Saskatoon Blades newcomer Laing following WHL trail blazed by father, grandfather – Saskatoon [Video]

Flipping through old photos on his family farm just outside the Village of Harris, Bill Laing still finds it hard to believe over 50 years have passed since skating onto the ice at the old Saskatoon Arena.

It was a sheet where he’d make his junior hockey debut in 1971 with the Saskatoon Blades of the formerly named Western Canada Hockey League.

“Jack McLeod told me I made the team,” said Laing. “I asked him if I could phone my dad and he said yep. I phoned my dad and [he] was pretty happy. Later on I got my first jacket, a Saskatoon Blades jacket.

“That was probably my proudest moment.”

Laing would go on to play 121 games for the Blades over the course of two seasons, graduating from the team in 1973 after posting 31 goals and 86 points before suiting up for the Edmonton Oilers in the World Hockey Association.

Half a century after that …