Alright, buckle up, because Laura Stacey’s hockey story is like a slapshot of legacy straight to the feels. This gal’s got more hockey in her veins than a zamboni has ice shavings. Picture the dinner table at her house: pass the mashed potatoes, oh and did I mention my great-grandpa is a legendary Maple Leafs icon? Yep, old King Clancy, the man, the myth, the legend who was somehow traded for a horse—talk about a winning bet!
King Clancy bulldozed through the NHL like a Zamboni on overdrive, snagging three shiny Stanley Cups during his sixteen action-packed seasons. The dude was a puck-moving wizard on defense and even today, his career points are like a record that had all the other blue-liners green with envy. No wonder they hung his number seven jersey from the roof of the Scotiabank Arena like a banner of pure awesomeness.
Clancy wasn’t just a titan on the ice; post his hockey heroics, he whistled his way through being an NHL referee and then slipped right into the coaching shoes for the Leafs. Talk about a man with more titles than a royal family—also snagging not one, not two, but four more Stanley Cups as the assistant GM. The man was such a beacon of good vibes and community spirit that the NHL named a trophy after him. Now that’s how you leave a mark!
Let’s shift to the next generation—Laura Stacey. She caught the hockey bug while watching the Canadian women’s team at the 2002 Winter Games, and it clung to her like syrup on pancakes. Fast forward, and bam!—she’s at the Olympics herself, scooping up a silver in 2018, and then blasting her way to a gold medal in 2022 with the kind of scoresheet that would make her great-grandpa proud.
Then, in 2023, she skates right into the PWHL’s Montreal roster, leading the charge in women’s hockey because, let’s face it, who runs the world? Girls with hockey sticks.
So, theScore zooms in for a chit-chat with Stacey, peeling back layers of her hockey heart. She unearths a hockey card of the great King Clancy, thanks to the eBay gods—an ultimate family heirloom alongside her gold puck necklace that’s been bouncing down the Stacey family tree like a priceless golden puck.
Stacey’s family tales are a buffet of Leafs loyalty, with a side of charity and humility inherited from Clancy himself. As if being a hockey prodigy wasn’t enough, she mixes it with the generosity of a Secret Santa minus the beard.
Growing up with dreams as big as the rink itself, Stacey wondered why she couldn’t lace up her skates professionally like her legendary ancestor. But, Olympic stardom? That was the gleaming prize in the distance, and she went for it like a hound after a rabbit. The Olympics were the mountaintop, but the PWHL? That’s her new Everest, a dream come true for grassroots girl skaters everywhere, a chance to skate beyond college glory and into the big leagues.
Laura Stacey, like her trailblazing great-grandpa, is carving up fresh tracks on the ice of women’s professional hockey, scribing a brand new chapter, and we’re all here front row, popcorn in hand, for this blockbuster show.
That, my friends, is a wrap on the heartwarming, skate-lacing, puck-firing dynasty that is the Stacey-Clancy lineage. Jolene Latimer dropped this bomb of a story, courtesy of theScore, but remember this isn’t some fairytale—it’s cold, hard, heart-melting hockey history.