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nivek_wahs
04-14-2007, 07:32 AM
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/sports/story.html?id=ac9d7880-5015-4cb5-8c29-949829c159fa

Seattle's Farwell mover, shaker in WHL

Ed Willes, Vancouver Province
Published: Saturday, April 14, 2007
The challenges are a little different than those he once faced, but Russ Farwell will tell you they're no less meaningful and meeting them is no less rewarding.

He's been trying to keep junior hockey alive in Seattle for the last couple of years and now it seems the Thunderbirds will get a new home in the suburb of Kent. He's been a driving force in the Western Hockey League for the last decade and helped shape the league's unprecedented growth. And, if that's not enough, he has a wife, a 15-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son to fill his spare hours.

"I'm not doing this because I couldn't get a job in the pros," says the Thunderbirds' part-owner and general manager.

"I love doing this. I love seeing new coaches grow and see the players come into the league.

"I'd like to try it again in the right circumstances with the right owner, but I've never chased it."

Farwell doesn't spend a lot of time dwelling on the past, mostly because he doesn't have the time. But if he ever decided to play the what-if game, know this, he'd be a champion at it.

In fashioning one of the more intriguing careers in recent hockey lore, the 51-year-old Calgarian's story reads more like a Dickens' novel than the back of a hockey card. At age 34, he landed his dream job as general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers shortly after winning back-to-back Memorial Cups with the Medicine Hat Tigers. In his second year in Philly, he swung the trade for Eric Lindros and the only question seemed to be how many Stanley Cups the two would win together.

Three years later he was back in juniors where it had all started. He'd risen so fast and so high it seemed the natural laws of gravity didn't apply but, like all who would be ambitious, he learned success can carry a fearsome price.

That, at least, is the shortened version of his time in the NHL. We don't have adequate space for the longer version, but somewhere between being told he had to trade for Lindros, clear-cutting the organization to put the package together for Lindros, missing the playoffs for three straight seasons as Lindros and his family turned into a massive headache and Flyers owner Ed Snider reappearing with Bob Clarke at his side, Farwell's stay in Philly expired long before its due date.

"We thought it was like getting (Wayne) Gretzky or (Mario) Lemieux at a young age. There was no price that was too high," Farwell says of the Lindros deal, which cost him, among others, Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci, Chris Simon. "If you could go back, you'd want to do a little more checking on things. There was no chance it was going to work."

Still, he isn't haunted by the ghosts of Philadelphia. Going back to the early 1980s, Farwell has been one of the new breed of junior operators who helped shepherd the WHL from its Jurassic Period into the 21st century and he takes great delight in the league's growth.

He can also rattle off a lengthy list of former players who've made their own mark on the game. Trevor Linden, Patrick Marleau and Mark Parrish are still playing in the NHL. Mark Lamb is an assistant coach in Dallas. Ryan McGill is coaching in the Calgary Flames' system. Dean Chynoweth is running Swift Current, Shane Churla is scouting for Dallas.

He might take greater pride in those who've built something outside the game. Farwell relates the story of goalie Troy Gamble, a former Medicine Hat Tiger, hiring another ex-Tiger, Al Conroy, to work for a successful firm in the Calgary oil-patch.

"You feel something for anyone who played hard for you," Farwell said.

Maybe it's not what he envisioned all those years ago, but it's a damn fine alternative.




© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007