Last week a report came out online that Pavel Bure was leading the charge on creating a new hockey league. The World Legends Hockey League! My ears perked up immediately and all of the memories, the reasons for my love of the game, came flooding back. Could it really be true? Could my favorite players from my youth be lacing the skates back up?
Well according to this post over on Sportsnet and this one on Eurohockey.com, it is indeed true!
The rules are pretty simple:
- Players must be over the age of 45.
- Players must have played international games for his country in any official tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
- Each squad must contain 27 persons, 20 players of whom two shall be goalkeepers and a team management which shall consist of seven people.
- Injured players may be replaced during the matches.
- For the referees, the requirement is that they must have been the IIHF licensed judges.
That seems simple enough. So I decided to lay out my own team. I tried my best not to include players who are involved in the day-to-day operations of a professional or junior club. I may have missed a couple but I’m sure you’ll point that out because that’s what good readers do.
So without further adieu, here’s my Team Canada for the World Legends Hockey League!
First Line:
Mark Messier – Wayne Gretzky – Glenn Anderson
Ray Bourque – Paul Coffey
Second Line:
Wendel Clark – Mario Lemieux – Mike Gartner
Al MacInnis – Scott Stevens
Third Line:
Steve Larmer – Adam Oates – Theoren Fleury
Eric Desjardins – Larry Murphy
Fourth Line:
Claude Lemieux – Vincent Damphousse – Gary Roberts
Goalies:
Curtis Joseph
Grant Fuhr
Coaches: Glen Sather, Larry Robinson, Billy Moores, and Scotty Bowman.
Taxi Squad: Ed Belfour, Steve Duchesne, and Pierre Turgeon.
The scheduling of the tournament is to go as follows:
First round, qualifying for the finals, in November 2015, date to be determined
November 2015
Finland-Sweden
Kisapuisto Arena, Lappeenranta, Finland
November 2015
Germany-Russia
EnergieVerbund Arena, Dresden, Germany
November 2015
Czech Republic-Slovakia
KV Arena, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
The three winners and the best losing teams advance to the playoffs
The final games in January 2016 will be played in VTB Ice Palace Arena, Moscow Legends Park, Russia. It’s the same arena as the Ice Hockey World Championship 2016 will be played in. After the finals best goalkeeper, defenseman and forward of the World Legends Hockey League will be named.
All of the info is courtesy of Eurohockey.com
I like our odds! Then again those Europeans tend to stay in pretty good shape after their playing careers are finished. Then again, it’s Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. #Unbeatable
Who would you put on your Team Canada Legends Team? Let me know in the comments below! And don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter!
Thanks for reading and Take Care!
-BLH
Replace Fleury with Ryan Smyth
Thanks for reading Tom!
I can’t replace Fleury with Smytty because Ryan Smyth isn’t 45 years old. One of the rules is that all players must be at least 45 in order to qualify for eligibility.