"Small" town Ontario? Durham Region All-Stars


I have been spending my late summer holidays with my wife and daughter visiting my folks in Ajax, Ontario. Ajax is not unlike any other of the towns and cities along the highway arteries into Toronto. It used to be a quaint little burg, and now it's Best Buy's, Boston Pizza's and Walmart's make it look indestinguishable from Newmarket, Oakville, Vaughan or Etobicoke. But I digress.

Driving around beautiful Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa this week (I'm going to a Generals game on the weekend), I got to wondering what NHL players this area has produced. Most of us know that Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk grew up playing hockey and lacrosse in Whitby, yet Roberts was actually born in North York and Nieuwy in Oshawa. Therefore only the latter can claim a spot on my All-Durham Region NHL All-Star Team.

Pos Player Place of Birth GP-G-A-PTS Stanley Cups
C Joe Nieuwendyk, Oshawa 1257-564-562-1126 3
C Sean Avery,Pickering 420-73-116-189 0
RW John MacLean, Oshawa 1194-413-429-842 1
RW Kevin McClelland, Oshawa 58-68-11-180 4
LW Basil McRae, Beaverton 576-53-83-136 0
LW James Neal, Oshawa 77-24-13-37 0

D Charlie Huddy, Oshawa 1017-99-354-453 3
D Arnie Brown, Oshawa 681-44-141-185 0
D Jeff Beukeboom, Ajax 804-30-129-159 3
D Brent Burns, Ajax 326-35-82-117 0

W-L-T GAA Cups
G John Ross Roach, Port Perry 219-204-68 2.46 1
Glenn Healy, Pickering 166-190-47 3.37 1

Not the flashiest squad ever but definitely full of grit and winners. Any first line sporting Nieuwendyk and John MacLean could definitely do some damage even with Basil McRae riding shotgun. The defense is solid if unspectacular and could get better with teh development of Burns. Any random group of 12 players like this one that produced 16 Stanley Cups seems quite extraordinary. Only one of the non-active players failed to win a Cup.
John Ross Roach was an All-Star goalie from the 1920's and 30's and won a Cup with the Toronto St. Patricks. He was the first ever tender for the Maple Leafs when Conn Smythe adopted the new moniker in 1926. His 5'-5" stature makes the 5'-9" Healy the giant of the two goalies, a first in his career.

Comments

scrappy pappy said…
nice little write-up on local all-stars.

how about a story on the whitby dunlops?
October 6, 2009 at 12:20 PM
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