Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 3:03 pm
Winning the Memorial Cup is special because few players ever again experience such a hockey high.
Teammates become friends for life and fondly recall the triumph of the their junior playing days when they meet again many years later.
More memories will be created beginning tomorrow night when the 2006 tournament kicks off in New Brunswick with the host Moncton Wildcats, the Peterborough Petes, the Quebec Remparts and the Vancouver Giants all chasing the coveted trophy.
Moncton coach Ted Nolan was behind the bench of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds when they won the Memorial Cup in 1993.
"To this day, whenever I talk to players who were on that team, some of their fondest memories are of playing junior hockey and going to the Memorial Cup," says Nolan.
"The Memorial Cup is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"It's harder to win the Memorial Cup than to win the Stanley Cup because you only have a three-year window."
Trevor Linden, Darcy Tucker, Cam Neely and Doug Gilmour scored Memorial Cup-winning goals. We've all heard their names.
Michel Periard, Aaron Keller, Murray Garbutt and Archie King also scored Cup-clinching winners in the annual junior hockey showcase. Their lives have gone on without NHL stardom, but they have their memories, too.
"The atmosphere, the national attention, all the scouts watching - it's time for these kids to shine," says Nolan.
"Some will go on to play pro hockey, some will go off to university and into other walks of life, but all of them will remember this tournament for the rest of their lives."
Of the 34 men who have been named Memorial Cup MVP since the award's inception in 1972, only two - Brad Richards and Scott Niedermayer - have hoisted the Stanley Cup.
Corey Perry, who won the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy last year with the champion London Knights, or Derek Roy, the MVP when the Kitchener Rangers went all the way in 2003, could yet add his name to the short list since their NHL teams, Anaheim and Buffalo respectively, are still alive this spring.
Only nine of the last 20 Memorial Cup MVPs are playing in the NHL today.
Kelly Guard, who was so good in goal that he was named MVP when the Kelowna Rockets triumphed in 2004, had a winning record with the Ottawa Senators' AHL farm team in Binghamton, N.Y., this season.
A lot of Memorial Cup MVPs have wound up in Europe.
Danny Groulx was a defenceman for the Victoriaville Tigres when he won the Smythe in 2002 even though the Kootenay Ice took home the Memorial Cup. Groulx never appeared in an NHL game. After three AHL seasons in Detroit's system and one with the Manitoba Moose, he went to Germany and played for the Kassel Huskies this year.
Kyle Wanvig of the Minnesota Wild (2001, Red Deer Rebels), Richards of the Tampa Bay Lightning (2000, Rimouski Oceanic) and Nick Boynton of the Boston Bruins (1999, Ottawa 67s) helped their junior teams win the Memorial Cup and took home the Smythe in the process.
Guelph Storm goaltender Chris Madden was 1998 MVP when the Portland Winter Hawks won the title. Selected by Carolina in the NHL draft, Madden spent last season with the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Right-winger Christian Dube was drafted by the New York Rangers two years before earning MVP honours in leading the Hull Olympiques to the junior championship in 1997. Dube got into 33 NHL games and scored one goal. He has played for Lugano and Bern in the Swiss league for the last seven years.
Cameron Mann, a right-winger with Peterborough when the Granby Predateurs won the Memorial Cup in 1996, won the Smythe, and he played a total of 93 NHL games with Boston and Nashville before eventually finding his way to the German club team Ingolstadt. He's been there for three years now.
Tucker, the Toronto Maple Leafs winger, and Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan were MVPs when the Kamloops Blazers won the Memorial Cup in 1994 and 1995.
Niedermayer was a standout junior with Kamloops when it won in 1992. Named the NHL's best defenceman in 2004, Niedermayer earned three Stanley Cup rings with New Jersey, and he's now in the final four with the Mighty Ducks.
Defenceman Iain Fraser got the Smythe when he captained the Oshawa Generals to the title in 1990. Fraser then went on an amazing journey in playing for 19 pro teams including six in the NHL. He was last spotted playing for a team in Merano, Italy, in 2004-2005.
Dan Lambert, a five-foot-eight defenceman, excelled with the Swift Current Broncos. He took them all the way in 1989. But his size worked against him in the old hook-and-grab NHL. He appeared in 29 NHL games with the Quebec Nordiques. At 36, he played in 2005-2006 for the Hannover Scorpions of the German league. They were his 11th pro employer.
Gritty right-winger Rob DiMaio, who just completed his 16th NHL season with the Lightning, was Memorial Cup MVP in 1988 when the Medicine Hat Tigers triumphed for the second year in a row.
The Cornwall Royals won the Memorial Cup in 1981, when Dale Hawerchuk was MVP, and in 1980, when Dave Ezard was selected best player. The two careers veered in opposite directions.
Hawerchuk would amass 1,409 points in a 1,188-game NHL career with Winnipeg, Buffalo, St. Louis and Philadelphia that would land him in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Ezard virtually disappeared after his 15 minutes of fame. HockeyDB.com's last listing for Ezard is 22 games with the 1981-82 New Brunswick Hawks.
Richard Brodeur, the goaltender for the 1972-champion Cornwall team, was the Memorial Cup's first MVP. He'd play 385 NHL games. He was dubbed King Richard for his role in Vancouver's 1982 playoff run to the Stanley Cup final.
