Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (also Soo Greyhounds ) are a Canadian ice hockey team from Sault Ste. Marie in the province of Ontario. The team was founded in 1962 as a junior team and plays in one of the three highest Canadian Junior Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League ( OHL ) since 1972. Already since 1919, played under the name of a Greyhounds team in Sault Ste. Marie.
- 4.1 First round draft picks
- 4.2 Other former players
- 4.3 Locked jersey numbers
History
The Early Years
The first team the Greyhounds was founded in 1919. The first coach George MacNamara suggested, with the quote " A Greyhound is faster than a wolf ," the team name before. It was an allusion to the regional rival, the Sudbury Wolves.
At first they played in the Upper Peninsula League, but soon moved to the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. There they won in 1921, 1923, 1924 and 1925, the Senior A Championship. 1924 brought one also the Allan Cup. 1927, the team was disbanded and under the same name, a junior team was founded, that played in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. From 1928 to 1931 you could win four times in a row the league championship in 1942 was followed by the fifth title. After the Gouin Street Arena a burnt down, took the Junior hockey in Sault Ste. Marie in 1945 to an abrupt end.
1948, the Greyhounds were revived as Senior Team and were successful again. 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1955 brought to the championship in the NOHA. After the 1958/59 season the league and the Tam was dissolved.
Today's Team
As a member of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, the Greyhounds were re-founded in 1962. After ten successful years in the league in which you could win the title three times, closed it in as an expansion team of the Ontario Hockey Association.
In the 1977 draft they picked the sixteen year old, small and frail Wayne Gretzky. Despite his physical shortcomings, the young Gretzky sticking out playfully in the team. After his request number 9 was already taken, he played with the number 19 His coach, however, put him to use as soon near the number 99. With 70 goals and 112 templates in 63 games Gretzky turned up today to valid team records.
Great influence on the development of the team in the early '80s had the coach Terry Crisp. 1985 was the first time to win the championship in the OHL. This is also qualified for the final round of the Memorial Cup. In 1986 the team was sold to an investor group led by Phil Esposito. During the season 1988/89 they picked as coach Ted Nolan. After three years, laid the new owner to sell the team again. In May 1989, Peter Karmanos offered $ 600,000 for the team. He wanted to resettle the Greyhounds to Detroit. The offer was rejected, and an attempt was made to increase the value of the team. The following draft they picked Eric Lindros. However, the highly talented players did not want to Sault Ste. Marie and his parents felt that an education is so far not good for her son from his hometown of Toronto. With Lindros Karmanos now offered a million dollars but a local group led by Dr. Shunock offered against it and kept the team so in Sault Ste. Marie. As in the case Lindros was no agreement in sight, they gave him from the Oshawa Generals.
Again you qualified in 1991 for the Memorial Cup. The final round was finished only in fourth and last place. 1992 they played again in the Memorial Cup, and reached the finals, where you had to admit defeat the Kamloops Blazers 5-4. As a host, one was in 1993 participants in the final round at the Memorial Cup. In domestic Sault Memorial Gardens, it also succeeded for the first time to win the title. In the finals they defeated the Peterborough Petes 4-2.
Best player in the 1990s was Joe Thornton, who played from 1995 for the Greyhounds. Thornton was also the first player in the history of the team, was selected as the first NHL Entry Draft. Among the coaches was also the former NHL goalie John Vanbiesbrouck 2002. 2006 the team moved from the Sault Memorial Gardens in the new Steel Back Centre, meanwhile Essar Centre to.
Logos
Logo 1995-1999
Logo 1999-2009
News Logo since 2009
Achievements
Player
First round draft picks
Other former players
1919 - 1972
1972 - today
- Paul Beraldo
- Garrett Burnett
- Paul Coffey
- Ray Emery
- Rico Fata
- Christopher Felix
- Simon Fish Haber
- Adam Foote
- Aaron Gavey
- Wayne Gretzky
- Rob Hisey
- Kevin Hodson
- Ralph intra Nuovo
- Dustin Jeffrey
- Mike Kaszycki
- Tyler Kennedy
- Bob Probert
- Charlie Simmer
- Chris Simon
- Steve Sullivan
- Brad Tiley
- Jiri Tlusty
- Rick Tocchet
- John Vanbiesbrouck
- Josef Vašíček
- Rob Zettler