But despite his success, Trottier remained humble throughout his career. He never forgot his humble beginnings of playing hockey with his dad on the frozen Frenchman Creek in the southernmost part of Saskatchewan.
He may not have won a Stanley Cup, nor claimed an individual award, but Wendel Clark was one of the fiercest competitors in the NHL from until his retirement in Raised in the small town of Kelvington, located two and a half hours east of Saskatoon, he began playing hockey as a defenseman. The combination of leadership, grit, and skill was too good for the Maple Leafs to ignore, and so they used their pick to make him the first overall selection in the draft.
A strange move, it paid off instantly — Clark scored 34 goals as a rookie, while adding penalty minutes, leading the team in both categories, and was named to the All-Sar game. The Maple Leafs were so impressed, they made him an alternate captain at just 20 years old. He responded by scoring 37 goals and putting up penalty minutes, while adding another 11 points in 13 playoff games. Clark was a two-time NHL all-star and won a world junior title with Canada.
He was named captain in and helped set a team record with 44 wins and 99 points in , very nearly making it to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since , but were defeated by the Los Angeles Kings in a tough seven-game series. He helped them return to the Conference Final in , scoring a career-high 47 goals, but were sent home early by the Vancouver Canucks in five games.
With his value at its peak, Clark was traded twice over the next two seasons, but he returned in However, the Maple Leafs were a very different team, and he failed to propel them into the postseason. He then signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning in , where he scored 28 goals and 42 points in 65 games and earned his second All-Star Game appearance. With injuries and age catching up to him, he retired in , but not before returning to the Maple Leafs one last time, playing his final 20 games with the team where he started.
From Mr. Goalie to Mr. Hockey himself. Gordie Howe is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time, sharing the mantle with the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Bobby Orr. His game, season career spanned five decades, a record that will likely never be broken. Nor will his feat of playing until the age of And it all started in small-town Saskatchewan with a very unassuming kid.
Howe was born in the small farming community of Floral but moved to Saskatoon when he was still very young. There he learned to play hockey, and at the age of 15, tried out for the New York Rangers in Winnipeg, as was the custom before the NHL implemented the entry draft.
However, homesickness got the better of him, and the Rangers decided to pass on the teenager. The next season, the Red Wings decided to give him a shot and signed him to his first professional contract. Opponents knew very early not to mess with Howe; years of working with his father in construction had given him a tireless work ethic and incredible strength.
They also learned that he was an expert at bending the rules, using his stick to hook, slash, and even lift players off the ice. During his nearly three decades with the Red Wings, no one was more dominant than Howe.
The Sask First Program—which was introduced by the Saskatchewan Hockey Association in to help administrators and coaches better serve minor hockey players—is the basis behind the development. Since Saskatoon falls under the Saskatchewan Hockey Association, the reasons for producing NHL players today are akin to those of its northern neighbours in Regina. Recently, Saskatoon has had an aptitude for developing bruising defencemen like Luke Schenn and Cory Sarich.
Mississauga is home to one of the most recognizable and beloved arenas in Ontario—the Hershey Centre, which happened to host the Mastercard Memorial Cup this past year. Enjoy our content? Join our newsletter to get the latest in sports news delivered straight to your inbox! Your sports. North Carolina 4. North Dakota Rhode Island South Carolina 1. Brunei Darussalam 1. Czechoslovakia Republic of Korea 2. Russian Federation Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Republic of Tanzania 1.
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