Temple’s son bringing hockey back into his life

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This article was published 22/03/2016 (3697 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the Brandon Wheat Kings won the 1995-96 Western Hockey League championship, it was actually Jeff Temple’s second title in a row.

One year earlier, the Brandon product had won a midget title with the AAA Wheat Kings. Unfortunately for the 17-year-old winger, the WHL crown wasn’t one he would celebrate on the ice.

Temple, now 37, joined the Wheat Kings full time in 1995-96 after three-game callups in both his 15- and 16-year-old seasons.

“Looking back, to end up with a championship didn’t cross my mind. I was just so excited that I made it to play on the team that I wanted to play for my whole life growing up,” Temple said. “It wasn’t just wanting to make it to the WHL; it was just to play for the Wheat Kings really.”

Temple started his season in style, scoring his first WHL goal in the home opener. He remembers that veteran team, which he had watched play at the Keystone Centre, as star-studded but friendly.

“It was surreal,” Temple said. “It still kind of felt like you were there for the first while on somebody else’s team. It was a good group of guys, so you were never really treated like you didn’t deserve to be there. It was good right off the bat with guys like Bobby Brown who could easily treat me like a rookie but they didn’t. They taught you how things work and how you need to be in the dressing room and around the league.”

The young forward played 66 games that season, scoring 13 goals and adding 12 assists. But as good as his rookie season was, the ending couldn’t have been worse.

Temple tore a ligament in his knee in the last week of the regular season. After not suiting up for the playoffs, he was cleared for action for the Memorial Cup, but it was too late.

“I wasn’t in game shape anymore and it was just not possible to jump into something like the Memorial Cup,” Temple said. “It’s obviously far too competitive. So I was sitting on the sidelines. That stung, but you take away that you still contributed to the season and the team getting to that point. I guess that’s all you take from as a positive.”

He travelled with the team to Peterborough, Ont., where the Wheat Kings would be ousted in the semifinal. Watching the games from the stands wasn’t easy, he admitted.

“It was horrible,” Temple said. “It was one of those things that felt like that moment you had worked for all these years had led to this and you just weren’t involved. It was like watching from the outside of a bubble.”

Early in the next season, Temple was dealt to the Medicine Hat Tigers with his close friend Derek Holland for defenceman Johnathan Aitken. Temple put up 39 points in 61 games between the two teams that season.

After adding 18 goals and 18 assists in 45 games in his 19-year-old campaign, Temple was reacquired by the Wheat Kings from Medicine Hat at the trade deadline in 1998 for goaltender David Haun.

He played the final 13 games of his WHL career in Brandon, and then chose to move to other things rather than returning for a potential overage season.

Temple worked a number of jobs during a period of a few years as he made the transition from focusing on hockey to making his way in life. He found his calling, real estate, a decade ago and now has a successful career working as a realtor for Sutton-Harrison Realty.

He still runs into former teammates occasionally like Ryan Robson and Chris Low, who coaches his son Cole’s hockey team.

“It’s neat how it comes around full circle where you played hockey with guys and now you’re at the rink watching your sons play together or against each other,” Temple said.

He goes on the ice occasionally at practice with nine-year-old Cole, who is in his second year of novice and first year playing on the A team, and also on the outdoor rinks, but no longer plays competitively.

“From being a hockey player to watching my son play is as enjoyable or more enjoyable than it ever was to play, which is hard to imagine until you actually have kids,” Temple said. “I love that he’s so into it.”

A neat bit of trivia is that Temple’s father Ted also played for the Wheat Kings, tending goal for the team for two seasons from 1967 to 1969.

Although Temple had more personal success and responsibility in Medicine Hat, he said he treasures his time further down the lineup on a championship team.

Temple said that someone who never got enough credit for the Wheat Kings’ success in 1995-96 was assistant coach Mark Johnston. But he also points to the team’s unflagging work ethic and willingness to serve in whatever role was required.

“Nobody was upset about being a third or fourth-line player because they had been a star when they were younger,” Temple said. “Everyone was there to help this team win. And I think that’s why we did.”

Although hockey never went beyond the WHL for the Brandonite, he’s happy with all the game gave him, even as his focus shifts to his young son.

“I don’t have any regrets overall,” Temple said. “It’s not everything to make it to the NHL as far as I’m concerned. I think a person should be proud to make it to the WHL. I don’t think that’s an easy feat, it takes a lot of work for a lot of years. And to play in my hometown was amazing. I’m happy with it and I appreciate all of the opportunities that I got. I still think back to different times.

“I’m proud of it.”

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