A footnote to the Anaheim Ducks-St. Louis Blues swap of centres -- Andy McDonald for Doug Weight -- is that it creates a pro hockey rarity: Three players with Kingston ties on the same team.McDonald, from Strathroy, Ont., but who spent time in the Kingston area as a lad, is being reunited with Jay McKee, with whom he teamed up to win an Ontario minor hockey title back when they were both 11 years old. Centre Jay McClement completes the troika.
There have been other instances, for sure. The two that come to mind are the Toronto Maple Leafs with Doug Gilmour, Kirk Muller and Brandon Convery for parts of two seasons in the mid-'90s.
In the early '70s, the Boston Bruins, who'd had a farm team in Kingston (the original Frontenacs) about a decade earlier, had a host of players from the city. Hockey's Hub, the coffee table book that local hockey historians Bill Fitsell and Mark Potter produced a few years ago, had a photo of three Kingston-born Bruins from that era. One was probably Wayne Cashman. Another was definitely of Fred O'Donnell, who played in the WHA later on and coached Queen's and Kingston Canadians in the '80s. The third's not coming to mind and hockeydb.com doesn't list anyone else from Kingston on the Bruins roster from O'Donnell's two seasons with the team. It might have been Ron Plumb, who ended up having a good run in the WHA.
Anyway, you know this isn't a serious hockey blog that deconstructs every NHL trade, so it's cool to see McDonald and McKee reunited all these years later. By the way, good on the Whig-Standard for localizing the story with a headline, Ducks deal McDonald; Former Ernestown star traded to St. Louis.
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Kingston's Unknown NHLer (first published Aug. 26, 2006)
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2 comments:
I haven't read the book nor seen the photo - is it possible Don Cherry, Bruins Head Coach (1974-79) is in the pic with Cashman and O'Donnell? But it very well may be Plumb, even tho he played through the 70s in the WHA, the Bruins lost the rights to him when Hartford/New England Whalers merged with the NHL
No, it was definitely three players, and Don Cherry was through as an active player by 1971 or '72. I would remember if it was Dick Cherry (Don's brother), since he was actually my teacher and principal a long time ago.
Plumb seems like a likely guess.
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