WHILE there is still plenty games to be played this season, three Northwestern Ontario National Hockey League standouts have the potential to accomplish something that hasn’t happened in over half a century.
Should Eric Staal and Patrick Sharp of Thunder Bay along with Kenora’s Mike Richards all finish among the top 20 scorers in the NHL it would mark the first time in 55 years that a trio of players from the region would have achieved this feat.
This was last matched during the 1955-56 campaign when Lakehead products Alex Delvecchio (Detroit) and Dave Creighton (New York) tied for ninth overall with 51 points apiece while Danny Lewicki (New York) was 16th with 45 points back in the days of the Original Six.
The previous campaign saw Lewicki finish 10th, Delvecchio 14th and Kenora’s Don Raleigh (New York) knotted for 19th with 53, 48 and 40 points respectively.
NHL action in the 1940s saw plenty of local talent among the league’s elite as area hockey icons Gus Bodnar, Bud Poile, Gaye Stewart and Edgar Laprade were among the game’s premier players.
Bodnar tied for seventh with 45 points followed by Poile, who shared 11th with 42 points while Stewart tied for 16th with 38 points during the 1948-49 season, which was the same year Pentti Lund was named NHL rookie of the year.
A season previously Stewart was fourth, (56) Poile shared fifth, (54) and Laprade was 12th. (47)
Sixth five years ago Stewart, who recently passed away at age 87, led the NHL in goals (37) in 1945-46 and was second in league scoring with 52 points. Bodnar’s 37 points was good enough for 15th overall while Laprade, who went on to earn the Calder Cup top rookie laurels, was tied for 19th picking up 34 points.
Entering action Sunday Staal sat tied for 10th overall while Sharp was 14th and Richards was just one point shy of rejoining the top 20.
LUCKY 7: The start of 2011 has been a good one for Kale Kerbashian.
The 20-year-old forward with the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League has reeled off assists and points in each of the seven games he has played so far in the New Year amassing four goals and eight helpers in that span.
On the season the Thunder Bay product is tied for sixth in OHL offensive production with 61 points on 25 goals and 36 helpers.
Kerbashian has already set personal single season highs in both assists and points and is just one tally shy of matching the same plateau in the goal department.
WESTERN SELECT: A young Thunder Bay native has earned an opportunity to showcase his skills in Scandinavia in April.
Brayden Nicholetts, who now resides with his family in Spruce Grove, Alta., was one of the players chosen out of a field of 350 to participate in an upcoming tournament in Helsinki, Finland following a recent tryout in Camrose, Alta. He will be competing for the Western Canada Selects in the minor peewee age group.
The talented youngster is the grandson of long-time local minor hockey Volunteer Bearcats midget AA coach Ric Nicholetts who guided his club to the championship of the Spirit of Duluth tournament last month.
Nicholetts was also recognized for his years of service to hockey last season being named Hockey Northwestern Ontario’s Central Zone volunteer of the year.