Carolina Hurricanes

Many nicknames are bestowed, but fewer are earned, and rarer still are the nicknames that become universal. Justin Williams has earned his. Known throughout the hockey world simply as “Mr. Game 7”; a sobriquet he earned by playing in nine game seven playoff games in his NHL career. His team’s sported an 8–1 record in those games. He currently is tied for the most-ever goals in these games with seven, and has the outright record for most game seven points, with fifteen. Born on October 4, 1981 in Cobourg, Williams was drafted in the first round, 28th overall, by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. Traded to the Carolina Hurricanes on January 20, 2004, Williams NHL career blossomed. That spring he was chosen to represent Canada in the 2004 IIHF  World Championships in Prague and came back with a Gold Medal. Two years later with Carolina he set career highs with 31 goals, 45 assists, and 76 points in the regular season, before adding 18 points in 25 playoff games that spring, helping the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup. He made his first appearance in an NHL  All-Star game at the 2007 NHL  All-Star Game in Dallas and also played for Canada in the 2007 IIHF World Championship, in which he won his second gold medal. Traded to the Los Angeles Kings on March 4, 2009 Justin scored 15 points in the 2012 playoffs, helping the Kings win their first Stanley Cup and his second. Williams won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the 2014 playoffs, where he won his third Stanley Cup and second with the Kings. He scored nine goals and 15 assists during the playoffs, including points in all three Game 7 contests the Kings had enroute to the Finals. Returning to the Hurricanes in 2017, on September 13, 2018, Williams was named as the team’s captain. On October 8, 2020, he announced his retirement from professional hockey after a 19-season NHL career and in 2024, he was inducted into the Carolina Hurricanes Hall of Fame. Despite all of his success, Justin has never forgotten where he came from, fundraising money for Northumberland Hills Hospital, lending his name and time to local youth hockey camps, and most notably, bringing the Stanley Cup to Cobourg in 2006 and in 2014; and sharing it with our community.

Steve Smith was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and moved to Cobourg at an early age. Success in hockey never came easy to Steve. Growing up in Cobourg, he failed to impress a lot of local coaches and Junior organizations.

The NHL scouting fraternity showed no interest in the gangly kid who found his body too big and too awkward to be effective. However, Steve was a model of determination and resiliency and he stuck with the game and trained in a fashion that would maximize his development. By age 17, he had grown to 6'3” and 180 lbs. – enough to catch the attention of the Junior A London Knights as a walk on at an open camp.

Smith made the team and played the first half of the season as a 4th line right winger. By 1981 he had filled out to 225 pounds and was playing regularly on defense. That same year, in the NHL draft, he was selected 111th overall by the Edmonton Oilers. Steve Smith went on to become one of the better NHL defencemen of his era, playing in 804 games, scoring 72 goals, earning 303 assists, and tallying 375 points, while winning three Stanley Cups (1987, 1988, 1990) and a Canada Cup (1991). Blessed with balance and agility on his skates, and an exceptionally long reach, Smith was tough to beat 1-on-1. By the late 1980's, Smith had become the Oiler's top defender. In October of 1991, the Oilers traded him to Chicago.

In his 3rd of 6 seasons with Chicago, he suffered a broken leg and constantly battled back issues. The Blackhawks offered him a contract but Steve decided to retire prematurely. In 1997, he moved on to join the Calgary Flames as an assistant coach for 1 season. He returned to the ice with the Flames for parts of the next three seasons before a neck injury resulted in spinal fusion surgery. In 2001, Steve came back to play part of one season before his doctors advised him that, medically, it was in his best interests to retire. His coaching career would see him move back to the Edmonton Oilers as an assistant for four seasons.

From there, he moved on to Carolina as an assistant coach with the Hurricanes. Presently (2019) Steve Smith is an assistant coach with the Buffalo Sabres.