ALUMNI PROFILE – GOALKEEPER GLEN HANLON
(Courtesy of Perry Bergson, The Brandon Sun) — Glen Hanlon was fated to be a Brandon Wheat King.
The 59-year-old retired goalie, who went on to play 477 games in the National Hockey League, was born and raised in Brandon and fantasized about one day being a Wheat King.
“When I was in Grade 10 I went to Neelin high school and lived over in the west end on 21st,” recalls Hanlon, who would walk by the future site of the Keystone Centre every day. “I would watch them dig the hole where the Keystone Centre was, and when they put the stands in there I would go and sit in the stands at the very top and just dream of wearing a Wheat King jersey. It was my dream come true.”
Asked if he went to many games as a youngster, Hanlon laughs and quickly recites a long list of former Brandon players.
His move to the Wheat Kings followed a familiar path in the 1970s. Players in the WHL were a little older at the time because of the 19-year-old NHL draft wasn’t in place until 1980, so fewer 16-year-olds played.
The Brandon Travellers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League provided a place for the youngsters to develop until they were ready to move up, something Hanlon happily took advantage of in his 16-year-old season in 1973-74. That, and the encouragement of his family, was invaluable.
“They were supportive and took me everywhere,” Hanlon said of his parents. “Any little bit of money we did have went towards my hockey equipment. Saying that, I was allowed to stay at home and stay in school and do the same things that I had done in the previous years. I didn’t have to go anywhere when I was 16 years old to play in the Manitoba junior.”
Hanlon made the Wheat Kings in his 17-year-old season, playing 43 games. In the next two seasons, he would play 64 and 65 games, setting records for minutes played and appearances that weren’t broken until Jordan Papirny surpassed them this season.
Hanlon said the older NHL draft made his WHL experience a lot more fun.
“I was never in a hurry to expedite the process,” he said. “I loved junior hockey and I really enjoyed my city. I enjoyed living in my hometown and being around my friends. I just enjoyed the junior process and the games. I think it was different back then. You knew you weren’t being drafted until you were 19 so you didn’t sit at 17 worrying about being drafted. There was a lot less pressure on you at 17 and 18. It wasn’t until your last year that you really started to think about if you were going to do it the next year for money.
“I think that really allowed us to enjoy being kids and not trying to be professionals before we were professionals.”
In the 1977 NHL draft, Hanlon was selected in the third round, 40th overall, by the Vancouver Canucks. Hanlon found out he had been drafted while sitting in the Brandon Sun newsroom, a place he frequently visited to read stories on the Canadian Press newsfeed, then called the wire.
“That’s actually where I sat to watch my name come across the wire when I got drafted,” he said. “Good memories, for sure.”
Hanlon joined a Brandon team in 1974-75 that would win just 24 games, but he saw steady improvement in his three seasons. A year later they won 34, and Hanlon was getting noticed.
The New Westminster Bruins beat the Wheat Kings 5-0 in their best-of-nine quarter-final series, but didn’t forget the goaltender they faced, picking Hanlon up for the Memorial Cup, where he played four games.
In Hanlon’s final season with the Wheat Kings in 1976-77, they won 54 games with a lineup buoyed by a group of rookies who included Brian Propp, Laurie Boschman and Brad McCrimmon.
The team lost in the final to New Westminster again that year; a season later Hanlon played four games with the Vancouver Canucks, and by 1978-79 he was a full-time NHLer.
His career took him from the Canucks to the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings. He retired after the 1990-91 season.
“To be able to play 14 years, you have to squeeze every little bit of energy and mental toughness that you can unless it’s a career where you just ride at the top the whole time, which it wasn’t for me,” he said. “You learn to fight through some adversity and manage some good times. I’m happy. Of course I would have loved to have won a Stanley Cup.”
The closest that Hanlon came was the semifinals, where he had the misfortune of running into the eventual Stanley Cup champions three years in a row. In 1985-86, the Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, while in 1986-87 and 1987-88, the Red Wings were ousted by the Edmonton Oilers.
Hanlon said the decision to walk away from his playing career was a combination of internal and external factors.
“It just got to a point where the games became difficult for me to play at a certain level,” he said. “Part of it was perception and what you’re told. When I finished playing, I think I was 34 in my last year. You were told you were old. From the time you were 29, you were looked at as an old person and we believed it. I just felt that I was too old. Now you can sign five-year contracts when you’re 34; it’s interesting how the world has changed.
“I just felt like it was going to be a struggle for me to play at a level with the best in the world and I didn’t want to do anything less.”
Hanlon said he had other opportunities to play but any second thoughts he might have had were gone after the Canucks offered him a coaching job.
Eventually that allowed him to coach in the NHL, and with national teams in Belarus, Switzerland and Slovakia. He now serves as general manager of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, a team he served as an assistant coach with for two seasons from 2011 to 2013.
He said he left the game healthy. He’s had a hip replacement since, but said that could be from anything and doesn’t consider it to be a hockey injury.
Despite leaving the Wheat City nearly four decades ago, his ties to Brandon remain meaningful to him.
His 92-year-old mother still lives here, and his wife Keri (nee Whitley) is also from Brandon. They have one child, 15-year-old son Jackson.
Hanlon said it was special that his time in Brandon was remembered when he was included in the balloting for the Wheat Kings’ Dream Team, which allows fans to pick the top two goaltenders, six defencemen and 12 forwards in the franchise’s 50-year history in the WHL.
“Of course it was,” Hanlon said. “I’m proud. I’m very, very proud to be a Wheat King and part of the alumni. It’s been a great organization. They’ve put a lot of people through their doors who played in the National Hockey League. I don’t live there and haven’t lived there for a long, long time but that’s where I was born and still, when someone asks me ‘Where’s your hometown,’ I’ll say Brandon, Manitoba …To be part of this certainly means a lot to me.”
Fans have until Dec. 31 to vote for the Dream Team. They can vote at apps.brandonsun.com/bwk50. The Dream Team co-promotion between The Brandon Sun and the team.
Hanlon loved his junior days but is happy that his playing days are behind him and that life has moved on.
“I did everything I could to play as long as I could,” he said. “There’s nothing more I could have done. I don’t look back and wish I had trained harder or I wish I would have looked after myself better. I gave myself every chance I could to play as long as I possibly could. When I walked away from it, I just transitioned into coaching, and as soon as I did, I realized there was a real strong team in coaching and management that replaced my other team.”
As a result, he said he’s always had his hockey fix and that his career goals really haven’t changed.
And while the kid from 21st Street ended up playing in the NHL and getting paid for coaching jobs across Europe, that original dream never went away.
“It’s been a wonderful, wonderful world,” Hanlon said of his career. “It’s just been terrific. I dreamed when I was a young kid of just playing for the Wheat Kings. I didn’t dream to play for anybody else; I just thought the Wheat Kings were the biggest thing in the whole wide world.
“If it would have ended right there, I would have been happy.”
Hanlon’s former team returned home Sunday from an unsuccessful season high 7-game road trip that saw them post a 1-5-1-0 record, scoring five goals in the last six games, all losses. Brandon was a 6-1 loser in Red Deer on Saturday.
