Guys, I've gotten into the habit recently of rummaging through the archives at DYG and HockeyDB to learn about some of the wild players, teams, leagues, and brawls of yesteryear. I can usually find enough to satisfy myself from the stats listed there, fight comments, postings here, old newspaper articles, etc. But I'd like to pick your brains to see how much you know of an old Western Hockey League team: the Seattle Breakers and their 1981-1982 team specifically.
This group looks like one of the rowdiest bunch of goons ever assembled, which makes sense since they skated during the massive arms race that was the WHL in the late 1970s and early 1980s sparked by teams like the legendary New Westminster Bruins and the
Saskatoon Blades. I've read that there nickname around the league was the "The Seattle Gangsters" but some these guys could play the game and apparently play the game quite well.
*Of the 25 players who suited up at least 10 games, 20 had more PIMs than games played.
*They had an equal number of players with 10+ goals and 100+ PIMs (13), and 9 players accomplished both.
These players caught my eye the most:
*D Wayne Prestage 72GP, 50G, 58A, 197 PIM
*D Craig Channell 71GP, 9G, 79A, 244 PIM
*RW Brent Shaw 71GP, 33G, 42A, 209 PIM
*LW Ken Ficocelli 71GP, 39G, 34A, 185 PIM
*D Phil Stanger 61GP, 13G, 28A, 349 PIM
*RW Marc LeClair 50GP, 21G, 19A, 284 PIM
*RW
Mitch Wilson 60GP, 18G, 17A, 436 PIM
*D
Steve Dykstra 57GP, 8G, 26A, 139 PIM
*RW
Alan Kerr 68GP, 15G, 18A, 107 PIM
*RW Pat Smith 71GP, 10G, 20A, 102 PIM
*D
Ken Daneyko 38GP, 1G, 22A, 151 PIM
*Les Bellai 60GP, 11G, 9A, 132 PIM
*Lee Robbins 59GP, 4G, 8A, 100 PIM
Everyone knows Daneyko (although I don't know anything about his pre-NHL days), and Kerr and Dykstra spent time bruising their knuckles in the NHL in the mid-late 1980s but I've frankly never heard of most of the guys who looked like they played some mean hockey for a tough team and put up a ton of PIMs throughout their, mostly short, careers. Does anyone have any stories or information about this team or its players?