at the banquet that also included a few live and several silent auction items.

The spotlight was on the Hall of Fame inductees: Terry Shea, Devin Edgerton, Chris Winkler, Derek Dorsett, Dave Hunchak, Troy Schwab, Greg Paslawski and the Klippers RBC Cup finalists team from the 2003-04 season.

They were all given special rings and presented with banners that will now hang in the WCEC.

President of the Junior Klippers, Brett Sautner, said the day went very well.

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“I think it went over really well. The two keynote speakers were very good. The inductees did a good job sharing a bit of their story and thanking those who helped them along the way … coaches, the town and teammates,” he said.

He added that the day was used as a fundraiser and thanks to everyone’s support, the club should make between $15,000 and $20,000.

Emcee for the evening was the voice of the Saskatoon Blades, Les Lazaruk, who did a great job of keeping things moving along. Lazaruk has been the voice of the Blades for the past 23 years and has been involved in sports media for 38 years.

Special guest speakers for the evening were two Saskatchewan natives, former NHLer Marc Habscheid and TSN’s Darren Dutchyshen.

Habscheid first shared some of his experiences, stating he had a “illustriously average career.” In 1981-82, he was part of the first-ever gold medal-winning Canadian world junior hockey team. He shared several stories, including when he played for the gold medal in Minnesota – it was only on radio and in front of 2,000 people in the rink.

He said the rink was so cold that when they won the game and were waiting for the national anthem, the organizers couldn’t get the sound system to work. So the players went arm-in-arm and sang the national anthem, something that has now become a tradition.

He also talked about when he played with Bill Goldthorpe in Moncton. His nickname was actually Goldie but he was paid $10,000 so his likeness could be used as the character Ogie Ogilthorpe in the movie Slapshot.

“He was a tough guy, I remember one game, I was sitting beside him and he told me to open the door during the national anthem. I said no, but he stared me down, so I obliged. He skated out and went over to each one of the opposing players, pointed his finger at them and stared them down – we won and I never got hit during the game … and he never played a shift.”

He also talked a bit about sitting in a locker beside Wayne Gretzky when he played in Edmonton and coaching with Pat Quinn in Torino.

He has coached in Las Vegas, Melfort, Kamloops Kelowna, Boston, Chilliwack and Victoria. The last two years, he has coached the Prince Albert Raiders.

His NHL career saw him play with Edmonton, Minnesota, Detroit and Calgary. He also played a few years overseas and had a few stints with the Canadian national team.

Dutchyshen, the second speaker, was born in Regina, grew up in Porcupine Plain and has now lived in Toronto for 23 years. But still calls Saskatchewan home.

He said Porcupine Plain, with 900 people, was the best place to grow up.

He shared how he got his first broadcasting job, stating he and his family lived in a trailer beside the Legion hall. The men would be at the hall having a pop or two and Darren would be listening to the hockey game and would run back and forth with the scores.

He then shared his journey that took him from home to university to Dauphin, Man., then to Saskatoon, Edmonton and to TSN, where he has been for 23 years.

“We were taught to work hard and to earn everything that you get,” he said. “Hard work is the foundation for everything.”

Hall of Famers

Terry Shea was inducted into the builder’s category. He was a major driving force for the franchise for the past 25 years, one of the originals. He has been team president, board member and SJHL governor and his family have been billets.

Chris Winkler grew up in Milestone. His first team in the SJHL was the Humboldt Broncos and hr was later traded to the Saskatoon Titans, where he played for one season. The Titan franchise was then relocated to Kindersley with coach Kevin Ginnell. When they moved, only five out of the 14 players on the Titans team relocated. He scored 50 goals in the 1994-95 season. He has made Kindersley home. He played 18 years of senior hockey and won championships with the senior Klippers, the Red Lions and the Eston Ramblers.

