Oshawa Generals to honour Hamilton’s Dave Andreychuk tonight with jersey ceremony

All eyes will be up in the Tribute Centre rafters before puck drop tonight as the Oshawa Generals honour team legend and Hockey Hall of Fame member Dave Andreychuk prior to the game against the undefeated Mississauga Steelheads.

The Steelheads come into Oshawa with a 3-0 record after sweeping a home-and-home against Erie and blanking Niagara Thursday to earn Ryerson Leenders his second shutout of the new season.

Oshawa, meanwhile, is 1-1 after splitting a series against Kingston, New York Rangers draft pick Dylan Roobroeck is the early stats leader for the Generals with two goals and an assist.

The pre-game festivities will be the main event tonight, however, as Andreychuk’s #9 jersey get hoisted up to take its rightful place alongside Generals’ greats Bobby Orr, Eric Lindros, ‘Red’ Tilson, John Tavares, Marc Savard and Tony Tanti.

More than forty years after his last game in a Generals uniform and six years after his induction into the Hall of Fame, Andreychuk will be on hand to see his uniform raised to the roof.

“It makes perfect sense as an organization to continue the tradition of honouring Generals alumni that went on the achieve some of the highest honours the game has to offer,” said Vice President Roger Hunt.

Drafted 62nd overall by the Generals in 1980, Andreychuk played parts of three seasons in Oshawa. In 148 regular season games, he scored 87 goals and added 89 assists for 176 points. Andreychuk added another 10 points in 13 OHL playoff games.

In the NHL Andreychuk hoisted the Stanley Cup as captain of the Tampa Bay Lightening in 2004 and finished his career 7^th in games played with 1,639, 15^th in goals with 640 and second in power play goals with 274.

On the ice tonight the Generals will hope for a little of the magic from their last meeting with the Steelheads when the Oshawa club registered a huge victory on the penultimate game of the season to put them into the playoffs.

There are still some tickets available for the game, which has a 7:35 p.m. puck drop.

The Generals travel to Brantford Saturday to play the former Hamilton Bulldogs before returning home in time for turkey dinner.