With the National Hockey League recently ending their lockout, several players with connections to Yorkton will be getting back to their seasonal jobs.
Jarret Stoll easily stands out among the handful of players because of his Stanley Cup victory with the Los Angeles Kings last year.
Although Stoll was born in Melville, his hockey career started to flourish in Yorkton. He led Yorkton's bantam AAA team to a Western Canadian championship in 1997.
Stoll went on to play for the Saskatoon Blazers of the Saskatchewan AAA Midget Hockey League before joining the Kootenay Ice of the Western Hockey League to finish out his junior career.
The 6-foot-1, 209-pound centre is one of the few players drafted twice in the NHL. He was originally drafted 46th overall by the Calgary Flames in 2000. He was, however, unable to strike a deal with the Flames. Therefore, he went back into the 2002 draft, eventually being selected 36th overall by the Edmonton Oilers.
Stoll is heading into his fifth season with the Kings. He has three more years remaining on his contract with Los Angeles, earning $3.5 million a season.
Chris Kunitz's outstanding 1996-97 season with the Yorkton Mallers, who have since been renamed the Harvest, has him near the top of the list. The Regina native dominated the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, scoring 38 goals and 76 points in 64 games, while racking up 233 minutes in the sin bin.
Kunitz went on to play two seasons with the Melville Millionaires in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, followed by four seasons with the NCAA's Ferris State University.
The 6-foot, 198-pound winger went unselected in his respective NHL entry draft years of eligibility. Nevertheless, he inked a deal with the Anaheim Ducks in 2003.
He spent four seasons with the Ducks before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he won a Stanley Cup in 2009.
Kunitz has two years remaining on his contract with the Penguins, earning $3.75 million per season.
Edmonton Oilers defenceman Nick Shultz spent one season with the Yorkton Mallers before joining the WHL's Prince Albert Raiders.
Shultz was one of the Mallers' top players at both ends of the ice, netting 10 goals and 40 points in 59 games in 1997-98.
The 6-foot-1, 201-pounder was originally drafted 33rd overall by the Minnesota Wild. He went on spend a decade with the Wild before being shipped to Edmonton at last year's trade deadline for Tom Gilbert.
Fortunately for Shultz, who has two years remaining on his deal at $3.5 million a season, he will suit up with high-end talents such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, and Justin Shultz in Oil Country. One has to assume there will be an interesting story or two in that dressing room that the Strasbourg native can eventually share with his grandchildren.
Tanner Glass will join fellow Yorkton Maller alumni Chris Kunitz in Pittsburgh this year with the Penguins.
Glass, no different from his reputation in The Show, was known as a hard-nosed power forward with the Mallers. He also had a knack for finding the back of the net, potting 31 goals and 60 points in 39 games in his lone season with the Mallers in 2000-01.
After his days in Yorkton, Glass played with the Penticton Vees in the British Columbia Hockey League. He later joined Dartmouth College in the States.
The Florida Panthers gave the 6-foot-1, 207-pound winger his big break in 2003, selecting him 265th overall in the entry draft.
As it stands, the Regina native, who has two years remaining on his deal at $1.1 million per, has 31 goals, 82 points, 198 penalty minutes, and 262 regular-season games to his name in the NHL.
Another pair of Yorkton Mallers alumni will meet up on the same NHL squad with Darcy Hordichuk joining Shultz in Edmonton.
Hordichuk also has a connection with Kunitz. He played on the same Mallers squad as him in 1996-97, where he notched six goals and 21 points in 57 games, while racking up 230 minutes in the penalty box.
The Kamsack native went on to play with the Dauphin Kings in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL after his lone season in Yorkton.
Hordichuk, who was selected 180th overall by the Atlanta Thrashers in 2000, has played 11 seasons in the NHL, racking up 20 goals, 41 points, 538 regular-season games, and most notably, 1138 penalty minutes.
The 6-foot-1, 216-pound winger is in his last year of his contract with Edmonton, earning $850 k.
