Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

LOCAL HOCKEY HEROES

Kamloops Kids: Recchi and Stankoven make a name for the River City

May 30, 2023 | 4:06 PM

KAMLOOPS — In the spring of 1980, a peewee team from Kamloops won the BC Provincial hockey championship. On that team, a young Mark Recchi toiled at centre ice, dreams of greatness in his head.

“You always dream big when you’re a kid playing street hockey and playing on the ice and having some fun. You always have big dreams,” Recchi tells CFJC Today. “I had the dream of playing for the Blazers — it was the Junior Oilers when I was growing up.”

Those dreams became reality for Recchi. He played two seasons of junior hockey in Kamloops, racking up 230 points for the Blazers. He then went on to one of the greatest NHL careers in history. 1,652 games played, 1,533 points and three Stanley Cups.

Despite a 35-year gap in age between the two, current Blazer Captain Logan Stankoven is well aware of Recchi’s accomplishments.

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“Definitely a Kamloops connection and a guy that I looked up to,” Stankoven says with a smile. “Not the biggest guy, either. Undersized guy, but just brought everything to the ice and was able to contribute lots to whatever team he played for.”

There’s a whole generation between the two players. Recchi was in his second-to-last season with the Philadelphia Flyers when Logan was born in 2003. However, as many in the community know, Mark has always done his best to connect with young hockey players in Kamloops.

“When he was coaching with Pittsburgh, I gave him a couple of [Sidney] Crosby cards to sign,” Stankoven recalls. “It was a few years later, I think maybe he had lost the cards or something, but he ended up bringing me back a Sidney Crosby signed jersey saying, ‘To Logan.’ It was pretty cool, and that’s just the classy guy he is, and definitely a super down-to-earth human being.”

Giving back to the community is something Logan has personified during his time with the Blazers. His work with Hockey Gives Blood is just one example of using his notoriety to help ensure others are taken care of in the community. As a member of the Blazers ownership group, it’s something Recchi has noticed, too.

“If you know his parents, you know why he’s such a great kid,” Recchi says. “He gives back in a lot of areas in Kamloops, and he’s a real special person and a special player. This is pretty cool for him to be able to have a Memorial Cup here and pretty much finish his junior career. Hopefully, it’s on a high note.”

Recchi’s place in the hockey history of Kamloops is undeniable and Stankoven is aware of that legacy. However, Logan is working to blaze his own trail in the hockey landscape.

“It would be nice to follow in his footsteps and hopefully play in the NHL someday,” Stankoven says. “For me, it’s about creating my own legacy and being a good person off the ice, too. It’s a lot of fun working hard and being a great hockey player, but I think the contributions you make off the ice speak just as much as the ones on the ice, so that’s something that I focus on as well.”