It will be another reunion of sorts for a handful of Ontario Hockey League (OHL) stars who all got their start in hockey more than a decade ago with Etobicoke’s West Mall Lightning: but there probably won’t be a lot of pleasantries exchanged this time around.
That’s because the four are facing each other in an OHL semifinal series – Connor Brown and Adam Pelech with the Erie Otters; and Scott Kosmachuk and Matt Finn with the Guelph Storm.
The series opens Thursday in Guelph.
The OHL final-four also features one other player from that team – Scott Laughton from the Oshawa Generals, who captained this year’s Canadian junior team. The Generals kick off their league semifinal series Friday against North Bay Battalion.
They were all coached by Etobicoke’s Dan Brown (father of Connor Brown), first with West Mall Lightning and then all through their high level youth rep careers with the Toronto Marlboros (where Brown still coaches).
Asked whether it might have been the proverbial something in the water in Etobicoke and coach Brown quipped, in a recent interview: "I think it was the hot dogs in the concession at West Mall."
"We certainly had some good athletes come together that sort of wanted to play together. We had a good level of talent. And then it’s really a mix of teaching the skills and the tactics and not get too hung up on the system side of the game.
"They really pushed each other. They were such a talented group even at a young age and when they can compete against each other day in, day out they really are able to learn at another level so I think they really did it for each other without even knowing it, just, you know having fun, thinking they’re just playing a game.
"Little did they know they were really honing some future professional skills."
During the regular season Brown and Kosmachuk were first and third, overall, in OHL scoring. In fact Brown was the top scorer in the country in major junior hockey. And Finn and Pelech were second and tied-for-third, respectively, among defencemen in the OHL. While Laughton was 16th in scoring he impressed rival coaches as he had the distinction of the most mentions of any players in the league’s annual coaches’ poll.
Three of the above mentioned players are actually Etobicoke residents – Brown and Finn are former students at Etobicoke’s Michael Power/St Joseph Catholic Secondary and Pelech at Bishop Allen Academy.
And they are by no means the only Etobicoke representation in the OHL, with other prominent players including Rexdale’s Jordan Subban (a defenceman with the Belleville Bulls) and Gemel Smith (a forward with the London Knights and a former student at Thistletown Collegiate). Subban is the brother of the Montreal Canadiens’ P.K. Subban (another brother Malcolm Subban, a goaltender, is with the American Hockey League’s Providence Bruins).
All the above players are NHL draft picks.
Sadly, that amazing cohort of players from Etobicoke also included Travis Trafford of the Saginaw Spirit who died earlier this year.
"I was coaching the (West Mall) tyke house league and select teams. Terry joined us at seven years old and, again, he followed us through West Mall and into the Marlies," said coach Brown, adding that as a peewee Trafford did move over to the Toronto Red Wing organization.
The kids hung out a lot in those years, he said, adding that "we’ve seen Terry and Roy and Bev – his mom and dad – over the years around the hockey rinks."
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