So a second cousin of mine/family friend who used to play for the Wings died last week. Larry Trader, who I referred to as Cousin Larry. He was born in my dad's hometown of 1,500 people and our families spent time together growing up. More with a couple of siblings than with Larry himself. Larry, through the other side of his family, was a cousin of ex-Flame Jim Peplinski. I hadn't spoken to Larry in about 30 years but am sharing a stirring story from his hometown paper on his death, as well as his stats card, as an example of a journeyman player who like so many was a big star growing up and into junior, succeeded in making the NHL and bounced around a lot. Still, patched together a pretty interesting career that paid him quite well for a decade and gave him a lot of stories. Even did some minor league coaching afterwards. NHL including two Original Six teams, AHL, Canadian national team that won a bronze in Moscow, European leagues where he was treated well.
A couple of personal stories I have. Larry was called up to the Habs for a cup of coffee one season in the late '80s after Larry Robinson broke his leg. I flew to Montreal from University of Toronto for a game and Larry hooked me up with a ticket to sit beside his wife in with all the other wives. Standing in line to get in at the Forum, I mentioned to a couple of people that my cousin plays for the Habs but you'd know nothing about him. In fact, speaking to the intensity with which the Habs are followed in Montreal, people in those pre-Internet days starting rhyming off a bunch of stats and trivia about Larry, even though he was the fringiest of players. After the game, we went down to the dressing room area (I didn't actually go inside the dressing room) so the wives could kiss their husbands goodbye before the husbands could take a train to Quebec for a game the next night. Then me, Larry's wife and a bunch of other wives all dressed in their fur finery, including Patrick Roy's then-wife, went out for ice cream at a Montreal restaurant. The wives were treated like royalty and I'm sure everyone wondered who was the slobby student with them.
A few years later I'm backpacking in Europe, knew Larry was by now playing in Austria, had understood from his mom that she'd told Larry and his wife I was coming and I was to call when I got to his town. In fact they knew nothing about this when I showed up but they took me in and we hung out for a few days. Austrian league didn't play as many games, so it was mostly watching TV before and after Larry went to practice. But one night we went over to the apartment of Moe Lemay and his wife and played cards. That was a riot. Lemay used to play for the Bruins.
https://www.eganvilleleader.ca/breaking-news/the-extraordinary-life-and-hardships-of-a-small-town-hero/
The extraordinary life and hardships of a small-town hero
