Hand inducted into Hall of Fame

23 Jan 2017Robert Newbolt»

Former Great Britain star Tony Hand has been inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame. The 49-year-old will receive the Richard ‘Bibi’ Torriani Award – for an outstanding career by a player from a non-top hockey nation – as part of the 2017 inductees.

Born in Edinburgh Scotland he played over 1700 first class games -60 of those for his country. In that time he scored more than 4,000 points.

He began playing for his home town club of Murrayfield in 1981 and finally hung up his skates after his last club, Manchester Phoenix when they were defeated in the play off finals.

He was the first British player to be drafted by an NHL team when, in 1986, after winning young player of the year he attended the Calgary Flames training camp. However he was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the 12^th round. He was offered a contact to play junior hockey but, suffering from homesickness, he turned it down.

When his playing career was over he had spells coaching Dundee Stars of the BNL, Edinburgh Capitals and Belfast Giants both of the Elite Ice Hockey League

Hand said: “I’m honoured to receive this award, it really is fantastic. I would like to thank my family, all the coaches I have worked with and all my former team-mates.

“I would also like to thank the IIHF committee for this nomination, it is something very special.

“This is something I will really cherish and I feel proud to be inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame.”

The 2017 IIHF Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place in Cologne, Germany, on 21st May – the final day of this year’s World Championship tournament