For immediate release

 

Grand Falls-Windsor, NL- Three individuals with NHL connections, a former provincial senior hockey star who had a stint in the old World Hockey Association, a two-time Herder champ and Allan Cup winner and a three-time Herder Memorial Trophy championship coach are the latest inductees into the Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame Chairman Gerry Evans of Mount Pearl announced Michael Ryder, Glenn Critch and Ed Kearsey will be inducted into the athlete category, while Derek Clancey and Darryl Williams are the newest inductees into the athlete-builder category. The late Kevin Fagan will go in the Hall as a builder.  The six will be inducted during Hockey NL’s Annual Awards Banquet and Hall of Fame Inductions June 10 in Gander.  The event is held in conjunction with Hockey NL’s Annual General Meeting.  The additions of the six bring the number of inductees into the Hall to 166.

Once again, Evans called on individuals to nominate an athlete, athlete-builder, builder or media member they feel is worthy of the Hall.  Evans said there continues to be a need for more Hall of Fame nominations, noting anyone can submit.  “More individuals should become involved in the nomination process and submit names of those who are worthy in the various categories,” he said.

Besides Evans, other members of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee are Hockey NL President Jack Lee of the Goulds, Robin Short from St. John’s, Hughie Wadden of Buchan’s and Don Bradshaw from Corner Brook.

DEREK CLANCEY

In the long and storied history of Newfoundland hockey, there is not a single individual who can match Clancey’s record for on-ice play coupled with his rise within the front office of pro hockey’s ranks.

A St. John’s native, Clancey is currently in his seventh season as the Director of Pro Scouting for the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

Following a university career that produced an MVP award and league scoring title with UPEI, Clancey turned pro and played seven seasons in the East Coast Hockey League, twice finishing fourth in the league’s scoring race with 109 and 105 points. At the time of his retirement as a player in 1999, he was the ECHL’s all-time assist leader (367) and ranked seventh on the all-time points list (524).

Following his playing career, Clancey coached for seven years in the ECHL and American Hockey League (he is the all-time coaching wins leader for the Chesapeake/Jackson ECHL franchise.)

Clancey switched gears in 2007 and was hired as a Pittsburgh pro scout, a job he held for two years until then-Penguins general manager Ray Shero promoted Clancey to director of pro scouting. It’s a title he still holds today, coordinating the team’s pro scouting efforts in North America and Europe.

With two Stanley Cup rings with the Penguins, Clancey is the only Newfoundlander to win the Stanley Cup and prestigious Boyle Trophy.

GLENN CRITCH

Critch, the 1974-75 Newfoundland Senior Hockey League rookie of the year, impressed not only the St. John’s Capitals and their fans that season, but also Doug Harvey, the former Montreal Canadiens icon and Hall of Famer who was scouting for the World Hockey Association’s Indianapolis Racers.

Harvey noticed Critch when he was in St. John’s during the ’74-’75 hockey season, when Critch finished runner-up in league scoring in his first season of senior play.

Harvey signed Critch, and the St. John’s native appeared in three WHA games for Jacques Demers’s Racers in 1975-76, a team that featured former NHLers Dave Keon and Pat Stapleton, and Wayne Gretzky’s future linemate, Blair McDonald.

But like many Newfoundland hockey players who went “away to the mainland” at the time, Critch returned home and rejoined the Caps, with whom he won a pair of Herders.

His provincial senior career would last eight years, and he totaled 132 goals and 250 points in only 118 games.

One noteworthy stat is his 15 goals and 24 points in Allan Cup play, good enough for 11th place amongst Newfoundlanders on the all-time list.

KEVIN FAGAN

For a 10-year period from 1994 to 2004, the Flatrock Flyers were the dominant team in the Avalon East Hockey League, and Kevin “Fox” Fagan was the man behind the bench running things.

A St. John’s native, Fagan led the Flyers to nine league championships in 10 years, a streak which also included seven trips to the Herder Memorial Trophy Championship Final.

On three different occasions — in 1997, ’98 and ’03 — the Flyers won the Herder under Fagan’s guidance.

In addition to senior hockey, Fagan was a fixture at the minor level, with the old Christian Brothers Minor Hockey Association, which eventually became Celtics minor.

He coached a number of peewee and bantam teams to provincial championships. For seven years, Fagan served as the association’s technical director and head coach. 

