Hundreds of people showed up at a southeast Calgary hockey rink on Tuesday to catch a glimpse of Stanley Cup champs Adin Hill and Logan Thompson.
Hill and Thompson are both goaltenders of the Vegas Golden Knights, this year’s Stanley Cup champions.
Thompson, 25, played 37 regular season games the past season before suffering a lower body injury in February.
Hill, 26, played 27 regular season and 16 postseason games, including in the all of the conference and Stanley Cup finals.
Both men came to tour the Cardel Centre, the rink they used to play in as kids. A line could be seen from the arena to the back of the Home Depot across the street.
Hill played minor hockey in Calgary and in the Calgary Canucks for the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) in 2013-14.
Thompson was part of the AJHL team in Grande Prairie in 2014-2015.
Both grew up in Calgary with aspirations of being pro hockey players.
“You dream of (winning the Stanley Cup) as a kid and getting it today, and seeing your name on it and knowing that it’ll be there forever is unbelievable,” Thompson told Global News.
“Every day I’m living the dream of putting a Vegas Golden Knights jersey and playing against the Calgary Flames. It really is a dream come true.”
Thompson got to play out that scenario in the Saddledome in on March 23, in a 3-2 win over the Flames.
Hill said the last two months since winning the Stanley Cup has been “a bit of a blur.”
“I’m honestly excited to get the next season started,” he said. “I’m just trying to take it all in and enjoy it.”
Both Hill and Thompson had glowing praise for each other as teammates. The two men grew up in Calgary in the same neighbourhood and at one point went to the same school.
Hill said he would regularly see Thompson training at the nearby hockey rink.
“We never actually played together (growing up), but it’s just quite insane when you think about it: two boys growing up together and playing in the NHL together,” he said.
Thompson said he respected Hill a lot as a kid.
“I was almost following in his footsteps which was always cool,” he said.
“Everyone always knew who he was and how good he was growing up. It was always good to almost chase him in a lot of ways.
“We never really, really thought about the idea of us ever being teammates … Once we became teammates this year, it was awesome. Really good chemistry.”