Hockey is for the young at heart, and Estevan’s Rick Rohatyn is a good example of this.
Rohatyn was the most recent recipient of the CARHA Oldest Player Award at the Estevan Strippers’ Spring Bust Tournament April 4-8 in Estevan and Bienfait. While it is an achievement to recognize a lifetime of hockey enjoyment, it isn’t necessarily the end of the road for Rohatyn.
“I don’t plan on hanging up the skates,” he said. “As long as the guys plan on having me again, I’ll be out there next fall playing again.”
The award can only be won once by any one player, so there may have been older players in the tournament, but they all would have won the award before.
Rohatyn plays for the Estevan Viking 45s, on a 41-game schedule, and he’ll play in an average of about 30 of those games in a given year.
A few years ago, Rohatyn had to give up playing even recreational hockey after surgeries on his knee and ankles – or lower body injuries as they call them in hockey parlance – limited his skating ability, but since he returned this year, he realized that he could still play.
“Taking up the sport again at the age of 69, I was kind of pleased,” he said. “Last year, I tried playing in the fall after the knee replacement surgery and it didn’t go well. I was very off balance on my skates and it seemed like it wasn’t going to be successful. This year I went back out and things were much better. The knee hadn’t healed completely and I don’t skate that well but I can still handle myself out there.
“As long as I’m not a hazard to anyone else out there and as long as I’m not a hazard to myself, the guys around the league take care of you when they find out how old you are so it’s a good league to play in.”
There was an Indian Head Saints team that has participated in years past that wasn’t able to make it out this year. One of those players might have won the award this year, Rohatyn said. Two of the last four winners have been Saints.
The tournament also gave awards for sportsmanship to teams that accumulated the fewest penalty minutes but it’s more than just hockey. The event helps raise big money for the community.
Since 1997, the Strippers tournament has distributed over $175,000 to sports, events and causes in the community, like $5,300 to the 2018 SaskTel Tankard organizing committee and last year’s $1,500 to Spruce Ridge School.
The recognition of an oldest player is an inspiration to some.
“I know the people we’ve presented the award to in the past have appreciated receiving the oldest player award,” Rohatyn said. “Some of the other players are going to continue to play until they get it. Even a year after that. The goalie who won it last year for Yorkton (John Garbutt), I think he was 74 or 76 years old, he was back playing again this year. It’s not like you win the award, you quit. You keep playing as long as you can.”
And clearly, Rohatyn also has no intentions of quitting once fall and the new hockey season comes around.
“As long as I can lace them up and have fun, I’ll be there.”