ED KEARSEY

This smooth-skating defenceman is one of the finest players produced in Corner Brook.

Kearsey enjoyed six-years with the Corner Brook Royals, winning a pair of Herder Memorial Trophy Championships and an Allan Cup. When his playing days were done, Kearsey coached the Royals to the 2002 Herder title, marking the first time since 1988 the west coast city copped a Newfoundland senior hockey championship.

A forward coming up through the minor and junior ranks, Kearsey was converted to defence with the Royals, and prospered. By his third season with the Royals, he was a point-per-game player, and the best defenceman on a team that won back-to-back Herder Championships in 1985-86.

It was the 1985-86 season the Royals won the Allan Cup Canadian senior hockey championship — becoming the first Newfoundland team to do so — sweeping Nelson, B.C. in a best-of-seven national final.  The Royals won the deciding game 7-0, with Kearsey scoring a pair of goals.

In provincial senior play, Kearsey scored 67 goals and registered 181 assists for 248 points in 225 games. In 1986-87, he finished ninth overall in league scoring with 19 goals and 73 points in 42 games.

Behind the bench, Kearsey won a Herder in ’02, and the following year took over the Deer Lake Red Wings and was named the west coast league’s top coach.

MICHAEL RYDER

The Bonavista product enjoyed an 11-year NHL career that saw him retire with a Stanley Cup ring and the honour of being the highest-scoring Newfoundlander to ever play in the league.

A 2011 Stanley Cup champion with the Boston Bruins, Ryder — who last played in 2014-15 — retired with 237 goals and 484 career NHL points, the most of any Newfoundlander ever.

Four times Ryder hit the 30-goal mark, seven times scoring 20 or more goals.  He was a key contributor to the Bruins’ Cup run, tying for fourth in team scoring with 17 points in 25 post-season games.

After playing midget hockey in Newfoundland, Ryder was offered a tryout by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Hull Olympiques. He made the squad, and became a 50-goal scorer.

In 1998, following his rookie season in the Q, the Montreal Canadiens made him the 216th pick of the NHL draft. Two years later, he played for Team Canada in the World Junior Championship, winning a bronze medal.

After bouncing between the AHL and the East Coast Hockey League for two years after turning pro, Ryder made the Canadiens in 2003-04. He would not play in the minors again.

That first season, the hard-shooting right-winger scored 25 goals and 63 points, and was a finalist for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

In addition to Montreal and Boston, Ryder also played with the Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils, the team with which he closed out his career.

DARRYL WILLIAMS

During a 10-year period in the 1990s, Darryl Williams was a tough, honest hockey player whose hard work earned him a couple of NHL games on Wayne Gretzky’s 1992-93 Los Angeles Kings.  And for the past seven seasons, Williams has been a fixture on the NHL coaching circuit, as an assistant first with the Vancouver Canucks and currently with the New York Rangers.

Born in Labrador City, but raised in Mount Pearl, Williams played a couple of seasons in the American Hockey League with the New Haven Nighthawks, but primarily in the old International Hockey League with the Phoenix Roadrunners, Detroit Vipers and Long Beach IceDogs.

The rugged forward eclipsed 200 or more minutes in penalties seven times during his pro career. He was highly regarded by teammates and coaches, and often was his team’s captain or assistant captain.

After finishing his playing career with Long Beach in 1999, Williams joined the Ice Dogs’ coaching staff the next season as an assistant. He would eventually become coach of Long Beach, and would serve as an assistant with the AHL’s Cincinnati Mighty Ducks.

In 2006-07, he served as an assistant coach for the QMJHL’s St. John’s Fog Devils after a year coaching the Kansas City Outlaws of the United league.

Williams got his NHL break when Canucks coach Alain Vigneault hired him as an assistant coach/video in 2008-09, and he remained in that position for six years.

In 2014-15, with Vigneault behind the Rangers’ bench, Williams was hired as a full-fledged assistant coach on Broadway.

