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Cape Breton-born NHLers

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New Waterford’s lone NHLer, Trevor Fahey. (Contributed)

 

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Sydney’s Parker MacDonald as a Red Wing during the 1960s. (Contributed)

In the long 97-year history of the NHL, 21 Cape Breton-born individuals have laced up the blades in that league. Of course, some careers were lengthy ones, such as the 18-season stint of Sydney’s Parker MacDonald, or quite short like the lone game that New Waterford-born Trevor Fahey suited up for. Still and all, to have played in the best league in the world for any length of time is an accomplishment mainly because so many outstanding players did not get that opportunity.

And for some of you who might suggest that 21 is a small number, well, the fact of the matter is that a total of 68 Nova Scotia-born individuals have made it to the big time. Do the math and you’ll see that 31 per cent of those 68 saw their first light of day right here in Cape Breton.

However, there’s a catch to the phrase ”Cape Breton born,” because some of these guys left the island at an early age and grew up elsewhere. Three that come to mind are the above-mentioned Trevor Fahey, along with North Sydney products Bobby Smith and William “Flash” Hollet, who both had long and excellent NHL careers.

Fahey’s cup of coffee in the NHL is an interesting story. Like I said, Trevor was born in New Waterford but was raised in the New Glasgow/Stellarton area. In 1964-65 he was summoned by the New York Rangers to replace injured forward Donnie Marshall for a home game against Toronto. Interestingly, earlier the same day Fahey had suited up for a match with his regular team, the Eastern Hockey League’s New York Rovers who shared the Rangers home arena, Madison Square Garden. So the jump to the NHL for Fahey was just a matter of switching dressing rooms.

Trevor didn’t see much action that night, which is common for rookies just called up. Rangers coach Red Sullivan finally put him on the ice in the third period alongside a couple of nifty veterans, Bob Nevin and Earl Ingerfield. In all, Fahey logged a little more than five minutes of playing time, had two shots on goal and coach Sullivan was pleased with his performance. And get this: he was paid $100 for his efforts.

Parker MacDonald

Then there’s the tale of the already mentioned Parker MacDonald of Sydney who was both born and raised in Cape Breton. His fine 18-year career began in 1952 with Toronto, and he later played for the Rangers, Detroit, Boston and the Minnesota North Stars. MacDonald also coached the North Stars as well as the Los Angeles Kings.

The story goes that after the Rangers didn’t want him anymore in 1960, Parker, who suffered from chronic shoulder pain at the time, went to see a doctor, and lo and behold an X-ray showed there was a broken drill bit lodged there from a previous surgery. Of course, it was removed and Parker felt like a new man. The Detroit Red Wings got wind of this, signed him and later put the him on a line with future Hall of Famers Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio, who along with the retired Ted Lindsay had made up the famous “Production Line ll,” for many years.

In 1962-63, Parker set a career high with 33 goals and 28 assists for 61 points. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d get anywhere near 30 goals,” he said to a Saskatchewan newspaper reporter that year. “Why am I doing so well? Because I’m with Howe and Delvecchio. I can roam around the net and when Gordie shoots he’s right on target.”

MacDonald played 676 NHL games scored 144 goals and had 179 assists for a total of 323 points. That works out to nearly a point every second game; not too shabby, wouldn’t you agree? Parker ended his big league career after the 1968-69 season.

So this time we’ve touched on a few of the 21 Cape Breton-born NHLers, mainly Trevor Fahey and Parker MacDonald, and in the coming weeks we’ll discuss some of the others that have played in the best hockey league in the world.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/community/cape-breton/1240470-cape-breton-born-nhlers