When Wayne Van Dorp joined the Burnaby Minor Hockey Association at a young age nobody envisioned he’d go on to an extensive professional career that included 125 regular season and 27 playoff games with four NHL teams. Van Dorp was rarely selected to play rep hockey, but once he grew into his six-foot-four, 225-pound frame he became enticing to junior scouts.
He went from playing Midget B to the B.C. Junior A Hockey League’s Bellingham Blazers to the Seattle Breakers of the Western Hockey League. After a stint in Europe and the minor leagues, he was signed by the Buffalo Sabres, who traded him to Edmonton in March 1987. The Oilers liked Van Dorp’s 192 penalty minutes in 47 games playing for Buffalo’s farm team, the Rochester Americans.
Those Oilers, of course, went on to win their third Stanley Cup earning Van Dorp the sport’s most prized possession, a Cup ring. In his NHL career, the left winger scored 12 goals and 12 assists to go along with his 565 penalty minutes.
