CHRIS LOWREY
PONTIAC Dec. 19, 2018
Grant McCagg, the man responsible for spearheading the Wall of Fame at the Shawville Arena, has just released his first book chronicling the great hockey players to come out of the Ottawa Valley.
McCagg has a long history as a publisher in the region. He started the Valley Vendor and published the Valley Voice, among other publications, before getting out of the business in 2006.
He’s spent much of his time since then working in the hockey world, serving as an amateur scout for the Montreal Canadiens and starting the website Recrutes.ca in 2017.

So it seemed a natural fit for McCagg to bring his two passions together and publish a book about local hockey lore.
“I’m a hockey nut,” McCagg said. “It was my idea, probably even a decade ago, to eventually compile articles that I’ve written in the past and do some new interviews and compile them into a book.”
The project eventually developed into Valley Snapshots: Notable Hockey Players from the Upper Ottawa Valley, which is available at the Pontiac Print Shop, among other locations.
The book features local players who went on to NHL stardom like Frank “The Shawville Express” Finnigan, Ted Lindsay, Frank Nighbor and many others.
Since McCagg has been writing about hockey for so long, he had a plethora of archival information to draw from.
“I had these things in the hopper,” McCagg said. “I interviewed Ted [Lindsay] when he was 75 as opposed to now when he’s 93.”
At one time, the Ottawa Valley rivaled any other region in Canada when it came to producing top-tier hockey players. Just one look at McCagg’s book and that should be evident.
“Unfortunately, it’s not nearly what it used to be,” McCagg said. “As time has gone on, it’s become a rich man’s sport. In a lot of senses, unfortunately, the Valley isn’t a rich area.”
He said many of today’s notable players are being drafted and developed in the Greater Toronto Area. In fact, many young players move to Toronto to advance their hockey careers.
But that hasn’t always been the case.
“From 1910 to 1980, per capita the Valley produced as many NHL players as any area in the world,” he said. “If you look at Shawville alone, for the population, the amount of players that have played at the NHL level is right up there with any community.”
Frank Finnigan headlines a list of notable players who have come out of the Pontiac, including Bill Cowley, Erwin “Murph” Chamberlain, Chris Hayes and Terry Murray just to name a few.
“We have a lot to be proud of in the Valley,” McCagg said.
With all of the players he interviewed for the book, there were bound to be some interesting characters.
One that stuck out for McCagg was Jim Peplinski, who played for more than a decade – and won the Stanley Cup – with the Calgary Flames in 1989.
“I didn’t even have to write much,” McCagg said of the talkative Peplinski. “He had a nickname for everyone, just such a character.”
McCagg said Peplinski’s sharp memory meant that he could remember stories down to the smallest detail – a godsend for any journalist.
With so many interesting characters, it was inevitable that McCagg would hear his share of incredible stories.
One that came to mind for McCagg was a story about journeyman player Larry Trader.
He was playing in the Calder Cup final for the American Hockey League championship in 1986. The series was going to a sixth game on a Wednesday night. The only problem was that Trader was set to get married on the Saturday – the same night game 7 was scheduled, if necessary.
However, Trader took control of his own destiny by scoring a hat trick in game six of the Calder Cup final to clinch the championship – and earn a healthy amount of brownie points from his wife.
“I think the honeymoon went pretty well,” McCagg said with a laugh.
To make the story even more incredible was the fact that Steve Smith was Trader’s best man. Many hockey fans will remember Smith for his infamous own goal that same year in the conference finals while he was with the Edmonton Oilers.
The Oilers were a perennial powerhouse throughout the 80s and were making a push for their third straight Stanley Cup – until Smith banked a pass off goaltender Grant Fuhr and into his own net.
The silver lining was that both players were able to attend the wedding thanks to some on-ice success coupled with some on-ice failure.
As the saying goes: love finds a way.
McCagg said he has so much material that he couldn’t possibly fit it all into one book. He says a second edition is in the works.