Monday, May 07, 2018
John Druce- Leading the Way
The entire
village of Wellington, and, dare I say, the whole population of
Prince Edward County, have risen to the occasion in support of the
Wellington Dukes. The Dukes have already won one big piece of
hardware, the Buckland Cup, and are now in Dryden in search of
another, the Dudley-Hewitt Cup.
I spoke recently with
Randy Uens, the Vice-President of hockey operations for the Dukes.
Randy paid tribute to his head coach, John Druce, and to his
assistant, Derek Smith. Many Duke fans will remember “Smitty” as
a really solid defenceman who moved on to several higher ranks in
hockey, including the NHL.
Druce is most famous
for an incredible playoff stretch he had with the Washington
Capitals. He had split the season between the Baltimore Skipjacks and
the Capitals. He played 15 games in the playoffs that year,
1989-1990, and scored 14 goals. In any interview-type situations,
that is the first subject that comes up. Druce is tired of it. His
pro hockey career began in 1986, following three years with the
Peterborough Petes.
He was selected in the
second round, 40th overall, by the Capitals, and spent two
years with the Binghampton Whalers. The following year he went to the
Skipjacks, and spent the next ten years, for the most part in the
NHL. He finished his pro career in Germany with Hannover and
Augsburg. He scored 113 goals in the NHL, and added 239 assists in
531 regular season games.
His most recent
coaching experience, outside Wellington, was with the Cobourg
Cougars. He led them to the Royal Bank Cup which they won last spring
in Cobourg. He then returned to his other lives in Peterborough,
selling for Freedom 55, and involving himself in the restaurant
business. A few years ago, John lost his daughter to leukemia. Since
that time he has spearheaded research efforts to find a cure through
the “Peddle for Hope” organization. Pretty busy guy.
Randy Uens knew John
through the old Peterborough hockey connections: Herb Raglan, Steve
Chiasson, Brent Tully, to name a few. The town has always been a
hockey hotbed, and many NHL players and retirees spend their summers
there dropping a line or two in Stony Lake, humming Ronnie Hawkins
tunes while they fish.
Last January 4th,
Randy was able to convince Druce that it would be a good idea to come
to Wellington to finish the season. Which leads us to the present:
the round-robin, four team series in Dryden.
On two other occasions,
the Dukes have been on the brink of capturing the Canadian Hockey
Championship at this level, “Junior A”, once in Prince Edward
Island, and once in Alberta.
As they line up on the
blue lines for the 2018-2019 season, many Wellingtonians would like
to see that Royal Bank Cup banner unfurled at the “DukeDome”.
The games will be shown
at the arena in the Highland Hall. I expect to see you there.
James Hurst.
April 30, 2018
# posted by James Hurst @ 4:28 PM 
