WHA Hockey.TV: A Tribute to the Legends of the World Hockey Association by Mark Willand

This Date in WHA History: April 1, 1973: Terry Caffery Becomes Whalers First 100-point Scorer

Terry Caffery was the Whalers first-ever 100-point scorer and a key figure in New England's 1972-73 Championship.

The following season Caffery signed with the Whalers and met with his greatest success as a pro, scoring 100 points to finish in the WHA's top ten in the loop's inaugural season and proving a key component in the Whalers' league championship that year. He was awarded the Lou Kaplan Trophy as the league's rookie of the year. However, he suffered a knee injury late that year that, despite him starring in the playoffs, forced him to miss the entire 1974 season. He returned to play for the Whalers the year after that, but remained seriously impaired, and retired during the 1976 season.

His brother was Jack Caffery, a two-sport player who also played baseball with the Milwaukee Braves and was credited with inventing the backward grip for faceoffs.

Ex-Cowboy Oiler Ron Chipperfield Profiled

Profile by Jim Atheson, Edmomton Sun

 

Thirty years ago, Ron Chipperfield was the first NHL captain of the Edmonton Oilers. And while he lives in Vancouver now and runs a hugely successful European hockey agency, the former centre still has a connection to the Oilers.

"(Associate coach) Tom Renney is renting my house in Glenora this year," said Chipperfield in a recent interview.

Chipperfield, who wore the C until he was traded to the Quebec Nordiques on March 11, 1980, for goalie Ron Low, runs the Optima World Sports agency along with another ex-Oiler, winger Brett Callighen, and Gary Seigo. They find European teams for North American players and coaches who've been in the NHL or American Hockey League. Optima has landed one-time Oiler defenceman Don Jackson a coaching gig in Berlin for Los Angeles Kings billionaire owner Philip Anschutz, among others.

Chipperfield would rather not say how many players they funnel to European clubs, but they're the largest provider of players overseas and have been for the last 15 years. They don't seek out clients; NHL agents call them with players who want to try Europe.

"We have deals with probably 15 or 20 NHL agents. Took a while but it works pretty well," said Chipperfield, who attends to clubs in Italy (he was a coach and manager over there, working in Milan and Bolzano) and Austria and parts of Germany while Callighen is heavily involved with Swiss teams, along with Germany.