Ryan Walter(I)

Ryan Walter was born on April 23, 1958 in New Westminster, British Columbia. He played 3 full seasons with the Kamloops (British Columbia) Chiefs and the Seattle (Washington) Breakers from 1975-78 of the Western Canada Hockey League (now Western Hockey League). Many longtime Seattle Breaker (now Thunderbirds) fans consider Walter to be the best player to have ever put on a Breaker or Thunderbird jersey. He was selected by the Washington Capitals in the first round, second overall in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft. Only Bobby Smith was chosen above Walter, by the Minnesota North Stars. Walter spent 4 seasons with the Capitals averaging 28 goals a season and was their team Captain (one of the youngest Captains selected at the time). Before the 1982-83 season, he along with Rick Green was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis and Craig Laughlin. Walter spent the next 9 seasons with Les Canadien and was a member of their Stanley Cup Championship team in 1986. His last stop was with the Vancouver Canucks until he retired after the 1992-93 season. In his 15 season career in the NHL in additon to the above mentioned, he was selected to play in the 1983 NHL All-Star Game, represented Canada in 4 World Championship Tournaments, named NHL Man Of the Year in 1992 for his contributions on and off the ice and was selected by his teammates as team representative and by his peers as Vice-President of the National Hockey League Player's Association and he reached the milestone of of playing in his 1000th NHL game. After he retired from the game in 1993, he was named as the Vancouver Canucks' 25th Anniversary Ambassador (1994-95 season), became a color-man for NHL games on TV for TSN (The Sports Network), is president of hothockey.com and is a Corporate Motivational Speaker.