WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Alumni Spotlight: Gerhard Unterluggauer

Published on April 25, 2016 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Red Deer, AB. - As the Brandon Wheat Kings prepare for Game 3 of the Western Hockey League's Eastern Conference Final in Red Deer, the Brandon Sun's Perry Bergson continues to look back at the 1996 club that represented the WHL at the Memorial Cup in Peterborough, Ontario.

Gerhard Unterluggauer looks back at his two years with the Brandon Wheat Kings with an undisguised fondness.

The defenceman came over from his from home in Villach, Austria, to play for general manager Kelly McCrimmon and coach Bob Lowes from 1995 to 1997.

"For me the biggest thing was that I actually got the chance," Unterluggauer said. "At the time when I went to Brandon to play in the (Canadian Hockey League), it was a little different days than nowadays so I was really happy that Kelly and Lowesy gave me the chance to actually play there. I really appreciated that and I had two of my most interesting years in my long career."

Unterluggauer blew out the ACL in his knee 28 games into his rookie season during a practice and never played again that year, even as the team won the league and went to the Memorial Cup in Peterborough. He flew home to Austria to have it diagnosed and then had surgery shortly after.

But he insisted on returning to Brandon a couple of weeks later for rehab and the chance to spend the season with the Wheat Kings.

He said he saw a lot of Brian Elder in rehab as the netminder struggled to work his way through groin problems.

"I didn't have a lot to do so I was doing everything, I was working with the trainer a little bit," Unterluggauer said with a laugh. "I had to kill time. I made sure to keep the guys happy. It was still fun. I wanted to be around the team so that's why I asked Kelly if it's OK that I come back and do my rehab there. And then I played one more year there."

The ties haven't broken.

The five-foot-10, 194-pound defender gets the occasional call from McCrimmon asking about European players and he played against several of his old teammates in Europe, including Justin Kurtz, Sven Butenschon and Dorian Anneck. He also faced Wade Redden and Peter Schaefer at the world championship.

Although he hasn't set foot in Brandon since a couple of years after his WHL career ended, he remains in touch with his former billets, Ed and Maureen Farrant, who have been over twice to visit him.

"It's great, especially when you're fortunate enough to have billets where you feel like it's home," Unterluggauer said. "It's almost like your real home away from home. I was really lucky to be there."

He chose not to accept a three-way contract with the Calgary Flames, instead returning to his hometown team, Villacher SV, that he had played with for three seasons before leaving to join the Wheat Kings.

The Chicago Wolves of the International Hockey League also made him an offer a couple of years later but by that time he was negotiating with teams in Germany, where he played for three seasons.

While he admits that he harboured National Hockey League dreams and wonders what time in the North American minor leagues would have been like, he doesn't carry any regrets.

"I was lucky, it worked out great," Unterluggauer said. "I went back to Austria and played a couple of years here, went to the DL (Deutsche Eishockey Liga) in Germany, had some good years there and then I was lucky. Besides my knee injury I haven't had any really big injuries besides this year when I broke my ankle and I was out for three months.

"Other than that, thank God, I was lucky my whole career so I stayed healthy and I could play every year."

That long career isn't over just yet.

After returning from injury and having a strong playoffs, Unterluggauer has decided to play one final season at age 40 in his hometown of Villach. He has a 10-minute drive to the rink in the city of 75,000 that he lives in with wife Tanja, and sons Neal, 14, and Jamie, 9.

"I want to play one more year," Unterluggauer said. "That's my goal. I'm playing in my hometown, which is a privilege that I have. It's just awesome. That's where I grew up and where my whole family lives and where my friends are. My kids play hockey here. For me, at night I go home from the rink. It's not like you have to pack up and move your household to a different city for eight to 10 months."

But he is planning for the next thing, which will also involve the game of hockey.

In Austria, the process to become an accredited coach takes two years. But the Austrian hockey federation now has an accelerated stream for its former national team members that will allow Unterluggauer to earn his licence much sooner.

The former Wheat King is in the first class of 25 players who will receive the training, which begins next month. The accreditation will open up doors in the coaching ranks across Europe.

He retired as a player from the Austrian national team after the Sochi Olympics in 2014 after playing 20 years and setting the team record for most international games. He participated in three Olympics - Nagano, Salt Lake City and Sochi - and 13 world championships.

After his professional team was knocked out of the playoffs, he turned into a hockey dad, accompanying Neal to a tournament in Croatia on a recent weekend. Both boys play hockey, something he said is possible due to Tanja, who he calls a full-time hockey mom.

He would love for Neal to have the same Canadian opportunity he did, knowing that technology has made it easier.

"It was tough in my situation," Unterluggauer said. "There was no Skype, there was no whatever. You talked to home once a week or whatever. Now we're already talking about it. He's doing well and what are we going to do? What's going to be best for him hockey-wise and school, education-wise. It's going to be interesting the next couple of years. We have to figure out something."

Neal can only hope that he develops his father's signature talent.

Longtime Brandon fans will almost certainly remember Unterluggauer's jaw-dropping ability to shoot the puck at high speed. He said he's still shooting really well, but has never really understood why.

"I started shooting the puck really well around 13, 14," Unterluggauer said. "That's when everybody saw the difference between me shooting the puck and my teammates or other players. I was shooting the puck high under the bar from the blue-line when everybody else just tried to get the puck up in the air. It just happened. I was lucky. Maybe I played enough road hockey."

He learned to shoot in the rink in Austria. He said part of what he learned in Brandon was just as valuable.

"One of the biggest lessons, and it's not just hockey, they taught us to be a responsible person, to know how to act," Unterluggauer said. "They made good people out of us. The hockey was great, and we played great hockey at a great level. They made us off-ice people too. I think that was one of the biggest things that surprised me the most."

As for the WHL Eastern Final, the Wheat Kings take a 2-0 series lead into Game 3 Tuesday night in Red Deer, host of this year's MasterCard Memorial Cup.

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Western Hockey League Stories from April 25, 2016


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