Former Canes captain Seabrook to be inducted on to Wall of Honour

By Lethbridge Herald on October 18, 2023.

Calgary Flames' Eric Nystrom, right, and Chicago Blackhawks' Brent Seabrook chase the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Former Lethbridge Hurricanes defencemen and captain Brent Seabrook will be back in the city in late January to be honoured by the team.

It was announced by the team earlier this week that Seabrook will be the loan  inductee on to the Lethbridge Hurricanes Wall of Honour  in the player’s category  on Jan. 26, 2024 and a night later will be the special guest at the Celebrity Dinner at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge.

“Excited,” said Seabrook in a Zoom meeting with local media on Tuesday.

“I mean I think it’s really cool. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back. So I’m excited to get back into Lethbridge and back to the rink and yeah, really cool. I had a lot of good memories and I wish we could’ve had a little more success when we were there. But it really helped shape by career as a hockey player and my time in Lethbridge.”

Seabrook played four season for the Canes from 2001- 2005, where he appeared in 264 regular season games where he tallied 176 points ( 39 goals, 137 assists) and added five points in nine playoff games.

The Tsawwassen, B.C. product captained  the Canes for three seasons where he set a career high in points as a 19-year-old  with 54, 107 penalty minutes and plus-25 ratings.

Internationally, he represented Canada at the 2003 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup  where he captured gold. He also wore the red and white twice with the national junior team where he won a silver medal in 2004 before and winning gold in 2005.

Seabrook credits his billets for making it like home when he was 16 years old, then coach Bryan Maxwell for teaching him the little things and his teammates.

“I had a lot of great teammates there. We had a lot of fun,” said Seabrook.

“But we learned a lot and we were a team on the ice. So it was great.”

Seabrook felt pretty lucky to experience a lot of great moments in his career.

“I was lucky enough to be on some great teams that won and winning an Olympic Gold Medal.  I don’t know if I could just pick one,” said Seabrook.

“I think anytime you win, you have success. A lot of great moments come throughout that. I think scoring big goals, being part of trying to hold leads. I think as a hockey player, (what)  I really took out of those championship seasons was the grind of the year. It was the grind of the year getting there, getting into the playoffs, the grind of the first round, second round, third round,  fourth round (and) getting it all together. Some of the greatest moments I had is I think just throughout the grind, and being together and pulling that same rope and going out there and trying to win a game.”

Seabrook won three Stanley Cups in 15 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and spoke about what it was like to be in that era with team.

“It was awesome,” he said,

“ I mean being a part of that group, we had a good group. We lost a bunch of guys; we were able to get some other guys and get that going again. But when you’re playing hockey and you have a chance to win every night, I think it’s pretty special and it’s fun to be a part of that. I know going into a lot of those games, we had our ups and downs throughout the season and throughout the playoffs we had our ups and downs, but every night that we played, we felt like  we had a chance to win.”

Seabrook skated in 1,114 games in Blackhawks uniform and totalled 464 points and additionally added 59 points in 123 playoff games.

He won a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics and represented Team Canada in 2006 at the World Championships in Latvia.

It was announced last week that Seabrook will be a part of the management group that includes current Hurricanes  general manager Peter Anholt for this year’s World Junior team in what will be his first time working with Team Canada in this type of role.

“I’m really excited,” said Seabrook.

“Since I’ve retired, my sort of thought process has been to try and soak up and learn as much as I can. Do I think I can go play an NHL game tomorrow, I probably could. I might be minus-10 and get burnt a whole bunch of times and be the worst player on the ice, but I could do it. And this other side of it I think is very interesting to me and intriguing. I want to stay in hockey. I love the game of hockey and for me since I’ve retired, I’ve tried to do whatever I could to gain experience as I did the Prospects Game last year, I did development with the (Vancouver) Giants last year. When Mike Dyck was the coach two years ago for the world juniors I was the assistant coach for the Giants. So I’ve just been trying to do things like that.”

Tickets for the Celebrity Dinner on Jan. 27. will go on sale at a later date.