Well, I guess one connection to the Wild I have, besides pulling them in every Dominion box thus far, is that they drafted Nate Prosser.Nate is an old Sioux Falls Stampede Alumni so I had to pick up his Cup card when I started to see them hit eBay. I know the card wont erupt in value, but I thought it was really cool to have it. Nate used to ref our men's league hockey games on Sunday nights for some extra cash.
Nate is one heck of a guy and was always mostly quiet from what I remember of him. I guess I didn't take particular notice of the Stampede refs other than during period breaks sometimes they would pick up a stick wow us. They were definitely the best refs we ever have had and wouldn't take crap. Good luck in the NHL Nate. Hope you are the next Bourque!
I think the fondest memory I have of sharing the same ice with some amazing talent was back in 2001. We had a local hockey tournament for any towns with adult teams in the region. I was slated to play goal on the team of the organizer of the tournament. He also happened to be the rink manager and the equipment manager of the Stampede. He kept telling me that we were going to have a really good team, but I wasn't so sure after I heard many talented friends were playing on other teams.
When the tournament time came around, I quickly found out that we were going to be quite a team to beat. I learned that a couple Stampede boys would be joining us. If you know your Stampede history, this can be quite exciting as we had a nice roster at the time.
Jacob Micflikier, who now plays for the AHL's Hershey Bears was one of the standouts. I just remember everyone telling me how good he was and then me confirming it after the first warm-ups...
The next stand-in is the most note-worthy. It was Thomas Vanek. Holy crap right? Well, lets just say the hardest part of the whole tournament was during warm-ups. He had 4 more gears than anyone and just had "it". Amazing stuff to watch. I had one of the best seats in the house too. I felt bad for the other goalies because they were just ripping them up if they were able to get close.
The weeks after I had a bunch of my Friday night leaguers asking me how good they were. I just confirmed that I didnt see many pucks in the warm-ups and I could feel every shot that hit me, even in the leg pads. Truth be told, I dont remember a ton about the tournament. I was just young back then. It didnt really hit me as something important to remember until I heard Vanek was drafted.
If I could, I'd go back to that weekend and live it up again and get some pucks signed. I'm sure Vanek and Micflikier dont remember that tournament, but it sure made some memories for a lot of us here!
STP40
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