{"id":18318,"date":"2017-09-13T15:57:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T19:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18318"},"modified":"2017-09-13T15:57:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T19:57:42","slug":"leafs-legend-mike-palmateer-gets-call-to-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/leafs-legend-mike-palmateer-gets-call-to-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Leafs legend Mike Palmateer gets call to Aurora Sports Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Mike Palmateer once more donned the blue and white at the 2016 Centennial Classic Alumni game, he brought the same style of play that made him a fan favourite in his years with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
\nWearing the exact same equipment he wore in his final NHL game in 1984, the 62-year old was faced with a penalty shot from Detroit Red Wings alumnus Tomas Holmstrom, and made an awkward-yet-incredible diving save to keep the game scoreless.
\nWith an aching back and knees that plagued him throughout his professional career, he left the ice immediately afterwards, but to cheers from old and new fans alike.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s certainly a save I\u2019ve made a few times in my life,\u201d said Mr. Palmateer. \u201cYou\u2019re just trying to read him. I stayed with him, which is pretty good because he made a move on me pretty quick. If he goes upstairs on me it\u2019s in but it\u2019s all about the second effort. It was kind of nice to go out like that.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s funny how things feel natural\u2026you think the game well but you don\u2019t move like you think you can.\u201d
\nMr. Palmateer, who has lived in Aurora for the past thirty-or-so years and once owned the Jersey Joe\u2019s restaurant on Yonge Street, made a career out of haphazard saves.
\nHis time with the Leafs is highlighted by sprawling saves, often making an ordinary save look like something off of the highlight reel.
\nBorn in Toronto, he was drafted by his hometown team with the 85th pick in the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft, spending the next three seasons as the club\u2019s starting goaltender after helping the Marlies to the Memorial Cup championship.
\nPlagued by bad knees, an injury-prone season in 1979-80 saw Palmateer traded to the Washington Capitals, before finishing his career as a Leafs once again in 1984.
\nThe 58th-ranked Leaf of all time moved his family to Aurora upon retirement, turning to real estate and business ventures with his popular restaurant.
\n\u201cI am very pleased and honoured to learn of my induction into the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame,\u201d said Mr. Palmateer. \u201cI have many terrific memories of my professional hockey career but I deeply value all the wonderful memories and experiences spanning over 30 years of living and working in Aurora.\u201d
\nMr. Palmateer is one of four inductees into this year\u2019s Aurora Sports Hall of Fame class, all inducted under the \u201cAthletes\u201d category.
\nMr. Palmateer has been inducted to the ASHoF alongside Dan Thompson, a record-breaking swimmer, William Fleury, a pioneer in the Canadian cricket community, and Bob Wall, who was the first captain of the Los Angeles Kings in 1967.
\n\u201cI feel privileged to have had the opportunity to raise my family in such a remarkable place,\u201d said Mr. Palmateer. \u201cThank you for this honour from the town that will always be home to me, my wife Lee and our daughters Courtney and Tess.\u201d
\nThe Auroran will next highlight the career of Mr. Wall.
\nHeld annually at St. Andrew\u2019s College, the ASHoF Induction dinner is one of the most spectacular nights of the year in the Aurora sports community. This year\u2019s dinner will be held on November 8, and more information can be found at www.aurorashof.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Mike Palmateer once more donned the blue and white at the 2016 Centennial Classic Alumni game, he brought the same style of play that made him a fan favourite in his years with the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/2017-09-14-11.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Ls","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 14:34:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}