Former Kings Prospect Bruce Landon Inducted into AHL Hall of Fame

In a what was a personal surprise for me, with the AHL All-Star Classic being held in Syracuse, New York, two former Syracuse Crunch players were honored as honorary Captains to two of the All-Star teams and as well as for their work and contributions in helping Syracuse survive in that market during its infancy.  Captaining the North Division Team was former Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders Captain (and 2002 Olympic Gold Medalist with Team Canada) Mike Peca. And Captaining the Pacific Division team and representing the town of Cambridge, Ontario (like ME!), was my fellow hometown boy Scott Walker!

Walker had a 17 year career in the NHL playing for the Vancouver Canucks, Nashville Predators, Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals.  He was also the head coach of the OHL’s Guelph Storm for 3 seasons and now as a co-owner of the team (which he still is to this day), helped lead the team to the 2014 OHL Championship and to that year’s Memorial Cup final.

On top of that, as a player he also destroyed my road hockey team during an organized tournament back in the day with a Wayne Gretzky like dominating performance, (like seriously, he was a professional hockey player and we were just kids!  It wasn’t a fair match! I WANT A RE-MATCH!!!) but to Scott’s credit, at least he was very nice about it.

(I am obviously still upset by the road hockey tournament loss)

So CHEERS to Bruce Landon, my fellow hometown boy Scottie Walker, Mike Peca and the rest of the Hall of Fame inductees for being honored and recognized by the AHL for their strong contributions to the Syracuse Crunch and to the American Hockey League.  (But seriously Walker, if we get that re-match, you’re going DOWN!!!)

*Special thanks to Bruce Landon, Scott Walker, AHL President David Andrews, AHL Vice-President Jason Chaimovitch and Ryan Cowley of MakeWayForTheKings.net for their help with this article.

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things SoCal hockey and the rest of the California sports teams! All Cali, All the time!