Spin That Wheel: Mini Biography - Edition 2

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Spin That Wheel: Mini Biography - Edition 2

 

 

After looking at Isabella Campbell last week, our second edition of this series will look at another player drafted by the Seattle Bears.  Our first wheel took us to Season 61 and with twenty-four potential options, including one of the greatest to ever do it, in Matt Thompson, I was pretty excited.  While number one wouldn't fall to us, our second wheel had us looking at the fourth overall pick.  This player in question was...G - Roger Sterling (955 TPE).  Another great person to review with seven seasons in VHL split between two teams, and a bit of an up-and-down career at times.  With that being said, lets do a quick deep dive into the career of Roger Sterling.

 

Sterling was a member of the Hall of Fame agency of @Willwhich includes talents like the original Don Draper and Hall of Fame players like John Locke and Aleski Koponen.  And while it may have been a bit surprising to see someone of that pedigree fall to four, two of the three players that went ahead of Sterling became Hall of Famers, so he probably should have went third in his draft but ultimately Seattle ended up being incredibly fortunate that the draft had multiple future Hall of Famers dominating the first couple spots.  It only helped them land Sterling, who at the time was one of the hottest goalie prospects the league had seen in years.

 

When Sterling entered the VHLM he was a pretty hyped talent due to his tremendous rebound control and post-to-post agility.  Unfortunately for him, he ended up being on a pretty mediocre Las Vegas Aces squad and his results took a bit of a hit in result, finishing with just a 3.81 GAA and .868 Save Percentage in 68 Starts.  Despite this, he showed a lot of flashes of his brilliant talent but ultimately had to face a lot of rubber and typically a significant amount of scoring changes.  It was clear that VHL General Managers felt that in a better situation, that Sterling would flourish just like he was expected to when he was drafted into the VHLM.  And that is why despite the difficult season, he would go with the fourth overall pick to the Seattle Bears, in the Season 61 Draft.

 

It was a difficult yet familiar rookie season for the young netminder as he found himself on a bad team facing a lot of shots every game, but despite that he seemed far more comfortable in the nets.  While he did have a pretty high 3.53 GAA, Sterling faced on average 40 shots a game and considering he was facing more difficult competition than he was used to, he had a very respectable .917 save percentage in what was ultimately a solid rookie campaign. 

 

This performance became more of an expectation around Sterling as he sported a career .916 save percentage and finished between a .912 and .921 save percentage for six of his seven seasons in the Victory Hockey League.  Season 64 and 65 were big seasons for Sterling as his Bears would go on to win the Victory Cup in both seasons, with Roger's best performance coming in Season 65 where he sported a career-best .921 save percentage.  While he was never an individual award winner, Sterling enjoyed the better part of seven seasons (five seasons with Seattle, one with Vancouver and one with Moscow) as a solid and reliable starting goaltender, that finished with an excellent 239-162-31 record, 2.88 GAA and a .916 Save Percentage. He even had the opportunity to represent Canada on the International level at the World Cup, where Sterling played 12 games but unfortunately to just a 4-7-1 record and .907 Save Percentage. While you will never see him in the Hall of Fame, Bears fans (and potentially Vancouver and Moscow ones too) will have certainly fond memories for the reliable netminder who maintained their crease in their team's colours.  As steady as they came, you never had to worry about what you were going to get out of him as he typically delivered solid, consistent goaltending behind what was often a pretty strong team.

 

TAG: @Will

Edited March 8, 2023 by Advantage