DENNIS Beyak honoured by wcphsf
Seven months ago, long-time play-by-play broadcaster Dennis Beyak was acknowledged for his tremendous career after officially retiring at the 2024 World Junior Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden. Now, the 72-year-old is still being recognized with yet another prestigious accomplishment.
Last week, the Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation (WCPHSF) recognized Beyak as a co-recipient of the inaugural “Ace” Award during its Wall of Honour induction dinner in Okotoks, Alberta.
The WCPHSF is a non-profit foundation honouring Western Canadian NHL scouts and individuals such as Beyak that have had a strong impact on the hockey community. Aside from the 45 past and present scouts who were inducted into the Wall of Honour, the new “Ace” award was also presented during the event in honour of Garnet Bailey.
Referred to as “Ace,” Bailey was the Los Angeles Kings’ director of pro scouting who died while aboard the plane that crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. The accolade remembering Bailey’s remarkable contributions to the game of hockey is presented to an individual who is deemed to have gone above and beyond what was expected in helping the scouting community. And with a resume as impressive as Beyak’s, he is more than deserving of the award.
For Beyak, it all began in Flin Flon, MB., where he called games for the WCHL’s Bombers from 1970-1972. After bouncing around a couple more clubs as a broadcaster in the WCHL for three years, Beyak became the assistant general manager of the Saskatoon Blades from 1981-1990. Beyak then got a promotion in Seattle, serving as GM for the Thunderbirds from 1992-1994 and GM of the Tri-City Americans from 1994-1995.
After spending 14 seasons in the WHL, Beyak began his broadcasting career in the NHL. His first two seasons of play-by-play were in Alberta with the Edmonton Oilers, but then Beyak would make his way to Ontario, spending 12 seasons calling games for the Toronto Maple Leafs/Marlies organization. But for Manitobans, Beyak is most commonly associated with being the voice of Winnipeg Jets 2.0.
Beginning in 2011 and ending in 2022 in Winnipeg’s final game against the Seattle Kraken, Beyak worked with TSN to provide exceptional commentary for 11 seasons. Through the many ups and downs the Jets organization had, Beyak was high-up in the commentary box, making each game a memorable one.
On top of his NHL duties over the years, Beyak also called international games for TSN, either at the World Hockey Championships or the World Junior Hockey Championships. After retiring from NHL coverage in 2022, Beyak continued doing IIHF play-by-play until finally calling it a career on January 2, 2024.
*The other co-recipient of the WCPHSF “Ace” award was Gregg Drinnan, a former sports editor who covered the WHL for Kamloops Daily News and Regina Leader-Post.
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