PATRICK DEMPSEY
Date of Birth: 1950
Place of Birth: St. John’s, NL
Inducted: 2019 (Player Category)
Responding best when he was under pressure, Pat Dempsey was a “money goalie” during his nine-year career in the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League, during which he won an incredible five Herder Memorial Trophy championships.
A St. John’s native, Dempsey was the backbone of the powerful Bro. Rice Celtics high school teams in the late 1960s, and he was so good he slid right into the St. John’s Capitals senior lineup right out of high school, and remained the Caps’ starting net minder for years.
The puck stopped with Dempsey on Bob Badcock’s “Kiddie Corps” Caps squad that won four straight Herders beginning in 1973.
Three times in four years — in 1976, ’78 and ’79 — Dempsey was named the provincial senior league’s top net minder.
In the 1978 playoffs, Dempsey registered a stellar 3.48 goals against average to backstop the Labatt BlueCaps to their first Herder win, and the fifth of Dempsey’s brilliant career.
He retired following the 1981 season.