 

MEMBERS

Members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Hockey Hall of Fame are:

 

1994

Athlete — Frank “Andy” Cahill, Alex Faulkner, George Faulkner, Doug Grant

Athlete/Builder — Jack Reardigan, Terry Trainor

Builder — Msgr. George Bartlett, Robert S. Furlong, Don Johnson, Brian Wakelin

1995

Athlete — Jack Faulkner, Jim “Bucky” Hannaford, Joe Lundrigan, John Murphy, Bill Scott

Athlete/Builder — Joe Byrne, Roger Howse, Hugh Wadden

Builder — Walter Clarke, Carl Hansen, Harold Hillier, Vince Rossiter, T.A. “Gus” Soper

1996

Athlete — Frank “Danky” Dorrington, Al Dwyer Jr., Frank Finlayson, Robert Petrie, Frank Walker

Athlete/Builder — Herbert Augustus “Gus” Herder

Builder — Claude Anstey, Cliff Gorman

1997

Athlete — Stan Breen, Cal Dunville, Hugh Fardy

Builder — Eric Dawe, Ron Taaffe

1998

Athlete — Watson John “Wats” Goobie, Wilson “Copper” Leyte, Harry “Moose” Watson

Builder — George “Daddy” Dawe, Sam Rose

1999

Athlete — Charlie Cahill, Mike Kelly, Bill Martin, Leo Murphy

Athlete/Builder — Walt Davis

Builder — Arthur Johnson

Media — Bob Cole

2000

Athlete — George Connors, Jimmy Dawe, Zane Forbes, Merv Green, Don Howse, Jim Kennedy, Ed Philpott, Terry Ryan Sr., Harold Stanley

Athlete/Builder — Bob Badcock

Builder — Neil Amadio, Peter Duffy, Ambrose O’Reilly, William Parrott

Media — John M. Tobin

2001

Athlete — Terry Gilliam, Rob Gladney, Jim Temple

Athlete/Builder — Rick Babstock

Builder — Mel Andrews, Charlie McCarthy

Media — John Mayo

2002

Athlete — Randy Pearcey, Jim Penney, Tony White

Athlete/Builder — Ray Bowe

Builder — Ron Healey

Female — Colleen Tapper

Media — George MacLaren

2003

Athlete — Ian Campbell, Brian Gibbons, Ernie Hynes, Dick Power

Athlete/Builder — Joe Maynard, Gerry Taylor

Builder — Don Walsh

Female — Glennis (Thorne) Thomey

Media — Joe Mullins

2004

Athlete — Ted Gillies, Jimmy Guy, Hubert Hutton, Gerry Lahey, Cyril Power

Athlete/Builder — Stan Cook

Builder — Claude Browne, Howie Meeker, Wayne Mercer, Mike Squires

2005

Athlete — Bill Breen, Roger Dean, Bern Fitzpatrick, Alfie Hiscock, Andy Sullivan

Athlete/Builder — Wes “Bucko” Trainor

Builder — Frank Moores

Female — Debby Power

2006

Athlete — Nigel Facey, Roger Kennedy, Doug Squires

Builder — Francis Wiseman

Media — Don Gibbon

2007

Athlete — Mike Anderson, Alex Blanchard, Leo Kane, Harry Katrynuk

Builder — Len Butt, Gerry Kelly

Media — Bill Callahan

2008

Athlete — Eg Billard, Jake Critch, Clar Goulding

Athlete/Builder — Ed O’Brien

Builder — Wayne Russell

2009

Athlete — Al Bargery, Ford Metcalfe, Ed Oates

Media — John Murphy

2010

Athlete — Jim Grant, Art Hamlyn, Ed Lawrence

Media — Bruce MacDonald

2011

Athlete — Kirk Johnson, Ed O’Quinn

Builder — David Brazil, George Fardy

Media — Dee Murphy

2012

Athlete — Bert Brake

Athlete/Builder — Jim Hornell Sr.

Builder — Jim Hayward, Danny Williams

2013

Athlete — Ron Cadigan, Len Coughlan, Wayne Faulkner, Todd Stark

Athlete/Builder — Art Barry

Builder — Michael Dinn

2014

Athlete — Clobie Collins, J.C. Garneau, John Slaney

Builder — Marv Ryder, Glenn Stanford, Leo Rose

2015

Athlete — Darren Colbourne, Darren Langdon, Dwayne Norris

Builder — Jim Hornell Jr., Rosemary Marshall, Ken Williams

2016

Athlete — Charlie Babstock, Juan Strickland

Builder — Wally Dalley

Media — Brian Rogers

2017

Athlete — Glenn Critch, Michael Ryder, Ed Kearsey

Athlete/Builder — Darryl Williams, Derek Clancey

Builder — Kevin “Fox” Fagan

 

For more information please contact:

Craig Tulk

[email protected]

709-489-5512