Rusty Knale Junior Review

[HatrickRoy 22]

Russ Brutus "Rusty" Knale was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, to Bjorn Knale and Ingrid Svensson. Rusty was a ginormous baby, and a ferocious one, too. When he was three years old, his dad put him in a hockey league with six year olds, and Rusty was the goon of his team, often getting into fights on the ice and having opposing parents scream at him. His dad, ever the loyal father, kept track of his stats that year. In 20 games, Rusty scored 120 goals, had zero assists, and had 400 penalty minutes. This was just Rusty's playing style, and it would continue to flourish as he moved up ranks.

 

                          It became clear to everyone that Rusty was too good for the small Icelandic leagues very quickly. So the Knale family moved to Sweden, where, at his first tryout, when he was 8 years old, he got into three fights and was kicked off the ice. The team gave him a spot as their 4th line goon, and Rusty quickly showed he could do more than just fight. He scored and fought, scored and fought, scored and fought. By the time he was 10 years old, he was 6'4 and 220 pounds, and just beating the crap out of kids his age. So the hockey bigwigs in Sweden sent him to the GTHL in Toronto, where he joined the Toronto Marlies. His job there was, as you have probably guessed, a 4th line goon. He had the pleasure of beating up some of the future NHL and VHL's brightest stars with the Marlies. 

       

 After two years and 38 fights, the GTHL gave up on Rusty and sent him back to Sweden, where he was promptly dumped into Finland. As a 14-year-old, Rusty joined the SM-Liiga team Ilves as their 4th line goon. The SM-Liiga is Finland's top professional league, and it was Rusty's first challenge as a player. In 40 games, Rusty got 3 goals, zero assists, and 860 penalty minutes. He was fighting grown men now, and sometimes they actually gave him a challenge. Nevertheless, Rusty still won every single fight he fought. Rusty spent four years with Ilves, and he got some attention by NHL scouts because of his stats: 45 games, 16 goals, zero assists, and 1,240 penalty minutes. He was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks, and shipped off to their AHL team , the Utica Comets. He played for six years with Utica, never eclipsing 20 goals and never going under 1,500 penalty minutes. Now, he was 24 years old, and looking for another shot at the pros. So he signs with an ECHL team, the Brampton Beast. He plays 4 years with the Beast, recording 80 goals, zero assists, and 3,750 penalty minutes in that span. Now he was 28 and he had given up on the pros, and just wanted to have a little fun.

 

                               Rusty joined an American bus league team, the Los Angeles Chicken Nuggets. The Nuggets were a beer league travel team that would drive in a bus and compete in tournaments around the States and Canada. Rusty stayed with the Nuggets until he was 32, when he joined a different team in the same situation, the St Louis Pirates. He had an Icelandic friend on the Pirates, and he played there for TEN YEARS. During that time, he got 400 goals, zero assists, and are you ready for it, I don't think you are, 20,000 penalty minutes. When he left the Pirates, he was 42, and they retired his jersey number, 9. 

 

                He then caught the attention of the Philadelphia Reapers, who Knale signed with this season. He is 44 years old.