Monday, September 10, 2018
Matt Stajan-Off to Germany 2018
One of the most popular players in Belleville Bulls history is taking his game — and his family — to Germany.
Matt Stajan, who once topped an Intelligencer fan vote for Most Popular Bull, has inked a deal with EHC Red Bull Munchen of the German League after 15 years in the NHL. The Mississauga native played in the OHL for the Bulls from 2000-03 and was a second-round selection (No. 57) of his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2002 NHL draft.
This week, Stajan told Postmedia reporter Kristen Anderson he was already teaching his three-year-old son, Elliot, a few words in German. The 34-year-old centre says playing in Europe, where it’s a good guess he might wrap up his career, will be an awesome adventure that his family — which also includes wife Katie and infant son Dylan — is eager to embrace.
“It’ll be fun,” he said.
Stajan was definitely fun to watch during his Bulls career, especially his final season (2002-03) in the OHL when he played between rugged and sure-handed wingers Cody McCormick and Adam Paiement on Belleville’s vaunted Executive Line. An offensively-challenged Bulls team could muster just 195 goals that season and the Executive Line accounted for 100 of those— McCormick, 36; Stajan, 34; and Paiement, 30.
Stajan tacked on 60 assists to lead the Bulls with 94 points in 57 games. Plus, he and his Executive Line mates were the reason underdog Belleville almost pulled off what would’ve been a shocking upset of heavily-favoured Toronto St. Mike’s in a first-round playoff series that went the distance.
Rarely coming off the ice during that thrilling seven-game affair, the Execs were the only three Bulls to collect more than 10 points over the course of the series — Stajan, 5-8-13; Paiement, 6-5-11; and McCormick, 4-7-11.
As has been mentioned more than once in this space before, Bulls head coach Jim Hulton claimed no sudden stroke of genius when he slapped the Executive Line together. He did it out of pure necessity. “They were by far our three best guys,” said Hulton. “They had to play together.”
But scoring goals and setting up his teammates was only part of Stajan’s game in Belleville. Not the biggest player on the ice at six-foot-one and, then, probably less than 175 pounds, Stajan played an all-around game. He was excellent on the draw, played solid in the defensive and neutral zones, and was rarely — if ever — outworked by anybody wearing an enemy jersey.
And, along with all of that, Stajan was simply just a good, down-to-earth kid. Fans loved him here, especially the young ones.
As the story goes, after Stajan was drafted by Toronto, his dad — who was operating a factory in the city — summoned all of his employees into the lunchroom and treated them to beer and sandwiches to celebrate. Production? It was shut down for the day.
Except for one full season with the AHL Baby Leafs in St. John’s where he enjoyed his most prolific professional campaign — 23 goals, 66 points in 80 games in 2004-04 — Stajan spent six seasons in Toronto before a trade to Calgary. He played for the Flames for nine winters, including 68 games last season, and became something of a semi-player-coach for the NHL club in the later stages of his big-league career.
Stajan never put up the kind of numbers in the NHL that he did in Belleville — 16 goals, twice; 40 assists; and 55 points are his single-season career-highs — but his work ethic and responsible defensive play allowed him to stick around and make a valuable contribution for more than 1,000 games in The Show.
Stajan’s contract with Calgary has expired and he said going to Europe to play in Germany will fulfill a personal goal. And, he feels wanted again.
“The team, the management has been great with communicating and arranging everything,” he told Postmedia. “We have no regrets. We’re excited to move there and move forward, and experience playing over there.”
Stajan isn’t the first former Bull to play in Europe late in his pro career. Steve Bancroft played for the Augsburg Panthers in 2004-05 and still raves about the wonderful time he and his family had there as he put a capper on a lengthy and satisfying career.
More recently, Bulls franchise Iron Man — Stephen Silas — spent last season in France with Epinal.
• Need to know: Stajan was a fourth-round steal by the Bulls in the 1999 OHL draft. Over his three-year career in Belleville, he produced at better than a point-per-game clip with 206 (76 goals, 130 assists) in 182 regular-season games and 31 (nine goals, 22 assists) in 25 playoff contests.
Notes from The Intelligencer....Paul Svoboda
# posted by James Hurst @ 3:37 PM 
