A look back at 30 years of professional hockey in St. John’s and celebrating the local stars who gave fans plenty of reason to cheer

It’s been three decades since professional hockey arrived in the province’s capital, a sports journey that has embraced several franchises, two leagues and an alumni of NHL legends.

The Baby Leafs 

That first year was pure magic for the province as the American Hockey League’s St. John’s Maple Leafs, the farm team of the storied Toronto Maple Leafs, captured the hearts of sports fans – narrowly losing the 1991-92 league championship. 

The Baby Leafs – featuring 21-year-old Corner Brook forward Todd Gillingham and led by rookie coach Marc Crawford – gave fans at Memorial Stadium its first taste of the pro game.

But the city’s first dalliance with the pro game actually came way back in 1983 when Ian McKenzie, owner of Regatta Ford, organized a four-team AHL exhibition tournament with an eye to bringing a pro team to St. John’s. AHL president Jack Butterfield balked at the idea of having his teams, which travelled exclusively by bus, fly to the island.

 But by the early 1990s pro hockey talk heated up. In 1990 the NHL’s Minnesota North Stars and general manager Bobby Clarke signed a deal with Mayor Shannie Duff to place Minnesota’s minor league affiliate in St. John’s. 

There was only one problem, the North Stars minor league team at the time was based in Kalamazoo, Michigan of the International Hockey League and the AHL refused to allow Minnesota to simply transfer the club to the league without buying an expansion franchise first and the deal fell through.

Standing room only

Undaunted, the city turned its attention to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were unhappy with their AHL franchise in Newmarket, Ontario. Shifting the franchise to St. John’s would not pose the same problem the North Stars encountered. And despite Butterfield’s concern about travel, Cliff Fletcher and his Toronto Maple Leafs would be finally bring pro hockey to Newfoundland.

Rabid St. John’s hockey fans quickly snapped up every season ticket available in the 3,500 seat Memorial Stadium and the standing room only crowd were treated to an exciting brand of hockey that culminated in a Calder Cup run.

Gillingham was the first of many Newfoundlanders to play the pro game in St. John’s. Players like Terry Ryan and Harold Druken followed with the Baby Leafs, but the most memorable was South Shore senior hockey league legend Andy Sullivan, one of the province’s all-time great amateur players, who turned pro with the Maple Leafs as a 32-year-old.

First pro goal

Venerable Baby Leafs radio broadcaster George MacLaren said when Sullivan scored his first pro goal it was like the roof just about blew off the old Stadium — cheering never heard since the night George Spracklin scored for the St. John’s Caps senior hockey team versus the visiting Soviet national team, featuring the likes of Vladislav Tretiak.

 By 2005, the pro hockey landscape had changed and many teams wanted to have their AHL affiliate close to the parent club for salary cap reasons and the Maple Leafs were one of those clubs — moving the Baby Leafs to the Ricoh Colleseum in Toronto.

 While the St. John’s Fog Devils of the Quebec Major Junior league filled the hockey void for a couple of years, it would be several years until the American Hockey League would return to St. John’s.

Miracle on ice

In nothing short of a miracle, former Premier Danny Williams convinced the newly-formed Winnipeg Jets to place their AHL franchise in St. John’s. The IceCaps were a smash hit at Mile One Stadium — setting an AHL record for most consecutive sell-outs and advancing to the league semifinals in year one, led by Corner Brook native Jason King.

The IceCaps would advance to the AHL finals in 2014 and play one more year as the Jets’ top farm club before, like Toronto, the club was moved to the same city as the parent club. 

As a stop gap, the Montreal Canadiens, building a new AHL arena in nearby Laval, needed a place to temporarily house its minor league team and the IceCaps lived on for two more years.

Go Growlers, Go!

There was another absence of pro hockey in the capital city until 2018 when the Toronto Maple Leafs came into the picture once again, this time with an ECHL affiliation for St. John’s.

The ECHL is considered a tier below the AHL, but the team would be considered the class of the league, bringing St. John’s its first professional sports title. And like the city’s previous hockey clubs the Newfoundland Growlers were led by a handful of Newfoundlanders — NHL veteran Adam Pardy, snipers Zach O’Brien and Marcus Power and tough defenceman James Melindy. The club was also coached initially by long-time NHLer Ryane Clowe, of Fermeuse, who had to leave the bench due to lingering concussion issues.

Glenn Stanford

The Growlers did not get to defend their title in 2020 as the playoffs were cancelled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Growlers then voluntarily suspended operations for the 2020-21 season as the pandemic still had ongoing travel restrictions.

Of course, no story about professional hockey would be complete without mentioning Glenn Stanford, the executive who has overseen every interaction of professional hockey in the city and has a sterling reputation in pro hockey circles. 

Buddy the Puffin

Another fixture on all pro hockey teams in St. John’s was Buddy the Puffin. He was previously the mascot of the St. John’s Maple Leafs and later the St. John’s IceCaps and Growlers. Buddy’s number is 92, which represents 1992, the year that he was introduced as the mascot of the St. John’s Maple Leafs. For most of Buddy’s tenure, the man in the suit was Chris Abbott, who tragically passed away in early February.

Pro hockey dream

Among coaches who steered St. John’s pro hockey teams two men — Marc Crawford and Joel Quenneville of the St. John’s Maple Leafs – went on to coach NHL teams to Stanley Cup championships. Arguably the greatest player to ever play the pro game in St. John’s is former IceCaps goalie Connor Hellebuyck who won the 2020 Vezina Trophy, the only St. John’s pro hockey alumni to win a major NHL individual player award.

