MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Warriors and Legends Hall of Fame officially has three new members.
Former Moose Jaw Warriors standouts Dustin Boyd and Jody Lehman joined the Multiplex Builders committee in being enshrined in the Hall of Fame during the annual induction banquet on Friday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, with the evening filled with stories, tales and many, many great memories.
Such is always the case with the special event, which is always one of the highlights of the year for the Western Hockey League squad.
“It’s been an unbelievable night,” said Boyd, who played for the Warriors from 2002-06 and went on to a lengthy professional career, including 220 games in the National Hockey League.
“When Derek Kletzel gave me the call, I was in shock that I was going to be inducted. There have been a lot of Moose Jaw Warriors greats, I know Derek Engelland and Troy Brouwer were inducted last year and I played with those guys, and I never thought I’d be one of the next guys to be inducted.
"The memories I have of Moose Jaw are second to none, you hang with the guys you have less responsibility and you can just enjoy playing hockey, it was such a great time.”
Boyd played 265 career games. He finished his career with 103 goals, 114 assists and 217 points while also recording 146 penalty minutes.
During his time in Moose Jaw, Boyd also represented Canada at the 2006 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping Canada to gold with four goals and six points in six games.
Boyd’s NHL career saw him suit up for the Calgary Flames, Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens. He posted 32 goals and 63 points in the NHL. He also played four seasons in the American Hockey League, registering 51 goals and 100 points in 136 games.
Following his time in the NHL and AHL, Boyd went on to play nine seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League with Barys Astana, Dynamo Moskva and Barys Nur-Sultan. In 447 games, he posted 124 goals and 264 points.
Lehman was one of the best goaltenders in the WHL in his time in the league, and he too went on to play professional hockey at several levels, including a host of seasons in the highest pro league in Great Britain.
“What can you say, especially for a guy like me, not a lot of NHL or American League experience? To me, it means a lot,” Lehman said. “There’s some recognition down the line and I must have rubbed some people the right way. Even for my wife and my kids, we’re ecstatic with what the Moose Jaw Warriors have done, the hospitality and all of it. It means everything.”
Lehman touched on the prestige of the Warriors and Legends Hall of Fame and how important the recognition is to everyone inducted.
“What the Warriors have here and the alumni they created, it’s something special,” he said. “The number of NHLers you’ve brought in here to be part of the Hall of Fame, it means a lot to them as well, so for a guy like me, it means everything.
Lehman played for the Warriors from 1991-96, hitting the ice in 155 games with the team. He finished his time in Moose Jaw with a 55-77-5 record, 4.26 goals against average and 0.886 save percentage.
The North Battleford product would finish his WHL career with the Brandon Wheat Kings, going 22-5-0 with a 2.49 goals against average and 0.909 save percentage in 28 games to help the Wheat Kings to the Ed Chynoweth Cup and Scotty Munro Trophy.
Lehman’s pro career saw him play two games in 1997-98 in the Central Hockey League with the Wichita Thunder.
Then from 1998-2002, Lehman played 164 games over four seasons in the ECHL with the South Carolina Stingrays, posting a 81-52-20 record, 2.93 goals against average and 0.908 save percentage.
Lehman finished his playing career overseas, playing in 304 games in the Elite Ice Hockey League in Great Britian with the Coventry Blaze and Sheffield Steelers from 2002-09.
His final season came with the Aalborg AaB Ishockey in Denmark in 2009-10.
The Multiplex Builders committee was perhaps the most overdue induction. The effort the group put in to get the Moose Jaw Events Centre built -- including raising $10 million -- led to the Warriors now playing in one of the best arenas in the WHL.
“We had a pretty big goal to reach, we were trying to raise ten million dollars and it doesn’t sound like much when you say it fast, but you don’t do that by having a couple of steak nights and a bingo,” said committee member Bill Deyo.
“It’s a lot of money and we came together as a community, both urban and rural, and it happened. It was a lot of work, but a lot of satisfaction when you walk in here. I’ve been a season-ticket holder for a long time, and it’s pretty nice to come to a game.”
During the induction speech, Builders committee members spoke about how donations flooded in from all corners of the globe as former Moose Javians stepped up to help get the project off they round.
“It was fantastic how the Moose Jaw community came together.”
Each of the inductees will have a special bronze plaque installing on the Warriors and Legends Hall of Fame wall, located on the north side of the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
