Honoured. That’s the word Allan Measures used over and over again to describe his feelings about being named one of Finland’s SM-Liiga top 10 all-time foreign hockey players.
The SM-Liiga is an European Elite professional league and is Finland’s equivalent of the NHL. Measures was named one of the league’s top 10 best foreign players of all time. A list that includes such elite players as Florida Panther Aleksander Barkov, former NHL New Jersey and Detroit defenseman Brian Rafalski and two-time Vezina winning Boston Bruin goaltender Tim Thomas.
In total, Measures, a defenseman, played 15 seasons with two different teams in the SM-Liiga League (from 1987-2001) before a neck injury forced him to retire (as an active player). Measures also coached in Finland for a year before returning home to Barrhead.
“I just can’t describe how much of an honour it is to be included in such an elite company,” Measures told the Barrhead Leader. “There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of players who have come through that league and to be named one of the top 10 players of all-time, and for me to be included on that list is pretty cool.”
Measures, who was born and raised in Barrhead, said as an athlete and especially as a hockey player growing up in Barrhead, it was a dream come true.
“Back then Barrhead was a really sports oriented community,” he said, adding that there was everything from the typical high school sports, to senior baseball and two junior hockey teams.
“That’s all we did as kids. We either played or watched sports,” he said.
On a typical weekend when Measures and his teammates didn’t have a game of their own to play, every Friday night he would watch the Barrhead Junior Elks hockey team, followed by the senior hockey team on Saturday.
Although he was a gifted offensive defenseman, Measures said it was by watching the junior and senior teams that he really learned how to play hockey.
“We had some really good players and those were the people we tried to emulate,” he said. “They were our heroes.”
Just like Barrhead’s junior and senior hockey teams, Measures credits much of the success he has achieved in hockey to the teammates he played with during his formative minor hockey career.
“The teammates I had growing up were really good hockey players,” he said, adding that players like Parie and Mark Proft really helped him become a better hockey player.
“We had a system in Barrhead where the players pushed each other to be better,” Measures said. “The weaker players were always trying to catch up to the better players and that pushed the stronger players to become even better.”
By the time Measures was 16 he had to leave Barrhead to continue his hockey career.
In 1981, Measures got an invitation to try out for a Western Hockey League Major Junior A team, the Calgary Wranglers.
However, the Wranglers coaching staff felt that he wasn’t quite ready and suggested that he go back to Barrhead and play one more year with the midget team.
“I did have the opportunity to play on a Junior A team in Olds, but my parents thought I was too young and the Wranglers suggested that I go back home because of the strong supporting cast of players that we had.”
A year later in the 1982-83 season, Measures returned to Calgary, along with fellow Barrhead player Parie Proft, in another attempt to make the Wranglers. This time he was successful.
“There were some really strong players on that team that went on to have good and long careers,” he said. The list of players included such names as Dana Murzyn, who went on to play for the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, 15-year NHLer Doug Houda and two-time Stanley Cup winner, Mike Vernon.
At the end of the season, Measures ended up being drafted by the Vancouver Canucks (9th round, 170 overall).
In the next three years, although Measures got a small taste of making the NHL, by playing with the big team during training camp and exhibition games, the Canucks elected to return Measures to the Wranglers.
“In 1986, I just about made the Canucks. I was the last defenseman they cut,” he said, adding that he was hopeful he would have another opportunity to make the team even after Vancouver assigned him to their farm team, the Fredericton Express.
However, the Express coach, Andre Savard, took an instant dislike to Measures and he received limited playing time and was left behind when the team went on the road.
“I knew the writing was on the wall after he told me I would not be dressing the next game even though I had just played in a game where I was named first star and scored two goals,” he said, adding that he then asked Canucks management if he could be assigned to their team in Kalamazoo.
The Canucks granted his request and he spent the remainder of the year platooning between Fredericton and Kalmazoo.
After the season was finished, Measures thought his professional hockey career was over after he turned down a contract offer by the Canucks, planning instead to go to the University of Calgary to get a degree in education, but fate intervened in the form of a phone call.
It was from his agent who had two offers, one from a team in Germany and one from Finland.
Because of his family and hockey connections, he chose Finland which was definitely the right choice.
“I had a great career and I got to play with and against some great players like Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Vesa Toskala and Jyrki Lumme,” Measures said, adding that he is still friends with many of those players.
Although Measures is honoured to be included in SM–Liiga’s top 10 all-time foreign hockey players, he said what he is most touched by is all the calls of congratulations he has received from people involved in hockey.
“Esa Tikkanen, Jyrki Lumme, Jari Kurri and so many other former and current hockey players have called to congratulate me,” he said, adding that he was even more touched by a comment for a trainer in Finland.
“He was asked on Finnish television who was the player he missed most and he said Allan Measures. It is those types of comments that make me so proud of my hockey career.”
