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Dual Sport NHLers?

cheswick

cheswick

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Mar 17, 2010
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South Kildonan
Reading a local paper here and Scott Kelman was a recent inductee into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame. The interesting part is that Kelman was probably a better hockey player, being a first round NHL draft pick in 1999. Didn't play a single game at the NHL level. I'm guessing Manitoba's prowess or lack thereof in the sport of baseball has something to do with his induction, but it got me curious.

Anyone have any knowledge of elite hockey players that excelled in other sports? More curious of any modernish examples since specialization is sport occurs fairly early now.
 
Matt Stairs, who had a long MLB career, was also a top hockey player with NHL talent. He was the best of his age in the Atlantic Provinces in both sports. He chose baseball early and didn't bother playing major junior, just played high school hockey. I saw him play both sports when he was a teenager.
 
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Rod Langway was an elite athlete in three sports - football, hockey, and baseball. He grew up in the Boston area. He dropped baseball after high school, and wanted to play both football and hockey in college. The University of New Hampshire offered him a football scholarship, and agreed to allow him to play hockey also. Football apparently was his favourite sport and he was an NFL prospect. But his first pro opportunity came in hockey, so he pursued hockey for that reason.
 
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I've heard that Auston Matthews was really good at baseball as a kid, but I don't know the details on how far he went with baseball. He chose hockey largely thanks to the Coyotes existing.

Speaking of the early hockey that @jigglysquishy mentioned, while he never went pro with it (although it's often argued that he could have but was prevented from it due to his upbringing), Hobey Baker was a standout hockey player for Princeton as well as the captain of their football team (he also played for their baseball team his freshman year, but switched to football because the university only allowed students to play two different sports).

Now we have an award named after him, and he's the only person elected to both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame.
 
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Maybe not exactly what the OP wanted but former AL MVP Justin Morneau was a well-regarded goalie. My memory is fuzzy but he might have attended camp with the WHL Portland Winterhawks before deciding to focus on baseball full time. I like the image that he could stopped shots from Brenden Morrow and Marian Hossa.

www.baseball-reference.com

Nyjer Morgan Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Nyjer Morgan. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com

Nyjer Morgan Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Nyjer Morgan, a hockey player from San Francisco, CA born Jul 2 1980 who was active from 1997 to 2000.
www.hockeydb.com

Nyjer Morgan played several years in the MLB and had a handful of games in the WHL. Unfortunately he's probably best known for a blooper where he almost made a great catch in deep CF but apparently forgot the ball was still live. He threw down his glove in frustration and another OF had to retrieve the ball and the batter scored on an inside the park HR.



One reason Anders Lee dropped in his NHL draft year was that some teams were worried he might opt to pursue college football.
 
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Peter Zezel (hockey/Soccer)
Kirk McKaskal (baseball/Hockey)

BTW

just a quick note. Many hockey players played Baseball or Soccer(football here in Europe)in the summer time to keep in shape.
 
Dr John Carlson said:
Referee Garrett Rank qualified to play in the 2018 US Open in golf. That tournament was held at Shinnecock, one of the best courses in the world.
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JT Miller has also made credible attempts to qualify for the US Open over the past few years.

Grant Fuhr played some events on the Canadian Tour and the Web.com Tour.
 
I think I recall reading somewhere that Denis Potvin had potential to play Division I college football. Someone talked him choosing one sport, and Potvin chose hockey. Someone else might know this story better than I, but that’s what I remember.
 
Pierre Turgeon played in the Little League Baseball World Series.

There's a few NHLers who've had some success at golf, obviously. Dan Quinn might be the best of them. Probably made more money golfing than he did in the NHL. Won the Lake Tahoe celebrity tourney multiple times.

My Best-Carey
 
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Andrew Copp was an accomplished QB in Michigan High School football, set a state record for yardage and passing TDs in a single game.

Joe Fleming, who was a four time CFL all star and Most Outstanding Defensive Player with the Stampeders in 2003, was also a good enough player in Massachusetts HS Hockey that he got drafted by the St. Louis Blues in 1990.
 
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Davenport said:
I'm not sure if Lionel Conacher would be considered a "Dual Sport NHLer." He was essentially an "Every Sport NHLer." On the very short list of NHLers who hoisted the Stanley Cup and the Grey Cup.
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This made me look him up, and it's awesome. Also of note, as I found out, he won the International League championship in 1926 (the IL was class AA at the time) in baseball. Incidentally, the team he played for that won the IL championship was called the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only other two people to have won both the Stanley Cup and Grey Cup are Joe Miller and Carl Voss. Carl Voss even went on to be a referee in hockey after his playing days, eventually becoming the NHL's referee-in-chief, and is enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder.
 
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Hank Chinaski said:
Andrew Copp was an accomplished QB in Michigan High School football, set a state record for yardage and passing TDs in a single game.
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Anders Lee was the Minnesota high school football player of the year as a senior (had a nice season as a junior too IIRC [from reading, not watching])...he had some football scholarship offers too. I think there was a gag at the time that Notre Dame's QB got hurt and that Lee was going to fill in haha
 
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frisco said:
Pierre Turgeon played in the Little League Baseball World Series.

There's a few NHLers who've had some success at golf, obviously. Dan Quinn might be the best of them. Probably made more money golfing than he did in the NHL. Won the Lake Tahoe celebrity tourney multiple times.

My Best-Carey
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Chris Drury pitched clinching game vs China to win little league world series
 
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I've heard the Sedin twins were very talented soccer players as well, but they opted for hockey at age 16. Henrik has a son who is said to be a promising soccer player. I think he might've featured for one of the Swedish junior national teams.
 
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Summer Rose said:
This made me look him up, and it's awesome. Also of note, as I found out, he won the International League championship in 1926 (the IL was class AA at the time) in baseball. Incidentally, the team he played for that won the IL championship was called the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only other two people to have won both the Stanley Cup and Grey Cup are Joe Miller and Carl Voss. Carl Voss even went on to be a referee in hockey after his playing days, eventually becoming the NHL's referee-in-chief, and is enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder.
Click to expand...
Lionel Conacher was named Canada's greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. His story is quite incredible - his athletic ability enabled him to escape the poverty he was born into.
 
Summer Rose said:
This made me look him up, and it's awesome. Also of note, as I found out, he won the International League championship in 1926 (the IL was class AA at the time) in baseball. Incidentally, the team he played for that won the IL championship was called the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only other two people to have won both the Stanley Cup and Grey Cup are Joe Miller and Carl Voss. Carl Voss even went on to be a referee in hockey after his playing days, eventually becoming the NHL's referee-in-chief, and is enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder.
Click to expand...

Voss was also the first winner of the Calder Trophy, in 1933 (though it didn't have that name until 1937).
 
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