London to host Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game
London, Ontario – The Canadian Hockey League and the National Hockey League announced today that the 2004 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game will be played on Wednesday January 21, 2004 at the John Labatt Centre in London. The game will showcase 40 of the CHL’s top players that are eligible for selection in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft that will be held in Raleigh, N.C. on June 26 and 27.
“The Canadian Hockey League is very proud to bring this showcase event to the John Labatt Centre,” said CHL President David Branch. “It is one of the premiere facilities in the country and will be a fitting stage for this prestigious game. We are very thankful to the National Hockey League and Home Hardware for their outstanding long-term support of this event. Without them, and the many other sponsors who support this game, we would not be afforded the opportunity to present an event of this magnitude.”
Home Hardware is the title partner of the 2004 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game for the fifth consecutive year.
“On behalf of more than 1,000 independently owned dealers here in Ontario and across Canada, Home Hardware takes great pride in presenting this exciting hockey event to London fans and CHL fans who will be watching on television,” said Bruce Shuh, Marketing Director, Home Hardware. “Founded in 1964 by approximately 120 independent hardware dealers, Home has grown to include more that 1,000 locations in communities across Canada where the great frozen game is played.”
The National Hockey League’s 30 teams will select the forty players that will participate in the game. The announcement of the players will be made in early January.
More than 300 players have suited up in the Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game and gone on to be selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including all 40 players who played in the game last year. The game has featured five players who were the first overall picks in the NHL Entry Draft – Chris Phillips (1996), Joe Thornton (1997), Vincent Lecavalier (1998), Rick Nash (2002) and Marc-Andre Fleury (2003).
The 2004 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game will start at 7:00 p.m. on January 21, 2004. The game will be broadcast live across Canada on Rogers Sportsnet.
The coaches for the 2004 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game will be Don Cherry and Bobby Orr, who have been behind the benches for eight of the nine games. Orr won three straight games from 1999-2001 and leads the series 4-3. Team Cherry won last year’s game in Kitchener.
Cherry will be joined behind the bench once again by Brian Kilrea, coach and general manager of the Ottawa 67’s. Kilrea is the CHL’s all-time winningest coach and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November.
London Knights coach Dale Hunter will join Orr behind the bench. Hunter played three seasons in the OHL with the Kitchener Rangers and Sudbury Wolves before graduating to a 20-year career in the NHL. He is in his second season behind the bench with the Knights, who are currently third overall in the OHL.
Bobby Orr
Orr played 12 seasons in the NHL with the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks recording 915 points on 270 goals and 645 assists. The native of Parry Sound, Ontario is an eight-time winner of the James Norris Trophy, which is awarded annually to the NHL’s top defencemen. Orr, a member of two Bruin Stanley Cup winning teams, captured two NHL scoring titles and was selected as the winner of the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player three times. In 1999 Orr, a graduate of the Ontario Hockey League’s Oshawa Generals, was selected to the MasterCard All-time CHL team.
Don Cherry
Cherry coached in the NHL with the Bruins and Colorado Rockies from 1974 to 1980 before he became a fan favourite on Coach’s Corner. In 1975-76 Cherry won the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s Coach of the Year. In 480 games as a NHL coach the native of Kingston, Ontario had a won-lost-tied record of 250-153-77. Cherry played his junior hockey with the Barrie Flyers and he was a member of the Flyers’ 1953 Memorial Cup winning team. January’s Home Hardware CHL Top Prospects Game will be a homecoming of sorts for Cherry as in 1960-61 he played for the Kitchener Waterloo Beavers of the Eastern Professional Hockey League. Cherry recorded 39 points on 13 goals and 26 assists that season