Devin Edgerton is a hometown product and played minor hockey in Brock and Kindersley. He played from 1988 to 1991 with the Humboldt Broncos of the SJHL, during which time he was selected as the Canadian Junior A player of the year and the league MVP and top scorer. He played 17 years of pro hockey, in the East Coast Hockey League, the IHL and 12 years in Europe. He has played for Team Canada three times and won a gold medal in 1996 at the Spengler Cup. He now trains high school, collegiate and professional players and lives in the U.S. He dedicated his career to his dad, Brad, and invited him up on stage and handed off his ring.

Derek Dorsett played minor hockey in Kindersley and at the age of 18, played 25 games with the Junior Klippers. He scored 12 goals and eight assists in just 25 games and accumulated 172 penalty minutes. he then joined the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2004. In his first season, he helped the Tigers to an appearance in the Memorial Cup in 2004. Derek finished his WHL career with Medicine Hat in 2007. At the age of 20, he was drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets. In 2007-08 he played with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL and after only one season was called up by Columbus and went on to play four seasons with them. In 2012-13, after being traded to the Rangers, Derek played in 11 playoff games and spent the next season there. The last three seasons, he has played with Vancouver. He has played nine NHL seasons, 495 games, scoring 44 goals, chipping in 74 assists and gathering 1,240 penalty minutes.

Dave Hunchak was coach of the Junior Klippers from 1997 to 2004. In 2002, the team won the Doge Conference pennant and the SJHL League championship. In 2004, he led the team to a conference pennant and the SJHL championship, the Anavet Cup and was the RBC silver medalist. In 2005, he was with the Canadian world under-18 team that won a silver medal. In 2006, he was an Ivan Hlinka gold medal champion. He also won a gold medal at the world juniors in Vancouver. He moved on to major junior hockey, where he spent time with the Swift Current Broncos, Moose Jaw Warriors and Kamloops Blazers. He was also a player with the Saskatoon Blades in 1992. Dave is now an associate head coach of the Banska Bystrica Rams in the Slovakia Extraliga Top Prod Division. He is also vice-president of Core Five Analytics and is a CHL pro scout. He lives in Kamloops.
Troy Schwab played with the Klippers from 2001 to 2005. He is the Junior Klipper all-time points leader with 285 points in 227 games, including 177 assists and 108 goals. Troy received a hockey scholarship to Lake Superior State, where he graduated with a major in marketing and management in 2009. His pro hockey career took him to Johnstown, Pa., Denver, Colo., Toledo, Ohio, and a year in Germany. He was a first-team all-star in the SJHL, an SJHL top scorer and an SJHL MVP. Troy now lives in Greenville, S.C., and is an assistant coach for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL.

Greg Paslawski played in the SJHL from 1979 to 1981 with the P.A. Raiders. He then joined the AHL’s Nova Scotia Voyageurs from 1981 1983. He scored 46 goals and had 42 assists in 1982-83. In 1983, Greg joined the Montreal Canadiens. The following season, he left for St. Louis, where he played six seasons for the Blues. He also played for the Winnipeg Jets, the Buffalo Sabres, the Quebec Nordiques, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Calgary Flames. In all, he played 650 games in the NHL, scoring 187 goals and chipping in 185 assists.

Golfing

Each team was able to play with celebrities who rotated every six holes.

The winning team included Jim Holmes (‘Gomer’), Darren Tate, Connor Tate, Mark Werner and Randy Ervine, who shot an impressive -15 over the 18 holes.

Connor also won the putting contest.

There were several contests within the tournament, including longest putts and closest to the pins. There was also a couple of hole-in-one prizes but, unfortunately, no one managed the feat.

Besides the Hall of Famers and the special speakers, celebrity guests hitting the course included Olympic gold medal hockey player Fiona Smith-Bell and under-18 national player Jaycee Gebhard, originally from Plenty and a former Kindersley resident, now a member of the Robert Morris University women’s team in Pittsburgh. She was also named the 2016-17 Women’s Hockey Commissioner’s Association National Rookie of the Year.

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