In 2005, I started to get the collecting itch again after purging most of my collection in 2002 to assist with the purchase of my first house. With $10 burning a hole in my pocket at a flea market in Ohio, I purchased a lot of 50 hockey rookie cards from an older lady selling mostly knitted dolls. She wouldn't let me look inside the small box, but she said her son had collected up until a few years ago and these were his "leftovers." I figured most of the cards were commons and I remember when I got back to my house, I had heard of a few of the guys, but some of the cards were from players in the 1970's. Not all are in the best shape, but for $10, what do you want? After a while, I decided just to put the box in the corner of my closet, and I simply forgot about it. So, 14 years later, I decided I would take out a card from the box at random and write a small post about the player. I'll count down from 50. Here goes:
46. 1991/92 Pro Cards AHL Glen Goodall #191
I know the Seattle Kraken are an NHL franchise, but believe me when I say, this guy put Seattle hockey on the map back in the '80's. Glen Goodall was born January 22, 1970, in Fort Nelson, British Columbia. At the age of 10 years old, Goodall was so good that his coach who was brothers-in-law with the Seattle Breakers head coach Jack Sangster, told him to put Glen on his radar. The Breakers then put Goodall on their protected list when he was 12. Due to the distance from his house in Manitoba, the Goodall family had talked to the Seattle franchise about possibly trading him eventually to the Brandon Wheat Kings so he wouldn't be so far from home. When he was 14, he was finally invited to Seattle's training camp for a chance to make the team. Back then, the WHL rules allowed players of that age to play in their league. They have since changed their rules and you have to be at least 16 to play in the WHL or be granted exceptional status. The initial plan with Goodall was that he would suit up for Seattle for 15 games and when the team played in Brandon, his parents would pick him up and he would go back home. However, Goodall's 15-game tryout never ended, and he stuck around for the full season and played in 59 games, scoring 5 goals and 21 assists as a 14-year-old. After that first season in Seattle, the team would be sold, and the new owners changed up the colors and named the team the Thunderbirds. That season, he would play 65 games, scoring 13 goals and 28 assists. It was his age 16 season in 1986/87 where Glen Goodall would lead the team in scoring. He put up 63 goals, 49 assists for 112 points. That is still the highest goal total in the WHL for a 16-year-old player. For four straight seasons, Goodall would put up over 50 goals (63, 53, 52 and 76 respectively). Also, without the help of Goodall, players like Petr Nedved and Lindsay Vallis may never have been drafted in the 1st round of their NHL Drafts. Goodall is still the all-time leader in games played and goals scored in the WHL. Also, his 573 total points still stand as second all-time. With Glen's scoring touch, the Detroit Red Wings would select him in the 10th Round of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft.
Goodall would have stints in the IHL with the Flint Spirits (9 games, 9 points), San Diego Gulls (19 games, 12 points) and in the AHL with Adirondack Red Wings (69 games, 41 points) and the Binghampton Rangers (6 games, 2 points) and also the ECHL with the Erie Panthers (74 games, 126 points). He would never make the NHL, however. After his final stint with the Erie Panthers in 1992/93, Goodall would find himself traveling abroad to play in the DEL (Deutsche Elite League), the Ger.1 League, 2.GBun League and back to the DEL once the team he played for in the 2.GBun League transferred to the DEL. He would play for Ingolstadt ERC for 11 seasons and be relatively productive. In the 17 seasons he spent playing in the German leagues, he would pot 288 goals in 737 games. He would retire in 2010 with a long career in hockey. Currently, Goodall runs a real estate business in Alberta. Goodall was fairly undersized at 5'8" 170lbs and this may have been why he never got a shot in the NHL. I'm not sure, but before the Seattle Kraken came around, fans cheered for Glen Goodall.
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