When the Prince Albert Sports of Fame hosts their 31st induction banquet this Saturday at the Ches Leach Lounge, a familiar face to long-time Prince Albert Raider fans will be honoured.
Rod Dallman, a member of the 1985 Memorial Cup champion Prince Albert Raiders will be inducted in both the athlete and builder category.
“I think it’s very humbling to be honest.” Dallman says “On the building side of things, you just feel that you’re doing your part of making the teams and the community better. As an athlete, I’m very happy to be part of a lot of different teams especially the Prince Albert Raiders.”
Dallman worked his way up through the Prince Albert minor hockey ranks before debuting with the Raiders in the 1984-1985 season.
He was very proud to make the Raider roster and to lift the Memorial Cup.
“It was extremely exciting. I just wish that every one of our Prince Albert Raider teams that we’ve had experienced that same thing. What I’m really happy about and proud of is that there was three Prince Albert Raiders that were from Prince Albert that were on that team, Doug Hobson, Dave Manson and myself.”
After the Raider playoff run, Dallman was selected in the 6th round of the 1985 draft 118th overall by the New York Islanders.
Dallman would spend three seasons with the Prince Albert Raiders notching 41 goals, 53 assists and 571 penalty minutes across 146 games.
After graduating from the WHL, Dallman joined the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League in the 1987-1988 season. He ranked third among AHL skaters with 355 penalty minutes. He would make his NHL debut that season where he would score his only career NHL goal.
Dallman would play only a single game for the Islanders in the 1988-89 season but would play 67 games in Springfield. He finished second in the league in penalty minutes with 360.
Dallman would once again be a champion in the 1989-1990 season. He served as an assistant captain on the Springfield Indians and posted 10 points, including five goals in fifteen games as the Indians captured their sixth Calder Cup championship.
Dallman would sign with the Philadelphia Flyers the following season and would appear in two games with the club in the 1991-1992 season. After 31 games with the Hershey Bears, a knee injury would force him to retire from playing.
Dallman would return to Prince Albert after his playing career and would become the assistant coach of the Prince Albert Mintos in 1992-1993, before becoming the head coach the following year. Dallman also had tenures on the Minto coaching staff from 1998-2000, 2014-2015 and another head coaching tenure from 2000-2001.
He would serve as an assistant coach with the Prince Albert Raiders from 1994-1996, before turning his attention to helping Minor Hockey in the city. He served as president from 2011-2013 and implemented the city-wide draft.
Dallman says giving back to the game of hockey was something he loved to do.
“I really felt that I had more of a passion for coaching kids and minor hockey and throughout the province with the SHA program. I’m just very humbled when I look at the people that preceded me into the Hall of Fame and stuff like that, I’m part of an elite group and it’s just a fantastic experience and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Nowadays, Dallman is heavily involved in Hockey Saskatchewan. He served as an assistant coach for Team Sask at the 2018 Canada Winter Games in Men’s Hockey. At the 2019 WHL Cup, Dallman was an assistant coach on Team Sask that won the gold medal for the first time ever.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
