Wynne Dempster (Photo: iMediaTV/Rene Rondeau)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

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Local hockey legend Wynne Dempster passes away at age 68

Dec 23, 2019 | 10:29 PM

The local hockey community is mourning the loss of a legend.

Wynne Dempster lost his battle with brain cancer over the weekend at age 68.

Originally from Grimshaw, Alberta, Dempster was a star for the Junior ‘A’ Red Deer Rustlers when they won the Centennial Cup in 1971 and went on to play several years of minor pro hockey. He later returned to coach the Rustlers and spent many years involved in junior and minor hockey.

Dempster’s path to Red Deer started after he was cut by the WCHL’s Swift Current Broncos.

“He got a tryout with Ponoka (Jr. ‘A’ Stampeders) as a rookie, and at this time, the Red Deer Rustlers were in the league and they were rivals,” recalled Graham Parsons, his former teammate. “Wynne came down to Ponoka and we were roommates. We had a really good team and he didn’t get a fair shake, and got cut from the team.

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“That night, he had to go back home to Grimshaw, so I drove him to Edmonton, put him on the bus and said ‘See ya later.’ It wasn’t a week or two later he ended up getting up a tryout in Red Deer. It was a perfect fit.”

Brian Sutter says Dempster was a role model for him when he came to play for the Rustlers. At the time, Sutter, who was five years younger, would receive personal check-ups from Dempster, who was just starting his pro career while Sutter was in Red Deer.

“He came from northern Alberta and touched so many people. He was one of those guys I met when I was 16 and for some reason he cared for a dummy like me. I never forgot that,” says Sutter.

“You think about how they’ve helped people and meant to some in the community. He was a special person, and he had the ability to point people in the right direction.”

Wynne Dempster with the Johnstown Jets in the 1970s. (Supplied)

After the Rustlers, Dempster went on to play for the Johnstown Jets, the very team that inspired the Chiefs of “Slap Shot” fame. He even makes an appearance in the movie.

In 1979, Parsons was managing the Rustlers when a group including Sutter, Reg Kinch and Alf Cadman bought the team. They won the Centennial Cup in 1980, after which bench boss John Chapman left for a new coaching gig in Lethbridge.

Parsons and his group called up old friend Dempster and convinced him to take over, which lasted until 1985 and resulted in one AJHL championship in that final year. Dempster also served as GM.

“He did it with true grit and honour. He was just a solid guy,” says Parsons, who remembered another story from their playing days, this time as opponents in the North American Hockey League.

“What happened in my last game (with) Philly was he was behind the net, and I said ‘Step out front and shoot.’ He didn’t and I said ‘What the heck are you doing? I’m giving you a free one.’ He just laughed.”

Dempster went on to become the chairman of the board for the AJHL, and later coached Parsons’ children in Sylvan Lake, where he also served as president of the local minor hockey association.

He also enjoyed a long career with Red Deer Bottling, and was a solid first baseman.

Over the past couple of years, he took great pleasure in watching the Senior AA Red Deer Rustlers take to the ice.

For Dempster, whose son Mike is the team’s captain, seeing the Rustlers brand revived was special.

“He was very proud to be involved in our opening ceremony last year. Bringing the brand back was a combo of old memories for him paired with fondness of the name bar on his son’s jersey,” says Kyle Pess, Rustlers vice president, who spent a lot of his youth around the Dempsters.

“Wynne was a guy, if you knew that he was watching or involved, the only thing he’d ever ask for was hard work. He thought that if you’re out there and not working hard, you’re not really respecting the game.”

Wynne Dempster is survived by wife Theresa, sons Mike and Marshall, and several grandchildren. A celebration of life will be held Jan. 2 starting at 2:30 p.m. at The Hideout in Gasoline Alley. The public is welcome to attend. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be given in Wynne’s name to Hockey Alberta’s Every Kid Every Community Foundation or The Canadian Cancer Society.