HALL IN THE FAMILY: Evasons achieve rare feat with three enshrinements

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This article was published 22/03/2020 (2084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the 1965-66 Flin Flon Warriors were inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame last October, an exceedingly rare feat with a Brandon connection took place.

The late Al Evason was part of that Warriors squad, and he joined his sons Dean and the late Danial (Heavy) in the provincial hall.

Dean, who serves as the interim head coach of the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild, said it was a tremendous moment.

“He was very excited to go into the hockey hall because of Heavy and I,” Evason said. “To have the three of us in there at the same time it’s really remarkable. You see sometimes in families that there is a good athlete and one not so good, or one is good in one sport and one’s good at another. Because of my dad, we were all very gifted in almost every sport that we were able to take up.

“But it wasn’t just the gene pool. I think was his teaching when we were young, the time that he spent with us working on it. He never forced us to skate, he never forced us to go to the ball diamond, he never forced us to do anything. We just did it and he did it with us. We did it together.”

Dean, who was 15 when he moved to Brandon with his family in 1979, was the first of the three men to go into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame. He starred in the Western Hockey League with the Spokane Chiefs and Kamloops Junior Oilers before going on to a 15-year pro career in which he played 858 regular season and playoff games in the NHL.

He was inducted in 2005.

“It was a huge honour,” Evason said. “Manitoba is considered one of the provinces that produce NHL hockey players and/or hockey people in general. There are so many people who are involved in the game so it was a great honour for me to be inducted into the Manitoba hall of fame.”

His brother Heavy was inducted in 2009 as a builder, five years after he passed away on March 6, 2004 at age 41.

Dean said Heavy was a player first — and a very good one — who played for the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Dauphin Kings. The two brothers even won a Manitoba title and went to the Air Canada Cup with the UCT Brandon midget team, which included a young goalie named Ron Hextall.

Dean added that while Heavy’s stature didn’t allow him to advance as a player, he loved hockey and the hockey community loved him.

“He concentrated his thoughts on coaching and managing events …,” Evason said. “I think what he brought with his coaching and his managing and his building was his personality. He was just such a charismatic guy who everyone loved and it didn’t matter who you were, if you were the best player or the worst player or if you were not a player.

“If you were 10 years old or 70 years old, Heavy treated you the exact same way: With respect and dignity. I think that’s what really sets him apart.”

Heavy spent two decades coaching, managing and scouting in junior and professional hockey, serving as the executive director of the Royal Bank Cup when he was the director of hockey operations for the Flin Flon Bombers.

He coached the Portage Terriers, Neepawa Natives and South East Blades in the MJHL.

Between the two Evason inductions in the hockey hall, Al had one of his own when he was called to the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame.

The outfielder played with the Dauphin Redbirds, Bowsman Maroons, Thompson Reds and Flin Flon Johnny’s Cardinals, winning batting titles and MVP awards throughout his career.

“My dad didn’t say too much,” Evason said. “He was a very quiet, very reserved man and rarely, rarely would you ever hear him talk about what he did on the baseball field or what he did in a hockey arena. But anyone who you would talk to, especially with his baseball background, would talk about what an incredible baseball player he was. His hitting was exceptional and his athletic ability in general was at such a high level. Everybody raves about how he played the game.”

The honours weren’t done yet.

The Warriors won three intermediate titles in Manitoba in a row, but in 1966 they captured the Edmonton Journal Cup by beating the Kenora Thistles, Kindersley Klippers and Lloydminster Border Kings in best-of-five series. With no Eastern champ crowned that year for a national final, the Warriors were the top intermediate squad in Canada.

The team was formally inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame on Oct. 5, 2019.

Al passed away on May 11, 2019, prior to the induction but with the knowledge that he would be joining his boys in the hall. 

“He got a twinkle in his eye when he was excited about things and a sheepish grin,” Evason said. “He wouldn’t express it to you openly, but you knew how proud he was.”

While the three men of the family were inducted, Dean said his mother Sheila deserves a lot of credit too. His father’s genetics helped, but Dean said his mother’s toughness completed the package.

“You also have to have the mental capacity, the emotional part of it, the grit, the drive, the desire, and although my dad did have that, my mom has it 10-fold to what my dad did,” Evason said. “My mom isn’t athletic but my mom is very, very driven and very committed to whatever she does. I think the combination of the two of them allowed Heavy and I to have success in the sporting world.”

Dean’s accomplishments continue to accumulate.

He joined the Minnesota Wild staff as an assistant coach in June 2018 after six seasons as head coach of the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals, and was named interim head coach of the Wild on Feb. 14 after the club fired Bruce Boudreau earlier that day.

The married father of three was able to share the news with his mother, but Al and Heavy weren’t there to revel in the moment too.

“It’s certainly sad that my dad wasn’t able to see me coach my first game in the National Hockey League but I know that he’s looking down,” Evason said. “I know that every day not only because I was able to coach a game in the National Hockey League as a head coach, but I know he’s watching everything that we do and very proud. He was not a guy who would grab you and give you a big hug and say how much he was proud of you. You knew, and he didn’t have to say it.

“I think when you’re a little bit younger you want a little bit more emotion or physical (contact), but we both knew — Heavy knew before he passed — and I knew my entire life that just wasn’t my dad.

“I knew when my dad was proud and I knew that he would be very proud of not only being a head coach in the National Hockey League, but what I’ve done in sports and hopefully what I’ve done as a person.”

 

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

 

» Twitter: @PerryBergson