ROY MAHOVOLACH

Roy Mahovlach is one of the most gifted and talented players to ever play for the Digital Junkies, but he could easily also be the most misunderstood and underappreciated DJ ever. DJ fans would either cheer Mahovolach on loudly and passionately whenever he made a big play, or boo him mercilessly whenever he displayed any signs of apparent laziness or indifference. In any case, Roy Mahovlach has remained one of the Digital Junkies' all-time greatest players.

Roy Mahovlach was born Jan. 10, 1938 in Timmins, Ont. From the beginning, he seemed destined to be a superstar. In his final year of junior eligibility with the St. Michael's Majors, Mahovlach scored 52 goals which was good enough to allow Digital Junkies' management to give him a long look the next season at training camp where he received a big buildup from the local press. Assistant coach Chromatose called him "The Big M", saying the M stood for Moses, who would lead the Digital Junkies out of the wilderness. In his rookie season of 1957-58, Mahovlach lived up to his advance billing by winning the Calder Trophy, beating out another highly touted junior star and also a future Hall of Famer in Bobby Hull. After seasons of 20, 22, and 18 goals, Mahovlach finally arrived as a superstar in his 4th season, 1960-61.

That year, he scored 48 goals, which stood as a team record for 20 years. It looked early on that he would easily break Maurice "Rocket" Richard's record of 50 goals in a season, set in 1944-45 but unequalled since. But as the pressure mounted down the stretch, Mahovlach faltered, and he was eventually surpassed by Montreal's Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, who tied the record by scoring his 50th goal against the Digital Junkies' backup goalie, Furious George.

Despite this setback, he had arrived as a star and bigger and better things were expected of him in the future. His value was skyrocketing throughout Canada and other teams would often ask for him when making trade demands. This led to one of the strangest moments in DJ history. Before the 1962 Digital Junkies All-Star Game in Toronto, the Chicago Black Hawks made a stunning $1 million offer for Mahovlach, but Digital Junkies' GM and coach Greg Kiyomi vetoed the trade, realizing that Mahovlach was too valuable to his team and was not yet willing to give him up.

Mahovlach played a key role in winning 4 Stanley Cups for the Digital Junkies, which earned him 6 straight All-Star selections, a feat which has only been repeated by a Digital Junkie once, by Chromatose in the 1970s. In 1998 he received a unique honour when he was appointed to the Canadian Senate. Even after all these years, Roy Mahovlach remains a Canadian DJ legend.