Propp draws players for legends game

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This article was published 11/03/2025 (241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The esteem that Brian Propp is held in by his National Hockey League compatriots will be on full display on Wednesday evening at Westoba Place.

After a Western Hockey League game between the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Saskatoon Blades that starts at 6 p.m., a group of NHL alumni will take to the ice after to honour the Wheat Kings legend.

Bryan Trottier, who played against Propp in the NHL, said it wasn’t hard to find guys willing to skate tomorrow night to honour Propp.

“For us to be a part of it, it speaks volumes for him,” Trottier said. “He pulled a lot of players he played against and some of the players he has a lot of respect for to come back and support and be a part of the evening. That reflects well on Brian. He’s a good Saskatchewan kid who had some powerful years there in Brandon. He took it right to the NHL.

“He was spunky, had great finish around the net. And look what he’s done with himself physically, overcoming a stroke and some heart issues. He’s a scrappy guy and has a will. It’s an amazing thing.”

Tickets, which include entry to both games, are still available. The current team is coming back out to watch the legends game after they’re done.

Propp played three seasons with the Wheat Kings from 1976 to 1979, and was a big part of the outstanding Brandon in 1978-79 that set a league record with 125 points.

A single square of the original brick remains untouched in the dressing room, where in the spring of 1979 Propp wrote, “125 pts, try to beat that!” The ink is fading, especially on the bottom line, but the 125 is still easy to make out.

The plan is to get him to touch it up, and then it will be resealed more carefully for future teams to see.

But the game will be the big highlight.

“Everybody I talk to who knows about Brian Propp or was around the Wheat Kings is super excited about it,” said Mike Filipchuk, who is Brandon’s vice president of business operations. “When I was a kid, I was just a little guy coming to games, and he was a big deal around the city and there’s still stories about him. Our dressing room still has the writing on the wall that he wrote back in ‘79.”

GAME ON

Filipchuk said the idea first took root in September.

Shaun Chornley of Winnipeg is working with Trottier on getting legends games going across the country, and his 17-year-old son Shea attended training camp with the Wheat Kings.

“He approached us and said, ‘Hey, we would love to bring a legends game to Brandon,’” Filipchuk said. “That’s where it started. (Wheat Kings owner) Jared (Jacobson) and I met with him in early October when he was in Brandon again and really looked at the possibility of making this happen. Once we did a little bit of homework into it, it evolved into what it will be this week.”

A big piece of holding the game was the ability to couple it with the Black and Gold Gala on Thursday in which Propp will be enshrined into the team’s Hall of Fame that was established a year ago.

The gala in the Manitoba Room is essentially sold out, although Filipchuk noted they could probably squeeze in an extra table or two if needed.

All of the NHL players are staying for Thursday’s event as well and will leave on Friday, with Propp sticking around for an extra day of activities.

Trottier said it will be a lot of fun for fans.

“People will go home with some wonderful memories and a wonderful experience,” Trottier said. “It will bring back some memories of the old Wheat Kings and some of their Winnipeg Jet players they’ve seen over the years and some of the NHLers they’ve seen over the years and celebrate the game of hockey. They can pick up some autographs and maybe some photo opportunities and just really the game of hockey at its finest.

“There won’t be any hitting — if somebody bumps into somebody it’s going to be totally by accident — but at the same time, the skill shines, as much as there is some rust on a few bodies. It’s moving the puck, it’s guys shooting the puck and goalies making big saves.”

Three other former Wheat Kings who played in the NHL — Jeff Odgers, Michael Ferland and Colby Robak — are also taking part, along with Brandonite Ryan White.

Other players who have been confirmed for the event include Bernie Nicholls, Kevin Stevens, Cliff Ronning, Duane Sutter, Dave Ellett, Billy Smith, Colton Orr, Mathew Barnaby, Dale Weise and Ryan Garbutt.

There are eight non-NHL skaters, including Filipchuk and Wheat Kings assistant coach Mark Derlago, and the two goalies are former Wheat Kings netminder Geoff McIntosh and Brandon realtor Zach Munn.

