By Warren Kozireski —
Defenseman Shayne Wright came out of OHL Owen Sound as an 11th round draft pick in 1994—the last year the draft went that long. It dropped the next year to nine rounds and to the current seven rounds in 2004.
A healthy scratch for much of the early part of his first season under first year head coach John Tortorella, he worked his way into the lineup with fellow blueliners Dean Melanson, Terry Hollinger, Sergei Klimentiev, David Cooper, Rumun Ndur and later Doug Houda.
The last place team in January got hot at the right time and ran all the way to the Calder Cup championship—the last Rochester has won to this point.
One season of professional hockey and one ring.
“It´s been 25 years since… it´s difficult to put my finger on a certain moment< Wright said via email. “Obviously, winning the Calder Cup and being part of a championship team is always a highlight. However, I think the lessons learned throughout the season were invaluable to me throughout my career.
“There were definitely ups and downs during the season, which I honestly believe helped us during the playoff run. I think confidence was a huge factor and overcoming adversity as a team only strengthened our position heading into the playoffs.”
After two more seasons in Rochester where he was named Most Improved Player by his teammates and Unsung Hero in 1996-97 and scored 20 more points in 1997-98, Wright got an offer to play in Europe and had to make the difficult decision of giving up his dream to play in the National Hockey League.
“After three years with the Amerks, I was fortunate enough to play for the Canadian National Team (1998-99) on an International level which gave me exposure in Europe and it made the adjustment easier playing on the larger ice surface.
“Nevertheless, the decision to turn to Europe was one of the most difficult career decisions that I had to make. The dream of one day playing in the NHL was over. “It was a gut decision, one that I knew I had to make, and I would make the same decision if I could do it all over again.”
He played two seasons in Germany with the Krefeld Penguins, then two more in Kassel, Germany with the Huskies. Back to Krefield for two-plus campaigns before his final year playing with Regensburg EV in 2006-07.
Wright didn’t change his style of game much even with the larger ice surfaces in Europe. He registered as many as 37 points in one AHL season and he had 31 points in his top offensive season in Europe. He was near or over 100 penalty minutes in each of his three seasons in Rochester and in the same vicinity during all but one of his full seasons in Germany.
Now? The 45-year-old is in the business world as a Procurement Manager for Buhlmann Group in the Cologne/Bonn region of Germany.
“I had the opportunity over a year ago to join a well-known International Steel Trader as Procurement Manager. I´ve been in the steel business for over ten years now and initially got into the steel business through one of the owners of the Krefeld Penguins, which is where I spent most of my hockey career in Germany.”
From solid defenseman to the steel industry…a prophetic transition if there ever was one.
