Mennonite Hockey Hall of Fame

Eisshockey

    We are just in the quarterfinals competition for Lord Stanley's Cup -- the international award for the National Hockey League of the United States and Canada.  Even without the steller Jonathan Toews, the quiet ethnic Mennonite boy from Manitoba made good in Chicago, the youngest captain of a major league team and already the proud owner of his first Stanely Cup title, there is still plenty of ethnic Mennonite hockey action to be caught in the Los Angeles Kings and the Washington Capitals and plenty of heritage distributed across the board (note:  for our purposes, we are merely identifying those players with an ethnic Mennonite or Amish connection, while making no claims regarding any particular religious affiliations.)

    The following are fourteen of the best major leagues hockey players to come from Mennonite extraction.  While all of the indicated hockey players are more or less from Canada, they do represent both Russian Mennonite heritage and the Eastern Mennonite heritage of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.  In fact, were Kitchener to team up with Rosthern, Sask., where the Regehrs call home in Canada, they would make a great rivalry for the Winnipeg-Winkler Mennonite hockey powerhouse.

    We even have a missionary family represented by both Robyn and Richard Regehr.  Robin was born while his family was on mission to Brazil and his younger brother Richie was born in Indonesia.  Nor are they the only brothers represented.  While Jonathan Toew's younger brother David Ryan has yet to make his mark in the majors, he has been included for having been drafted into the major leagues.  There are a few other teams of cousins that could be constructed easily if we were to list all minor league Mennonite hockey players... but that would take more time than I have -- though there is the tantalizing possibility of at least one American Mennonite family dynasty in the persons of the Miller clan of Michigan -- though apart from their name there is no evidence that they are either Mennonite or of Mennonite-descent -- so until more information is gathered, Mennonite hockey remains a Canadian monopoly.

    So have some fun, get into the game... If ever a sport were designed to appeal to the skills and joys of the Mennonite athlete, ice hockey has to be a prime candidate -- especially now that you know some of the players:  (read further for player profiles)