Hometown NHL stars help Sicamous celebrate Canada Day

They weren’t only celebrating Canada Day in Sicamous on Friday.

The community was also using the celebration to show off all the elite hockey players with connections to the town, including current NHL stars Shea Weber and Cody Franson.

Both Franson and Weber were born in Sicamous and played hockey there growing up.

When you ask people in Sicamous why the small town seems to produce so much high level talent they will often point to one thing: lots of ice time.

“I remember our kids going to tournaments and we had such a short bench [that] occasionally they’d get a penalty just to get a break.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I remember our kids going to tournaments and we had such a short bench [that] occasionally they'd get a penalty just to get a break."

The community recognized fifteen high caliber hockey players with Sicamous connections at their Canada Day celebrations on Friday. Many of those athletes, including Franson and Weber, were on hand to help celebrate the national holiday.

Weber and Franson were kept busy catching up with friends and acquaintances in town and taking pictures with fans.

“Sicamous is a pretty quiet town now with everything that has happened, with the mill shutting down and things like that, so to have events like this, bring this many people back into the town, have everybody see each other again and be around for a function like this, it is a lot of fun,” said Franson.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Sicamous is a pretty quiet town now with everything that has happened, with the mill shutting down and things like that, so to have events like this, bring this many people back into the town, have everybody see each other again and be around for a function like this, it is a lot of fun," said Franson.

And meeting the hockey stars is clearly making an impression on the next generation of Shuswap hockey players.

Read More: Shea Weber talks about trade

Young hockey player Ben Harrington was almost at a loss for words after Weber signed his Montreal Canadiens jersey.

“It’s just amazing!” Harrington exclaimed.

The Salmon Arm boy and his father clearly excited to meet a Shuswap hero who has recently been traded to one of their favourite teams.

It was a day of interactions like that as Sicamous paid tribute to its home grown talent and the stars showed their own affection for a community that played a role in their development.