By Kris Smith
Now 15 years later, Lindsay recalls his time with the team and tells more about how his life has gone since leaving Tayside in 2005.
Evan spent most of his career playing in North America but he did play for a few seasons in the UK and before joining the Stars, he had played in a few major leagues such as; the American Hockey League, the East Coast Hockey League and the Western Hockey League.
Explaining what he has been doing since he left Dundee nearly 15 years ago, Lindsay said: “I played two more years, so I played a year in Texas in the Central Hockey League with Ryan Shmyr.
“Ryan is Jason Shmyr’s brother and that is how I ended up there, which was great, I had a lot of fun there.
“Then I played one more year and came back to UK and played a little bit in Nottingham but I ended up getting fired about Christmas time which wasn’t really a highlight to it all, then I finished that year out with the Charlotte Checkers before I retired.
“After I quit hockey, I did a couple things, so originally, I was going to go into being a contractor, so building houses.
“I got into school for that and bought some property and then about the same time I got into the Fire Department in Calgary.
“So, we choose to move there, sold the properties that we had bought and I had not yet started school by then.
“I was actually a firefighter for five years, so we did that in Calgary for two years and I worked downtown.
“I was on the high-angle rescue team and all sorts of fun like that then we chose to move back to Prince Albert, which is where I played junior hockey and where my wife is from.
“We actually had a house there from before we moved to Dundee, as we bought a cabin on the lake there.
“So, I opened up a business there, working as a fireman and I ran a gym that I started from scratch and I ran that for five years.
“We did pretty well, we got up to having 12 employees and having over 300 clients because it was like a higher end gym.
“We did some hockey training as well, then we moved to where we live now, which is the Cayman Islands, so we have been here for the last six years.
“I live here with my wife, Kirstie and we have a cat and a dog but we don’t have any kids.
“I ran the gym back in Canada from here for a year then I sold it and now I have been working online for the last six or seven years as a consultant for people who run fitness business primarily.
“So, people who are earning between $300,000 a year in annual revenues up to about $2.5M- $3M.
“So, I support them with growing their businesses and the finance, leadership and strategy side.
“We are planning to stay here for the foreseeable future and it has been awesome, a lot of fun.”
Despite being a late addition to the team and only spending one campaign with Dundee, Evan created a lot of memories in that season.
He added: “The first thing that comes to mind for me are the people, they are amazingly friendly and hearty.
“I think you can describe them as good people, down-to-earth, not afraid to do work and just good folks.
“I still remember after I came over part way through the year but I can’t remember where we were playing but we were losing and I don’t think we were playing particularly well, like 7-3 sort of losing and the fans just started chanting in the middle of the game and they just kept chanting and chanting.
“This is in the second period and after playing in the US for however many years, I just remember thinking this doesn’t happen.
“So, that’s one of my best memories, is the fans, they were very, very good people and very supportive.
“They were a bit like the seventh player on the team, so that is something that really stands out to me, as having people who are really supportive during those times.
“I also remember Robert Burns night and eating haggis and us all wearing kilts, those things like, off the ice moments really standout as well and a lot of the other players were a lot of fun too.”
After the Stars made a miracle turnaround during the regular season and had a fantastic run down the last stretch and into the playoffs, it was obvious what moment was the keeper’s favourite in a Stars jersey.
“Obviously winning the championship that year really stands out, especially with it being an NHL lockout year where a lot of teams brought over anywhere between one to three NHL players” said Evan.
He continued: “I think we ended up qualifying fifth out of the six teams that made it, then after the round robin we were fourth out of the top four teams that got in, then we swept Bracknell and then Guildford which was really cool.
“We managed to achieve a lot more than what we were expected too, so that was probably my favourite but the year itself had a lot of ups and downs from what I recall but just how it finished is something that has really stuck with me for the rest of my life.”
The Red Deer, Alberta native was 25-years-old when he was playing in Dundee and he also spoke about his journey throughout hockey that brought him to Scotland.
Lindsay said: “I ended up playing for the London Racers in my first year there and that was the worst hockey team I have ever played on if am being honest with you.
“I played the year before in Roanoke in the East Coast Hockey League and had a couple different contract offers to go a couple different places.
“There were a few from Europe with a couple teams in Italy and France, Norway as well but I wasn’t that keen on going over.
“I was still looking at staying in the States, so, I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma that year and once I got there, I didn’t want to play another year in the states, it seemed redundant and it didn’t seem like it was a good thing to do and I just went home.
“I thought about quitting hockey, I thought about doing a few different things and then the team in London called and there was a team in Norway that kept calling as well and it was ‘A or B’ at that time.
“If I had went to Norway, I would have been the only English speaking guy in the team, which didn’t really appeal to me at that time, so the team was a lot better but I chose to go to London more for the lifestyle and that’s how I ended up in the British Elite League to start.
“In terms of getting to Dundee, I ended up there the next year.
“After my initial contract ended, I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to play for, I thought about quitting a couple times and going to school and I had actually started thinking about doing the online classes to become a fireman.
“But then a guy I played hockey with called Casey Kesselring phoned me and said Dundee were interested, if I was interested in going back over.
“I didn’t really no anyone on the team at that point, but once I got there, I had some friends who were back over there like Cory Morgan, who I played junior with.
“Cory and I had always stayed relatively close but it was a fun year, Dundee was a great time for me.”
The former shot-stopper was also drafted twice in two different NHL drafts, firstly in 1997 and again in 1999, which is uncommon but Evan shared more about how he ended up going through the special experience twice.
He explained: “It wasn’t really a highlight to my career, the first time I got picked.
“I got picked by Calgary in the second round #30 overall but for the most part, I had a very solid junior career after that and there were a lot of goaltenders that got picked around the same spot, that actually had a lot better junior careers after getting drafted and ended up signing very large contracts.
“That was how I ended up not signing with Calgary as I put my trust in the wrong agent, which was totally my fault and I ended up losing a lot of money with that.
“So, I didn’t end up going back into the draft by choice, it was just we couldn’t settle on terms after we made a pretty egregious offer and they were not too happy with it, so we could not settle on terms with Calgary.
“So, I actually went back into the draft and a funny story is that my agent asked me before the draft if there is any team I do not want to get drafted by and I said only Montreal haha.
“He goes why’s that and I said because you don’t see to many western Canadian goalies or players that fair well there, I don’t know French, I don’t want to go there.
“Funnily enough, that day we went golfing on the golf course and he got a call and told me that I got picked in the fourth round by Montreal, so that is how we ended up there and the rest is history now.”
Finally, he left a message for all the Stars fans back in Dundee and you can listen to what he had to say in the video below.
Next we will be bringing you a look back at one Star Player from the 2004-2005 season and that will be released tomorrow at 12pm!
If you want to be a part of the historic 20th Dundee Stars season then you can buy your season tickets by contacting [email protected]
