For many NHL players, hockey wasn’t the only sport they played growing up and one of the most common sports to play in the offseason is baseball.
It makes sense, it’s another game that involves hand-eye coordination and it’s played in the summer, so it fits pretty well into the schedule. With that said, it’s also possible that some players that made it to the NHL had some baseball dreams before they had hockey ones.
We know at least four players that would have had some kind of hopes in baseball, because they played in the Little League World Series.
Ray Ferraro
Shoutout to the best colour commentator in the business! He played in 1976 with his team from Trail, British Columbia. They finished with a 1-2 record.
Chris Drury
Drury is probably the most well-known example of this. That’s because he actually won a Little League World Series championship with his hometown team from Trumbull Connecticut.
Pierre Turgeon
From Little League World Series to first overall draft pick. He played for Canada’s team from Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec who ended up making it all the way to the semi-finals where they lost 10-7 to Taiwan.
Stephane Matteau
Oddly enough, Matteau actually played for the same team as Turgeon. He went on to play 848 games in the NHL for the Flames, Blackhawks, Rangers, Blues, Sharks and Panthers.
