THUNDER BAY — Former NHLer Ryan Parent and Stanley Cup-winning assistant coach Jamie Kompon head this year’s Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame induction class.
The hockey duo will be joined by golfer Bill Seagris, builders Peter Young and Peter Gallagher, and the 2010 Esso Cup-winning Thunder Bay Queens hockey team, the hall of fame announced on Wednesday.
Parent, who won gold playing for Canada at the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship, grew up in Sioux Lookout and was a first-round pick of the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm before going in the first round to the Nashville Predators in the 2005 National Hockey League draft.
The 18th overall pick never dressed for the Predators, however, dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he made a one-game debut in 2006-07. He’d go on to play 106 games with the Flyers and Vancouver Canucks, scoring once and adding six assists, his final NHL season coming in 2010-11.
Seagris was one of the region’s top amateur golfers in his heyday, winning the District Open title five times in six years, starting in 1999. He also captured the District Amateur championship in 2001 and has his name engraved on the Strathcona Invitational trophy, winning the tournament in 1997.
The Red Rock-born Seagris won more than 40 invitational titles in Northwestern Ontario, three straight Ontario university golf championships, had low amateur honours at the 2001 Canadian Tour Heritage Classic and placed third at the Canadian Amateur Golf Championship in 2006.
In the builder category, Gallagher is a familiar face around the diamond, though he’s probably best-known as the organizer of the region’s top annual ski race, the Sleeping Giant Loppett.
Gallagher grew up in the Thunder Bay sports community and spent years volunteering with the Port Arthur Continental Little League, Grandview Recreation Hockey, Volunteer Pool Soccer and was a key figure in the development of the Thunder Bay Squash League. He’s also served as PRO Kids board member and given his time to the Firefighters Ten Mile Road Race.
Kompon, who played university hockey at McGill University before embarking on a two-year professional career in the ECHL, made his mark as an assistant coach in the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and the following year with the Chicago Blackhawks. He spent his first nine years in the league as a video coach with the St. Louis Blues and most recently helped lead the Florida Panthers to the 2023 Stanley Cup final.
Broadcaster Peter Young, who started his career at Thunder Bay’s CJLX and CJLB radio stations, and became the voice of the Thunder Bay Twins before leaving for CKY-TV in Winnipeg, where he broadcast games for the Winnipeg Jets when they were in the World Hockey Association.
He later became the primary host of CTV’s Wide World of Sports and covered three Olympic Games in the 1980s.
The Queens, whose roster included the likes of Amanda Makela and Michela Cava, went 4-1 at the 2010 Esso Cup, downing the Edmonton Thunder 2-1 in the semifinal before going on to defeat the always powerful Notre Dame Hounds with a 4-3, come-from-behind win in the championship round.
The induction ceremony will take place on Sept. 30 at the Valhalla Inn. Tickets for the 40th annual event are $100 and are available by calling the Hall of Fame at 807-622-2852, by email at [email protected] or at the hall itself, located at 219 May St. S.
