Hockey gave Lehman a good life

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/02/2016 (3706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jody Lehman has an utterly unique view of the Western Hockey League’s 1995-96 league champions.

The overage goaltender was acquired at the trade deadline by the Brandon Wheat Kings after spending his entire career with the Moose Jaw Warriors playing against them.

“You knew that they were going to have a strong team that season,” Lehman said of the Wheat Kings. “In Moose Jaw we had Curtis Brown and Roman Vopat. We were good but never to the level of the Wheat Kings.”

Lehman had left Moose Jaw in November after four-and-a-half seasons and was awaiting a deal while playing in the East Coast Hockey League. Wheat Kings general manager Kelly McCrimmon delivered the news Lehman was hoping for in January of 1996.

“Kelly McCrimmon called and said, ‘Jody, we’ve made a trade for you,’” Lehman said. “It was basically ‘I’ll see you in a few days.’ I arrived knowing that the team was strong. I walked in having gone through a lot of stuff that year and was definitely hungry. Luckily I was able to play a few games and started to play fairly decent.”

That may be a bit of an understatement. Shortly after Lehman’s arrival, the team went on a 23-game winning streak. Lehman posted a 22-5 record in the regular season as former starting goaltender Brian Elder struggled with knee problems.

“I just fit the puzzle for the guys,” Lehman said. “It was a great experience. Just showing up there knowing that you’re going to be a Wheat King the rest of the year and such a strong team, sometimes a guy relishes that. We had a great bunch of guys.”

After that season, Lehman played for two years with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies before embarking on a long pro career.

“My first four or five years, you’re a junior guy who has come up and you have fun,” Lehman said. “You play in warm places. But I wasn’t serious enough to play at the next level. I didn’t give enough early in my career in the East Coast league and a little in the American (Hockey) League. When I went to Europe, I figured it out how you have to work hard and get in shape.”

Lehman spent seven seasons in the United Kingdom, winning championships and even scoring a goal himself. He also met his wife Raquel.

In his last season in England, he won another league title. He spent his final year in Denmark, but was then a 35-year-old with two kids.

“You know what, I think I’m tapped out,” Lehman said of his mindset when he retired. “I wanted to move home to North Battleford and get on with it. I was ready at the end of the season and left and never really looked back. I knew that I didn’t have anything else to give and to me that was OK. I didn’t want to keep hanging on and going from team to team. That’s not who I am.”

Lehman moved home to North Battleford, Sask., where he worked for two years.

When middle daughter Ridley, 6, was diagnosed as autistic, the family of five, including Layla, 8, and Sloane, 4, headed to Lloydminster, Alta., three years ago.

“We moved there because the health care could give her a better chance at life,” Lehman said.

He runs a small oil company, which, despite low prices, allows him to get by.

He has kept up with former Wheat King teammates such as Bobby Brown and Wade Redden, who came to Lloydminster to do a fundraiser in November for the midget AAA team that Lehman helps out with.

He can’t recall being back in Brandon since his time with the University of Saskatchewan hockey team in the 1980s, but does have a little problem he’s hoping someone in the Wheat City can solve.

Lehman hasn’t been able to find his Wheat Kings jersey, the only one in his entire career that he can’t put his hands on.

It’s a tangible link to a team that he hopes will meet for a reunion eventually.

“It was awesome, just unreal,” Lehman said of that half season. “For me to be a part of a bunch of guys like that, you’re looking at guys like Peter Schaefer who had a pretty good NHL career and you can say you were pretty good friends with them. There was a respect both ways.

“It was just special to be around those guys. It was an honour.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson