Former National Hockey League player Wayne Babych shares his interesting story. Babych and several other well-known greats of the game, are making a rare appearance in McLennan on March 15 and 16 at H. W. Fish Arena for a pair of matinee games against the McLennan Red Wings senior men’s hockey club and the Lakeland Eagles alumni team. He was on the verge of becoming one of the most dominant power forwards of his generation with the St. Louis Blues in the 1980s. Then disaster struck. In a pre-season game, Babych dropped the gloves with Winnipeg’s Jimmy Mann – one of the most glorified goons of the day – and was about to throw a punch when the linesman intervened, grabbing his arm, resulting in a severely ripped rotator cuff. “Doctors tried a lengthy rehabilitation process followed by surgery to take the rotator cuff apart and rebuild it, but they were never able to properly fix it,” says Babych, who tried to play on, despite the pain. “My shoulder was strapped and wrapped,” he recalls, adding that in those days, if you could skate you could play. “But a goal scorer needs his hands and mobility of arms and shoulders and when you don’t have that, you lose your touch.” And that’s precisely what happened to the Edmonton native, who was selected third overall in the 1978 Amateur Draft by the Blues and previously played five seasons playing junior hockey with the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Portland Winter Hawks. St. Louis had big plans for the right winger in his early years and he responded almost immediately by scoring 27 goals in his rookie year of 1978-79. His best season as a pro came two years later during the 1980-81 campaign when he amassed 54 goals and 42 assist for 96-points in just 78 games. Unfortunately, he never again approached those totals, slipping to 19, 16, and 13 goals respectively in each of his next three campaigns with the Blues as a result of associated problems with his torn rotator cuff. The end result was a Blues’ organization which eventually lost patience and confidence in Babych, leaving him exposed in the annual NHL Waiver Draft where the Pittsburgh Penguins claimed him for the 1984-85 season. Getting a fresh start with the Penguins, Babych was able to bounce back to a certain degree, scoring 20 goals and 54 points. But just two games into his second year in Pittsburgh, he found himself traded once again, this time to the Quebec Nordiques. During his stint in Quebec he played 15 games with the Nords, scoring eleven points before being traded yet again on Jan. 17, 1986, to the Hartford Whalers – the same place where his younger brother, Dave, played. He finished that year with 28 points in 37 games with the Whalers but stumbled the next season, playing just four games with no points and spending six more games in the minors before deciding to pack it in permanently by calling it a career. “In Hartford I was given a two-handed slash from behind in the back of the knee. Major surgery was involved and I was told if I wanted to walk properly, my hockey career was over. That’s where it all ended for me,” Babych explains. Babych, who is now owns and operates his own company called Babych Sports in Edmonton, says he has no regrets about his NHL career and the way everything ended. For as the old saying goes, ‘nothing lasts forever.’ “I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to play in the NHL. It’s definitely a time in my life I’ll always cherish.” These days he still remains in close contact with many former NHL’ers and spends much of his time each winter traveling to various communities across Canada each year for fundraising events as a member of the NHL alumni. He says it’s all about giving something back to a grass-roots hockey and a game which has given him so much in terms of lasting memories. “It’s nice feeling going to communities to help them out with their respective fundraising efforts. The fans love it just as much as we do,” says Babych, played a total of 519 games, accumulating 192 goals and 246 assist for a grand total of 498 points. Babych and the former NHL starts are getting excited about coming to McLenan. “We’re planning on having 650 tickets available for each game,” says Terry Calliou, president of the Smoky River Regional Golf Course Society, the organization responsible for setting up the fundraising venture. The proposed event is being held at H.W. Fish Arena and is being followed by an autograph session, dinner and live auction (at the Elks Hall that evening) including a wide variety of NHL memorabilia. Tickets are expected to be on sale by the second or third week of February on an advance basis only. Ticket prices are $20 for adults and $15 for children. Further details will be released in future editions of South Peace News and the Smoky River Express. For more information, contact Calliou at 324-2721.