Flipping through old photos on his family farm just outside the Village of Harris, Bill Laing still finds it hard to believe over 50 years have passed since skating onto the ice at the old Saskatoon Arena.
It was a sheet where he’d make his junior hockey debut in 1971 with the Saskatoon Blades of the formerly named Western Canada Hockey League.
“That was probably my proudest moment.”
Laing would go on to play 121 games for the Blades over the course of two seasons, graduating from the team in 1973 after posting 31 goals and 86 points before suiting up for the Edmonton Oilers in the World Hockey Association.
Half a century after that debut, it’s now another Laing writing his own story with the Blades organization.
This comes after a trade hours before the WHL trade deadline in January, sending Bill’s 18-year-old grandson Hunter Laing from the Prince George Cougars to Saskatoon as part of a package in exchange for forward Ben Riche.
“Aimee, his mom, texted us that morning and said Hunter got traded,” said Bill. “She didn’t say where, she kept us guessing and guessing. Finally she said Saskatoon and we just said, “Great!’”
Growing up in Kelowna, B.C., and selected in the second round of the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft, the six-foot-six-inch Hunter was coming off his first complete season in the WHL with Prince George in 2023-24 and had 22 points in 36 games when he was acquired by Saskatoon.
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Knowing his family’s history within the Blades organization, he said there was an air of excitement back on the farm in Harris.
Since joining the Blades, Hunter has immediately stepped into a top-six forward role and has posted four goals and eight points in 11 games.
Hunter is part of the third generation of Laings to pursue a life on the ice, along with his younger brother Hayden who is a prospect of the Tri-City Americans and is playing with the Okanagan U18 AAA Rockets program.
Their father Quintin grew up in Harris and eventually joined the Kelowna Rockets organization, launching his professional hockey career which would carry him to 79 games in the National Hockey League split between the Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals.
Quintin would also wind up playing 13 years in the American Hockey League and has over 850 professional hockey games under his belt.
“When we go back to Harris my dad is kind of a celebrity,” said Hunter. “He brought back the Calder Cup that he won, it’s in the museum there. He’s a big celebrity and it’s kind of passed down to me and my brother.”
Growing up a Saskatoon Blades fan and cheering for the junior team his father once played for, Quintin has been on the opposite bench as his son serving as assistant coach for the Kelowna Rockets.
But while he coaches the next wave of Rockets players, he still has a lifelong attachment to the community where his hockey dream was sparked.
“The whole town gets behind you and they want to see you do well,” said Quintin. “I can feel that when my dad made junior hockey, the whole town just got behind him. I’m sensing that again with Hunter now as well.
Drafted by the Calgary Flames in the sixth round of the 2024 NHL Draft, Hunter got to share the moment with his father, grandfather and several family members on the farm in Harris which, after an uncertain drive in due to weather, ended with one of the biggest moments of his life.
“To have all of them, they’ve been a huge support for me my whole life,” said Hunter. “It was an experience that I will never forget.”
All three members of the Laing family can call themselves NHL draft picks, with Hunter preceded by Bill in 1973 by the St. Louis Blues and by Quintin in 1997 by the Detroit Red Wings.
Now begins the next step of his hockey career in Saskatoon, to chase a dream which has been common through three generations of the Laing family.
“It just seems like hockey is all we do,” said Bill. “We play and watch hockey, and we love it.”
The Blades return to the ice on Tuesday night for a midweek contest against the Medicine Hat Tigers, which will mark the return of former Blades Tanner Molendyk and Misha Volotovskii to SaskTel Centre.