The pro hockey dream continues in the province’s capital with the Newfoundland Growlers still chasing another ECHL title. This team –and the many teams over the past three decades – continue to give fans a reason to cheer.

Danny Williams still plays hockey regularly when he’s in town. While many know Williams as a powerhouse of a former premier, or as the developer of “Dannyland,” the man who always seemed to have the plan was also quite the sportsman. From player (from his St. Bon’s days on) to coach to promoter, Williams literally and figuratively kept his stick on the ice.

From the American League’s St. John’s Maple Leaf franchise to the wildly popular IceCaps, Williams played a prominent and influential role when it came to delivering professional hockey to The Rock.  

“We’ve got a regular Tuesday night group that get together and play (hockey) when I’m in town … I’ve been playing, coaching or involved at the executive level when it comes to hockey since I can remember,” he opened, reflecting. 

On swapping out the old Memorial Stadium for Mile One (now called the Mary Brown’s Centre), Williams shared that it was time to make some improvements for the sake of the game, the players, and the fans. 

“When the city got the franchise for the Toronto Maple Leafs (St. John’s Maple Leafs, also known with affection as the Baby Leafs) back in the 90s …  we became very much aware that Memorial Stadium was just basically wearing out. It was built in the early 50s and they needed a new facility. And because of our affiliation with Toronto and Toronto had just been in the process of completing the Air Canada Centre … so we just got started on a new stadium to support the league here,” he said.

For Williams, the fan support made the investment worthwhile. “The fan base is incredible. The greater Avalon region draws on basically half the population of the province, and when we had the IceCaps we had people coming from pretty much everywhere for games. We were basically selling out for three full years … we were providing a caliber of entertainment and it was great hockey,” he said.

‘Fill the house’

Was it profitable? Oh yes, though they worked at it, he admitted. “You need to get the numbers out. You know, it’s difficult to break even with small numbers, but as you fill the house that’s where it basically becomes worthwhile or profitable.”

But beyond the profit, the people who were involved stand out, he continued. Glenn Stanford, currently the Governor and Chief Operating Officer of the Newfoundland Growlers, stands out, he said.

“Glenn has been involved with the American Hockey League … and has brought a wealth of experience and a wealth of contacts through his affiliations with the various franchises. He  approached me and said, ‘Look, I think Winnipeg might have an interest in coming here because they’ve just started a new team,’ and we got on it right away and we had a team up and running and ready for a season opening run in under six months.” 

Stanford was able put a team on home ice in short order because he had experience and contacts, Williams said with admiration. Stanford was also a good friend of Dave Andrews (a former player and then president of the American Hockey League), Williams continued, and because of that, he was also a great friend to Newfoundland and Labrador.  

“Dave Andrews was instrumental in seeing various franchises come to St. John’s and to the province,” he said.

We ask if Williams feels pride in his accomplishments when it comes to bringing professional hockey to this province.

”There’s a lot of people that are involved, from trainers on, that were a key component to the success of the organization. Some have left here and have gone off and worked with NHL organizations as a result of the training and the connections that they had in St. John’s.”

We were also blessed to have had a “tremendous number of great hockey players, some who have stepped up to the NHL and finally got their big break,” he said.  Zachary Fucale and Michael Hutchinson  are two who come to mind, he added. 

“As you watch the game you see just how difficult it is for a young man or woman to make the grade to beat the top teams. You see a lot of very, very talented athletes – hockey players – who don’t get to the big show. And you feel their sorrow and you feel their disappointment because you know that they came out of communities across the continent where they were stars. But it’s tough. It’s tough to make it,” he said with admiration. 

From injuries to tougher opponents,  they just “don’t bring the big game when they needed to bring it,” he said. But thinking back to “his” teams and players? 

“Ninety-nine percent of the time they performed heroically for us, to be quite honest with you. You get to see the ups and downs of what has become what it is to become a professional athlete and that in itself was a real eye opener for me.” 

Super-fan Andrew Abbott

Another great memory is meeting and working with people like Andrew Abbott, one of the St. John’s IceCaps top fans.

“Andrew had Down Syndrome and Andrew’s father Jim approached us and said, ‘Look, is there any place where he would have a role within the team?’ And we said, absolutely, and we would bring him into the dressing room and he very much became a part of the team and the players totally embraced him. They would take him out to their barbecues, they would take him out to social events. And he’d come down to the games fully dressed in his jersey with his hair spiked and dyed a nice blue colour. He was a great morale booster for the entire team, the entire organization and for me personally.” 

There’s hundreds of stories like that, Williams shared. “I’ve said it time and time again. I’ve learned more from hockey and gained more friends and more contacts through hockey than anything else I’ve ever done in my entire life. So hockey has served me well and I’ve tried to serve it the best of my ability on every single level I can ever be involved in. And now, of course, I have grandsons who are coming up through the game and granddaughters who are coming up through the various organizations who are playing the sport, and it couldn’t be better and I couldn’t be happier.”

But beyond the personal, what the game of hockey, and the players themselves, give back is often not highlighted enough, he said.

“The Leafs Foundation back in the 90s were very actively involved in the community and the players were absolutely marvelous when it came to giving back. Another great contributor was Buddy the Puffin. Chris Abbott. What he did and what he’s done? He was remarkable. He made his time available and you could see him just brightening the lives up of those he touched and people lit up when he was in their presence. So that whole part, the philanthropic side of the sport, that makes a big difference.”

From dollars via donations to fundraising and appearances, “professional hockey played an enormous role in the community,”  he said.

Any last thoughts? “It was such an important part of my life and I totally enjoyed it. The friends that were made, we still stay in contact. Sport is a great glue for people and it does a lot for a city and a province.”