Height: 6-0
Weight: 175
Shoot: R
Born: 9 Mar 1948, Castor AB
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Alberta | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Los Angeles | |||||||||||
| 1974-75 | Indianapolis | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Alberta Homecoming for Walters • by Terry Jones • The Hockey Spectator • November 10, 1972
That Ron Walters scored six goals in his first six World Hockey Association games with Alberta Oilers isn't really unusual for the player. It's just that there's been a little drought. Walters, whose father, Ron Sr., is the trainer of the team, used to score six goals a game. It's been a while, mind you. The native of Red Deer, Alberta, led an Edmonton Bantam-aged team to a city title by scoring 90 goals in one season. The season consisted of 15 games. There was one night that he actually burnt out the red light behind the net with his production. Or, at least, that's how he tells it. Three years later Walters was a member of Edmonton Oil Kings of junior hockey fame. During three years with that team, he managed one 45-goal season and a 41-goal year. And, in his final year with the club, Walters was the captain. Dedication has always been Walters' long suit. Years ago Detroit Red Wing scout Clarence Moher used to tell of watching the kid sneak, beg, or otherwise work his way into The Edmonton Gardens late at night and early Sunday mornings to go skating. Walters, who stands just short of six feet and weighs 170 pounds, even went so far as to rent ice one day. He had a throat infection just prior to the start of a season and had lost a good deal of his strength. The player felt he had to get in shape for getting in shape for training camp. Perhaps it's the Ron Walters, Al Hamiltons, Bob Falkenbergs, Ross Perkinses and Eddie Joyals that have resulted in Alberta icing a competitive team. All are former junior captains. General Manager Bill Hunter and Coach Ray Kinasewich chose to surround themselves with largely journeymen professionals but players they knew. Whatever, the team found itself in first place for a good part of the early schedule. Walters was the club's leading scorer and Jim Harrison, the former Toronto Maple Leaf who once played with many of his teammates in a Oil King Memorial Cup win, was right on his heels. Walters scored Oilers first overtime goal in a 3-2 home opener against Winnipeg Jets. While it seems likely that he'll pass his 14-goal mark from Tidewater last year, he might have some trouble with the assists department. In Tidewater he had 29. In Alberta he has one. The difference, for Walters, perhaps, is that he's playing out of position at center. When Perkins, the minor league player of the year last year, injured his ankle in training camp, Walters was moved from his usual wing position to play the position he's not entirely unfamiliar with. He played that position through minor hockey, in junior and in some cases as a professional. With Perkins out he centered Val Fonteyne and Rusty Patenaude. When Perkins returns, Walters and Fonteyne are to be the wingers on the line. Walter's goals haven't exactly been of the empty net variety. One was a tying goal, three were winning goals and he remains the only player on the team with a hat trick. |
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