The entire Sutter clan will take its place in the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame this year.
Brothers Brent, Brian, Darryl, Duane, Gary, Rich and Ron and parents Grace and Louis, plus five other men and women who have left their mark on hockey, were named to the hall on Wednesday.
The Sutters, of Viking, Alta., are Alberta hockey legends. Six of the brothers played in the NHL, racking up 4,994 regular season games in the process. They have eight Stanley Cups as players or coaches.
They started the Sutter Fund in 1996 and it has given away $2 million to local charities raised through an annual golf tournament.
Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame’s gallery is located at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum on the west side of Red Deer. Members of each year’s induction class are asked to provide trophies, medallions or other memoriabilia from their careers.
Joining the Sutters in the hall are Coronation-raised Mel Davidson, who won Olympic gold three times while coaching the Canada Women’s National Team.
She has also won four gold medals and two silver medals as coach in the International Ice Hockey Federation Championships and a silver with the Under-18 team. She also has coached her women to five golds and a silver at the Three Nations/Four Nations Cup.
Glen Sather is the former coach, general manager and president of the five-time Stanley Cup-winning Edmonton Oilers. He was born in High River and grew up in Wainwright. After 10 years as an NHL player he became head coach of the Wayne Gretzky-led Oilers to four Stanley Cups and a fifth without the superstar. He went to the New York Rangers in 2000, where he is currently president.
A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame since 1997, he was also involved in numerous international tournaments including the Canada Cup and the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Bill Hay, who is from Lumsden, Sask., played eight NHL seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, winning a Stanley Cup in 1961. He went on to serve 15 years as chair and CEO of the Hockey Hall of Fame to which he was inducted in 2015.
In Alberta, he was part of the group that brought the Flames to Calgary from Atlanta in 1980 and was a part-owner and president and CEO with the team before joining Hockey Canada in 1998.
Tony Kollman, of Major, Sask. was one of the more notable senior hockey players to lace them up in the 1960s. He made his mark in Alberta with an 11-year career with the Drumheller Miners, winning the Alberta Senior Hockey championship four times and the Allan Cup in 1966.
He helped introduce Junior A hockey to East-Central Alberta as co-owner of the Drumheller Falcons, which played from 1971-82.
Stettler’s Perry Pearn has the second-most wins in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, including six championships. As a player, he was a member of the 1971 Centennial Cup champion Red Deer Rustlers.
He has been coach and assistant at just about every level of hockey, including the NHL, where he has been an assistant coach since 1995 and is currently with the Vancouver Canucks.
They will be officially honoured at a gala in Canmore on July 23.