Oklahoma City Barons' defenseman Bryan Helmer is a classy guy who just loves to play hockey.
I found that out when I first met him.
It must be odd for a 38-year-old professional hockey player to be pulled aside by a 21-year-old during his first game with a new team and forced to answer questions about a team he barely has had time to meet. Either that or it's just another day at the office.
But when I pulled Mr. Helmer aside that day to interview him after the first period of his first game here, I was rather pleased with the experience.
The defenseman has most likely seen it all, and if he hasn't seen it, he's probably heard of people that have seen it.
Helmer is in the latter end of an 18 year career that may be soon coming to a close. But not before he reaches a huge milestone.
Bryan will play in his 1,000th career American Hockey League game this Friday in Calgary.
1,000 games.
Now that is impressive.
“I’d love to get 1,000 games," Helmer told me after breaking the career point total for an AHL defenseman in January. "That’d be another great milestone, another personal goal that I’d love to reach. That was the two things that I wanted to come back for. The point record and to get 1,000 games. If I could do that, it’d be icing on the cake.”
Well he's got the point record, and he'll get his 1,000th game Friday night.
What else is in store for Helmer? After 18 long years, there may be not much left in the hockey chapter of his life.
“Well, I think this could be my last (season),” Helmer said. “My wife’s been great to let me do this for 18 years, and I’ve accomplished a lot of things and I’m really happy now with my career but you never know. Things do change sometimes and we’ll go from there.”
I would love to see Helmer come back to Oklahoma City if everything falls in place. He is a leader, a great interview and a real nice guy. I hope the rest of the season pans out for him and everything works in his favor for his future.
Here is a link to an article on Helmer I wrote in January on this very subject and below is the Helmer Tribute Video I edited for Bryan's record point puck presentation.
http://bit.ly/hJIIqj
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