WORCESTER—Every ECHL season brings some new dimension to pro hockey. This season is no different as the Railers resume their home schedule with games Friday and Saturday nights at the DCU Center against the Adirondack Thunder.
This year’s team has the United Nations feel to its roster with players from five different countries donning the Worcester uniform. Those five nations are the United States, Canada, Finland, Hungary and Russia. There are 15 Americans and five Canadians on the team. The Russian contingent includes Henrik Tikkanen is the Finn, Zsombar Garat the Hungarian and Artyom Kulakov and Andrei Bakanov.
Michigan has sent along four players, and Massachusetts supplied three. New York and and New Hampshire have two apiece. New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Wisconsin and Kansas have one each. Those are birthplaces, not necessarily where the players grew up.
The four Canadians are divided up two ways; Riley Piercey, Tristan Lennox and Anthony Repaci are from Ontario, whereas Connor Welsh is from Nova Scotia.
When Lennox made his pro debut in goal and John Copeland made his pro debut on defense at the DCU Center on Oct. 22, they became the 689th and 690th players to wear a Worcester pro uniform including the IceCats, Sharks and Railers.
The Worcester Warriors, vintage 1954-55, were in the pro Eastern League but did not have any pro players on the roster, so don’t really count.
Those 690 players include players from 17 different countries including the United States and Canada. The other 15 are the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Finland, Austria, Belarus, Germany, Kazhakstan, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ukraine.
Thirty states have produced Worcester hockey players, and the city has even had a player from Washington, D.C.
Canada is represented by nine of its 10 different provinces. The only one not on the list is Newfoundland, and none of the three territories have sent players here, although original IceCat Jarrett Deuling was born in British Columbia but grew up in the Yukon.
In the Battle of the Nations, Canada leads the United States, 319-298, in players sent to Worcester.
What about the outliers?
In the USA, Delaware has produced just one American player: Railer Dwyer Schantz. Another Railer, Chris Oordobadi, is from the District of Columbia. There have been two Iowans, one of them Christian Evers from last season’s Railers. IceCats sniper Fred Knipscheer, who also lived in West Boylston, is the only guy on the roster from Indiana.
Current Railers forward Jake Pivonka was born in Kansas in 2000, the same year his dad Michal — a longtime NHL standout — was finishing his career with the Kansas City Blades of the International Hockey League.
Nick Sorkin, a great scorer in the early Railers days and a great golfer, is the only Worcester pro from Maryland. Original IceCats defenseman Brian Straub was born in Montana, but grew up in New Jersey. Matthew Sredl, a Railers rookie, is from North Carolina.
Only one of the city’s 690 pro players was born in Oregon. Only one coach, too. It is the same guy, current Railers coach Jordan Smotherman.
The only Prince Edward Island native is a good one, defenseman Ryan MacKinnon. Tomas Razingar, who skated for the IceCats in 1999, is the lone Slovenian. Defenseman Mirco Mueller, one of the last players to debut with the Sharks, is the only Swiss player; goalie Reinhard Divis of the IceCats is the only one from neighboring Austria. Forward Konstantin Zakharov, an IceCat, is the only Belarus native to play here.
Sharks forward Willie Coetzee is the only one of the 690 from the continent of Africa. He spent his early years in South Africa. The Lone Star state has sent one player here, and it was last year. That was Railers defenseman Josh Victor of Texas, who played also college hockey at Fitchburg State.
The overall Battle of the Birthplaces is won by Ontario. It led every state and province by sending 121 players to Worcester. Second place is held by the Bay State itself with 74 of its players wearing Worcester uniforms.
Before this Railers season is over, the city’s all-time roster should break the 700 mark. Maybe then Worcester will have New Mexican or an Oklahoman or even — dare we say — a Hawaiian.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