“It will be entertaining,” Ellett said. “It will probably be a slow start but then as it moves forward and our old joints get warmed up and the competition level picks up, it will be good, entertaining hockey with a lot of people have grown up with or seen on TV or in replays. It will be a very enjoyable event for them.”

One of the neat stories is that Colton Orr’s brother Jamison is also taking part. The former Western Hockey League player suited up with the Vancouver Giants, Lethbridge Hurricanes, Saskatoon Blades, Medicine Hat Tigers and Prince George Cougars and played one game with the Wheat Kings on Oct. 12, 2004. When the teams met again three nights later, Orr was a Blade after a trade a day earlier.

BACK IN BRANDON

Trottier played with the Swift Current Broncos in the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons and was with the team when they made the move to become the Lethbridge Broncos in the 1974-75 season. (The Broncos spent 12 seasons in Alberta and then moved back to Swift Current in 1986.)

That meant Trottier was in the league when the Keystone Centre opened on Oct. 14, 1972. He remembers the rink and the Wheat Kings well.

“They were just opening up the Keystone and it was a spectacular building,” Trottier said. “For us as junior hockey players, walking into these new arenas that were being built, it was something out of a movie.

“Ron Chipperfield by himself was a highlight reel most nights, it didn’t matter if he was on the road or in Brandon. He was putting up big goals, big numbers. He was a spectacular, spectacular offensive player. “You look at Rick Blight, (Dale) McMullin, I played with some of them in all-star games and played against a lot of them for three, four years.”

Trottier grew up south of Swift Current in the community of Val Marie, Sask., and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997 after an 18-season NHL career in which he posted 1,425 points in 1,279 regular season games, and 183 more points in 221 playoff games.

The Keystone Centre also holds a place in the heart of Ellett, despite the fact he played at Bowling Green State University instead of in major junior. “My first game in the National Hockey League — granted it was an exhibition game — was Winnipeg Jets vs. L.A. Kings in September of 1984 in Brandon,” Ellett said. “… This will be the first time I skate there since.”

Ellett, who spent seven of his 16 NHL seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, may be best remembered for his double overtime goal — it was a slapshot from the point off the draw early in a power play — to win Game 4 in the 1990 Smythe Division semifinal series against the Edmonton Oilers.

Part of the appeal of games like this for the players is the chance to hang out with their NHL buddies.

While it’s common to see opposing players talking before the game and even between whistles now, it wasn’t always that way. For instance, some members of Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series famously hated their teammates who played elsewhere in the NHL before coming together to beat Russia.

That stemmed from the complete non-fraternization rules in effect at the time.

Ellett said the mood in the NHL in the 1980s was somewhere in the middle of those two polar opposites, although the former Montreal Canadiens enforcer who was serving as Jets GM at the time made sure it was kept in check.

“When I first started in my career, we weren’t as bad as the ’70s but especially with John Ferguson as the general manager, it was really frowned upon if you were in the arena or on the ice if you were caught kibitzing or talking to someone from the other team,” Ellett said. “That was not well received.”

After the legends game ends on Wednesday evening, there will be an autograph alley on the main concourse, and if anyone wants more, there will be an after-party at 34th Street Bar and Grill.

“What’s fun for us as we get older is it’s nice to reminisce and be remembered,” Trottier said. “I think none of us take too seriously. The celebrity side of the thing is what it is when we were playing, but as we get older, I think all of us recognize the value and influence and the fin we’ve had hearing those stories. Bringing in Billy Smith and Bernie Nicholls and Cliff Ronning, all the guys want to interact.

“They’re easy to approach for the fact and they get that we’re promoting hockey and are great ambassadors. It reflects well on all of us. I’m really proud of all the guys. It’s going to be a really wonderful opportunity for fans to get up close and personal. If they can and aren’t intimidated, come and say hello.

“We’re a pretty easy group and we have tons of stories.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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