By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Toronto Maple Leafs alumni tour coming to Lethbridge

Nov 24, 2016 | 11:32 AM

LETHBRIDGE – A very unique opportunity is coming to Lethbridge for hockey fans, particularly those who cheer for a certain original six Canadian team.

Our city has been included in the Toronto Maple Leafs Alumni Century Tour as they celebrate 100 NHL seasons, and will be the only stop for the group outside of Ontario.

The team will feature 10 Leafs alumni, who will go up against a University of Lethbridge Pronghorns alumni team on March 9, 2017, as part of a fundraiser for the Alberta Sport Development Centre Southwest (ASDC SW) Athlete Enhancement Program (AEP).

“I think it’s just the relationship that we had with the event company, and it’s just sort of a natural fit as well, I think that western Canada is such Leafs area and country, and not to take anything away from the [Montreal] Canadiens, but it truly is,” explained ASDC SW administrator, Neil Fraser, of the opportunity to be included on the tour.

When asked if Leafs head coach, Mike Babcock – who led the U-of-L to a national championship in 1994 – had anything to do with the stop, he explained that the connection was more of an opportunity to include the university.

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“For the Pronghorns, yeah, I mean absolutely, and of course that connection is always important when you can bring those stories, tie them all together like this,” said Fraser. “There’s a few players too in Lethbridge that played for the Leafs that we’re going to reach out to as well to bring them in.”

Fraser noted that having athletes who have played at such a high level involved in the fundraiser is the perfect way to support the AEP, which is focused on helping young athletes reach new heights.

“Basically what we do is provide elite training for high school athletes that have kind of identified what their specific sport is going to be,” explained Fraser. “We don’t necessarily do too much skills based training, we’re more into the strength and conditioning and sports sciences, so mental training. We also have access to a Dynavision board, which is a sports vision board, which is the only one south of Calgary, and actually there’s only three in western Canada from what I understand.

“Rachel Nicol was in our Athlete Enhancement Program, and so you can see how she’s progressed and this is exactly the path that we help athletes with moving on.”

The fundraising event will include a luncheon and meet and greet with all the players following the game, and Fraser stated that with it being at the Nicholas Sheran Arena, tickets will be limited.

Tickets go on sale Monday (Nov. 28) and will be available at asdcsw.ca or by calling 403-320-5271.