VanIslander -
Kelowna Packers
The 1958 Packers were the first Canadian hockey team to tour the Soviet Union after losing a close hard-fought 7-game Allan Cup series defeat.
The Packers played five Soviet teams losing their first game against Central Red Army, before posting two wins and two ties over the final four games to win the tournament.
Roche says the experience was a real eye opener as to what hockey in Russia was all about and a prelude to the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit Series.
"I almost contacted Phil Esposito to explain to them that these guys would be tough. Gene Carr who played for the Rangers at the time was going around saying they would go down in four straight and I said Gene, you're going to get your eyes opened. They just wouldn't believe us."
Russ Kowalchuk, another forward on the 58 squad, says the Packers didn't seem to have the puck that often during the first game against the Red Army.
"We thought they had more guys on the ice than five or six, because they always seemed to have their stick between your legs and they always had the puck," says Kowalchuk. "We were playing chase it seemed."
He says once they starting playing the Canadian style of hockey, they took over the series.
"It rattled them a bit. They had set plays and once we found that out, we just played our game and every chance we got to hit, we hit."
https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/43102/Hall-welcomes-1958-Packers
Notes for another fantasy draft:
2003 9th
Burns, Getzlaf, Perry,
Bergeron,
Weber, Suter, Parise, Carter,
Pavelski, Kesler, Byfuglien, ... Fleury.... Crawford, Elliott, Vanek, Staal, Eriksson
2004 5th Ovechkin, Malkin, Rinne, Radulov, Krejci
2005 12th Crosby, Price, Kopitar, Oshie, Neal, Letang, Vlasic, Stastny, Ryan, Rask, Quick, Bishop,... Hornqvist, Hanzal, Yandle
2006 7th Backstrom, Kessel, Toews, Giroux, Marchand, Lucic,... Little. Okposo, Brassard
2007 6th Kane, Benn, Subban, Pacioretty, Simmonds, Shattenkirk, Couture
2008 14th
2009 8th
2010 2nd Seguin, Hall, Tarasenko, Mrazek
2011 11th
2012 1st Forsberg, Galchenyuk, Andersen
2013 6th Monahan. MacKinnon, Barkov, Ristolainen, Domi, Lindholm, Nurse, Drouin, Theodore
2014 12th
2015 5th McDavid, Eichel, Marner, Hanifin, Provorov, Werenski, Rantanen
2016 8th
Misc. 15th