Don Cherry talks NHL in Seattle and offers up his pick for an expansion team name

Former NHL head coach and longtime Canadian hockey broadcaster Don Cherry can’t remember the last time he was in Seattle exactly, but it must have been in the late 1960’s during his time with the WHL’s Vancouver Canucks. Cherry’s Canucks would have played the Seattle Totems back then, in fact Cherry recalls that Totems captain Guyle Fielder floored him. He’d flourish in today’s NHL, says Cherry.

“They play his style,’’ Cherry said in conversation with Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times. “It’s not as rough as it used to be and he wasn’t a big guy. So, he’d have been good.’’

Cherry also played a season with the Spokane Comets of the same minor-professional league and remembers Seattle as a “great hockey city.” At 85, Cherry is hoping he gets a chance to make a return to the city in 2021 to see the dormant hockey market in Western Washington come back alive. Also, he has a name picked out… should anyone tab him for an opinion. It should surprise no one, since Don is such an old school guy, that his choice for the expansion franchise is… surprise, surprise… the Seattle Totems.

Former Seattle Thunderbirds forward Turner Stevenson, who is now 47 years old, is a British Columbia native who played 11 NHL seasons and now coaches competitive youth teams in Everett.  He grew up on a steady diet of Don Cherry and in particular, he watched Cherry’s videos as a teenager and found them instructional — especially for kids. 

“I love him and his passion,” Stevenson said. “He’s old school and he’s opinionated and has a lot of beliefs that are still in the game from years ago — which is great.”

Cherry is old school and he’s not changing for anyone. 

“A lot of those beliefs and values are still there,” Stevenson said. “If (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman were to come out and try to ban fighting, there’s no way you’re getting all 31 GMs, owners and head coaches to agree.”