Ken Quinney

When I was younger the National Hockey League seemed so far away from my remote northern British Columbia home. Even the "local" Vancouver Canucks may as well have been from a different planet.

So needless to say I took an immediate interest in any hockey player in northern BC who had a shot at the NHL. Hence my interest in the career of Ken Quinney.

Quinney's interesting name and the fact that he played some midget hockey in Quesnel really "Q'd" my interest. Quesnel is a 7 or 8 hour drive from where I live, and I never saw him play in person, but I still considered him to be "one of us." He was an undersized but heady scorer, darting in and out of traffic.

Quinney, who was born in New Westminster BC, certainly travelled the world thanks to hockey. He escaped the mill town south of Prince George to go and play junior hockey in Calgary for four seasons. Despite some gaudy offensive numbers Quinney was drafted late in the 1984 draft (10th round) by the Quebec Nordiques. Although things look great early (he had an assist in his first game and three assists in his second), he would go on to play in a total of just 59 NHL games (7 goals, 13 assists) over the course of three seasons. He spent many more seasons in the Nords farm system. That gave him ample time to explore the beautiful Canadian maritimes as he was stationed in Fredericton, NB and Halifax, NS.

The Detroit Red Wings signed him as a free agent in 1991, though he would be restricted to their farm team in the Adirondacks. Two years later he would break free and be an independant player in the reasonably strong IHL. He would star for five seassons in - of all places - Las Vegas. You can't much more different than Quesnel than Las Vegas, I can assure you.

In 1998 Quinney extended his career by accepting a contract with Frankfurt of the German League. He would play there until 2001 when he hung up the blades for good.

Quinney returned to Vegas and at last mention he was coaching kids hockey in the desert for several years.