Over the last 50 years, hockey fans in Stratford have been treated to some of the best Junior B teams the province has ever seen, stocked with players who would go on to long professional careers. One might even say Stratford fans have been spoiled.
To help celebrate that rich history, the club has put together a list of the 50 greatest players in team history, selecting players from clusters of decades to fill out the 45 skaters and five goalies on the list.
That list was unveiled on the Armchair Chirpers Podcast Monday afternoon, reaching the culmination of a long and sometimes painful process. Les Vaters, one of the Chirpers and play-by-play voice for the team, said he and Jason Clarke, the team’s director of operations, began mulling over the idea at the start of the season.
“We’d talked about doing an internet vote by fans, but when I compiled a list of alumni we had more than 850 names on there and you’re never going to get a quorum on the internet,” he said. “Jason and I talked with club president Jamie Nigro and asked if we could put a committee together of nine or 10 people to work on a list.”
That list included past and present newspaper reporters who’ve covered the team, a 42-year member of the team’s board of directors, some current board members and former CJCS personality Eddie Matthews. Former Cullitons goalie and now member of the Chirpers, Gary ‘Razor’ Wray, said they settled on the decades approach to give themselves a better shot at paying the respect to players who deserved it but might get lost in the shuffle.
“With it being 50 years, each of the five committee members took a decade and they had to come up with guys they thought were worthy in those decades,” Wray said. “Once they brought those names to the whole group, we came up with a list of about 80-90 in total, then we paired it down from there to the final 50. I can only imagine what the rest of the panel went through to get it to 50, so we’re really appreciative that they spent the time and effort doing that.”
Vaters said the initial cut down left the list at just over 80 names, but 12 more were added that most panelists felt were notable but somehow got left out during the selection process. In the end, Wray said two decades – 1975-1985 and 1985-1995 – wound up being dominantly represented.
“It’s not proportionate where each decade had an equal number of people, and it’s very top-heavy in terms of the first 20 years of the organization,” he said.
There was one block of players that all the Chirpers and Clarke agreed was the toughest one to judge: 1985-1995, which fell to former Beacon Herald sports reporter Steve Rice. Vaters went as far as calling it a ‘perfect decade’, given that every one of Rice’s selections made the final list.
“Steve actually said he was vicious with his cuts,” Vaters said, shaking his head at the suggestion. “When he sent me his list, he told me he had to be vicious with some of his choices because there were so many good players in that decade that he had to really be picky.”
Clarke was responsible for the most recent crop of players, and while a few did make the list he pointed out that the game has changed so much over the years and that recency bias may have worked against more recent names making the final 50.
“You look at how the game has changed even stats-wise, and it's night and day,” he said. “You look at what guys are doing now and compare it to what some of them were doing in the 80s and 90s and it’s so different.”
Once word got out that this project was percolating, Wray said the buzz began to build and people were sniffing around him and his fellow Chirpers for insider information. For the most part, it’s been nothing but positive feedback.
“We’ve had some guys on the podcast, ones like Paul Barton, Dan Forget, Greg DeVries, Colin Schmidt and Eric Anderson … telling stories from when they played in Stratford, and people have been reaching out to say that took them down memory lane,” he said. “I think that’s been a huge factor in generating buzz that’s going around. Even guys like Rob Blake are excited and honoured. I was texting with Nelson Emerson, who’s in Europe scoring now, and he was excited to hear the reveal of this list. When you’ve got guys who played in the NHL that are excited, it makes everybody on the committee feel validated that we’ve done a good thing by bringing this list to light.”
Buhrow said it’s important to note that this list is not a ranking of the greatest Cullitons/Warriors in club history but a recognition of the depth of talent to suit up in Stratford. There were players left off the list, he said, that will catch some people’s attention, but that comes with the spoils Stratford’s fans have enjoyed for 50 years.
“We have that luxury in this town, of having so many great players over crazy amounts of decades, and this list celebrates that tradition,” he said. “I think this really lets us celebrate how spoiled we are in this hockey town.”
The complete list is:
- Forwards & Defence: Frank Barth, Denis FLanagan, John Wilson, Pat Kelly, Ross Yantzi, Dan Forget, Ken Chisholm, Paul Barton, Scott Skinner, Walt Morris, Ed Olczyk, Mark LaVarre, Phil Berger, Nelson Emerson, Warren Bullock, Shawn Heaphy, Pat Murray, Rob Blake, Ron White, Mike McLeod, Greg Klym, Jamie Hartnett, Chris Brooks, Rem Murray, Mike Chambers, Jason Mervyn, Chris Pronger, Colin Schmidt, Dennis Williams, Boyd Devereaux, Erik Anderson, Dave Cousineau, Greg Van Bakel, Kendrick Nicholson, Tyler Canal, Kurt Colling, Kyle Casey, Nick Vergeer, Brad McClure, Andrew Barton, Trevor Sauder, Tyson Baker, Jack Scanlan, Sean Ross, Zac McCann
- Goalies: Terry Wickham, Jim Samec, Jeff Hill, Matt Barnes, Ryan MacDonald
The Armchair Chirpers Podcast can be found on their YouTube channel as well as numerous podcast distribution platforms.