Five Oilers among the AJHL’s all-time top 50 players
The Alberta Junior Hockey League’s recently announced list of its top 50 players of all time shows a strong connection with the Edmonton Oilers.
The names range from current Oilers goalie Ben Scrivens, who played for the Spruce Grove Saints and was one of 10 players selected from the 2004-13 decade, to former Oiler Mark Messier, who was chosen from the 1974-83 segment when he was a forward for the Spruce Grove Mets and St. Albert Saints.
Of course, Messier went on to have a legendary career with the Oilers. He was a key component of Edmonton’s five Stanley Cup championships and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Defenceman Taylor Fedun, an Oilers’ prospect with the Oklahoma City Barons in the American Hockey League, was also selected from the 2004-13 period.
Mike Comrie, who signed his first NHL contract with the Oilers, and Fernando Pisani, who had a playoff run to remember when Edmonton reach the 2006 Stanley Cup final, were among the 10 players honoured from the 1994-2003 decade. They both played with the St. Albert Saints.
The top 10 players from each of five decades were determined through a series of online voting stages. More than 5,000 votes were cast. The Edmonton Oil Kings set franchise records for most goals (12) and most power play goals (six) in a Western Hockey League game on Monday afternoon against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
It was also the most goals scored by a WHL team since 2009.
Where does the 12-goal performance sit in WHL history? We checked the record book and discovered the most goals scored by one team is 19 — by the Tri-City Americans in a 19-3 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds and by the Medicine Hat Tigers in a 19-2 victory over the Winnipeg Warriors in 1984.
Accord ing to @ whlfacts on Twitter, Monday’s game was the second time the Hurricanes have had a 12-goal margin against an Edmonton team, except in 1996 it was the Edmonton Ice losing 14-2.
Grace Sutter, the matriarch of the great Sutter brothers, is moving into Viking from the family farm east of town. Grace will need a few moving vans to take all the jerseys, trophies, posters, pucks and more collected by her six sons who skated in the NHL from the basement of the family home.
Could this be CBC’s last Winter Olympics as rights holder? CBC has the rights for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But given the ever-changing landscape of broadcast rights …
Bryan Trottier is coming for breakfast. The former New York Islanders star is guest of honour for a Hockey Alberta Foundation 551 Club fundraiser on April 8 at the Westin Hotel. Tickets are $19 or $140 for a table of eight. Email vhofferd@hockeyalberta.ca for information.