Many players used the Canadian National Team as a stepping stone to gain more seasoning in an effort to make the next step to the NHL. As part of the team, Anderson was a member of the Canadian Olympic Team at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid where Canada went 3-2 in the preliminary round.
He would then embark on his NHL career, joining the Edmonton Oliers for the 1980-81 season. He would play 11 seasons for the Oilers, winning five Stanley Cups as part of their dynasty. Always one to play for Team Canada when given the chance, he would also participate in the Canada Cup in both 1984 and 1987. 1987 would also see him skate for the NHL All-Stars versus the Soviet Union in the two-game Rendez-vous '87 held in place of the traditional All-Star game. He would make his first appearance for Canada in the World Championships in 1989.
In 1991, he was involved in a blockbuster trade, along with Grant Fuhr, that would send him to the Toronto Maple Leafs. While a Leaf, he asked permission to participate in the 1994 Olympics, which the club agreed to in his contract, but the request was denied by Commissioner Gary Bettman. After being traded to the New York Rangers at the end of the 1993-94 season, he arrived just in time to capture his sixth Stanley Cup.
At this point, armed with more than a fist full of Stanley Cup rings, Anderson's career now took him on a path that would see him cross the Atlantic and back multiple times. The 1994-95 season would see him play for Lukko Rauma in Finland, the Augsburg Panthers of the German DEL, 26 games for the Canadian National Team and 36 games for the St. Louis Blues.
1995-96 was no different, with 11 more games for the Canadian National Team, 9 more back in Augsburg in Germany, 17 games once more with the Edmonton Oilers and a second stint in St. Louis to finish the NHL season with 15 regular season and 11 playoff games.
His career would wind down with a pair of games for HC Bolzano in Italy and 23 games for HC La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss league in 1996-97.
His final NHL totals would show 1129 games played, a tantalizing 498 goals and 601 assists for 1099 points with 225 more playoff appearances which included 93 goals and 121 assists for 214 career playoff points and six Stanley Cup Championships. His #9 has was retired by the Edmonton Oilers on January 18, 2009 and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008.
Today's featured jersey is a CCM 1994-95/1995-96 Canadian National Team Glenn Anderson jersey. This style jersey was worn only by the Canadian National Team. A similar jersey using the diagonal waist stripes was used by the 1995 Canadian World Junior Team, but was produced by Reebok and featured their large, distinctive logos on the shoulders.
This is one of our favorite jerseys in the Third String Goalie collection due to it's unique and fairly obscure place in Canadian hockey history, combined with it's how unusual it is to find the CCM version of this jersey style. It was a fun and enjoyable project to research, which paid off handsomely by being worn by such a player of note, whose unique career path matched the unique nature of the jersey.
While we were never able to find any photos of Anderson wearing this particular jersey style, we felt safe in assuming that an NHL player with six Stanley Cups and over 1000 games played would have been named team captain on a club mostly made up young players looking to step up to the NHL.
This video was made by the Oilers on the occasion of his jersey retirement.
This similar video is part one of the actual retirement ceremony, and features quotes from Anderson not found in the previous video.
Dasherboard: If you have not heard about this one yet, check out this player for the Brandon Wheat Kings named... Wheaton King.
Wheaton, who is from Brandon, Manitoba is 17 years old and survived training camp to make the team roster.
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