Latest Start to Hockey?

[TheStranger]

Just wondering if anyone has heard or read about guys starting the game really late and having some success? Now, I don't mean first time skating at like 30 and making the NHL by 33, or something crazy. I just mean...most guys start skating and some basic hockey by 3-4 years old. Anyone start at like 10?

[STLBlueshistory]

Originally Posted by TheStranger

Just wondering if anyone has heard or read about guys starting the game really late and having some success? Now, I don't mean first time skating at like 30 and making the NHL by 33, or something crazy. I just mean...most guys start skating and some basic hockey by 3-4 years old. Anyone start at like 10?

Not 100% sure on your definition of starting the game really late means....

Ed Kea is an example of someone who did not play organized hockey until around the age of 17 with a Jr 'C' team.

Of course on top of that the sad story with the hit by George McPhee (clean hit) and his drowning a few years later.

[jkrx]

There is already atleast one thread like this.

[Hardyvan123]

Jovo apparently didn't start playing until he was 10 years old.

That was the word when he was in Vancouver and his hockey sense kind of showed that at times.

[Franck]

I've heard Holmström started pretty late, but I don't have any written source to back that claim up.

[UltimateHockeyFan8]

Lionel Conacher started skating when he was 16.

[Death of a Martian]

When did Ovechkin start, I remember hearing it was when he was 10 or something...

[lextune]

Eddie Shore is the answer.

He was a great athlete, (baseball and soccer), but it wasn't until he was almost 18 that he started pursuing hockey in earnest.

10 years later he was winning the Hart Trophy..

[crobro]

gino odjick didnt play organized hockey till he was 17

[seventieslord]

Pierre pilote only started in his teens.

[Inkling]

Yvon Lambert received his first pair of skates at age 13, and didn't play organised hockey until he was 15.

[alko]

Richard Panik, second round pick from Tampa Bay in 2008, started to skate, when he was 9. But he isnt in NHL now, so i dont know, if thats counting.

[tarheelhockey]

I was expecting to see examples of games being delayed till 9pm or something...

[Psycho Papa Joe]

I think Mike Komisarek got started in the game pretty late.

I think some of the early Soviet stars didn't get their starts until their 20's. Before that they were Bandy players.

[luffis]

i think kharlamov didnt start playing organized hockey until the age of 14

[arrbez]

I think Curtis Joseph was like 13 when he first played organized hockey. I've heard he only began skating at age 10 or so.

[VMBM]

Originally Posted by luffis

i think kharlamov didnt start playing organized hockey until the age of 14

Well, if the Russians count, then Vsevolod Bobrov is the man. He started as a 23-year old (about the same time they started to play hockey in Soviet Union), and inside a few years he became the best hockey player in Europe - all that while he also continued playing soccer (until 1957, I think). Of course, competition wasn't as strong as in Kharlamov's time.

[Gustafsson]

I thought Jovanovski started at like 12-13?

[Franck]

Originally Posted by VMBM

Well, if the Russians count, then Vsevolod Bobrov is the man. He started as a 23-year old (about the same time they started to play hockey in Soviet Union), and inside a few years he became the best hockey player in Europe - all that while he also continued playing soccer (until 1957, I think). Of course, competition wasn't as strong as in Kharlamov's time.

I'd presume he is one of those players who switched from bandy to hockey?

[VMBM]

Originally Posted by Franck

I'd presume he is one of those players who switched from bandy to hockey?

Yup. So it was not as if he started from scratch or anything, but a multitalented geezer nevertheless!

[Form and Substance]

I made a thread like this last year. Anyway to keep it going, I think Joe Mullen started pretty late...in his teens if I recall.

[frontsfan2005]

Originally Posted by alko

Richard Panik, second round pick from Tampa Bay in 2008, started to skate, when he was 9. But he isnt in NHL now, so i dont know, if thats counting.

He scored a pretty sick goal for Guelph last night, kicking the puck with his skate to his stick, then putting the puck past the Sarnia goaltender. Its on www.guelphstorm.com, play starts about 2:35 on their Storm VS Sting highlights video.

[JackFr]

Joe Mullen didn't start skating until he was 13.