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By Grant GrangerNewsLeader
Jun 15 2007

June 22 will be Good Friday for hockey in Burnaby and New Westminster.

National Hockey League brass and bird dogs will gather in Columbus next Friday for the first round of the 2007 entry draft. Two of the prime players in the sights of hockey’s hierarchy are Kyle Turris and Karl Alzner. Both grew up in this neck of the woods about eight kilometres apart.

Turris, a centre for the Burnaby Express of the B.C. Hockey League, was born in New Westminster and raised in a 100-year-old house near Queen’s Park. He is rated by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau as the top North American skater available next Friday. It’s almost certain he’ll go in the top three, if not first overall. The first trio of selectors – Chicago, Philadelphia and Phoenix – have all shown a lot of interest in Turris.

Alzner is a defenceman who has toiled the last three years for the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League. He was brought up in a house very near where he was born, Burnaby Hospital. He is ranked fifth by CSB. Los Angeles, which picks fourth, may be interested but Edmonton with the sixth pick is thought to be very interested.

It should be an unprecedented pair of picks for the area. New Westminster has never had a first-rounder. Burnaby has had the likes of Kris Chucko (2004, 24th overall), Kenndal McArdle (2005, 20th), Joe Sakic (1987, 15th) and Ryan Walter, who went second overall to the Washington Capitals in 1978.

“It’s pretty exciting that Burnaby/New West would get a chance to have kids drafted that high. That doesn’t happen that often,” said Walter. “It’s very exciting because we don’t have any outdoor ice.”

Walter went on to play 1003 NHL games scoring 264 goals and 946 points over 15 seasons for Washington, Montreal and Vancouver. Not bad for a kid born in New West and raised at the top of Cariboo Road where natural ice is non-existent and during a time when artificial ice was scarce.

“That’s where you always have to give parents of kids in Burnaby and New West credit because they were getting up very early in the morning (for practice and games),” said Walter, who spends his time these days doing hockey commentary, developing coaching tools, motivational speaking and running ryanwalter.com.

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