On July 8, six-year-old Carter McPherson of Horsefly received a letter in the mail. It was from none other than Kirk McLean, retired professional hockey goalie who played with the Vancouver Canucks for 11 of his 16 seasons in the NHL.
“There were many high fives,” wrote his father Marc McPherson in a Facebook post about the moment.
Carter is a new fan of the Canucks and an aspiring NHL goalie. He and his brother Cameron, who is eight years old, started their journey into hockey last year and will be joining Williams Lake Minor Hockey this year.
Their enthusiasm for the sport has grown over the months following Christmas 2024, when Cameron was gifted an autographed hockey card of Bill Ranford who played with the Edmonton Oilers.
“It was a big surprise,” Cameron recalled. For Halloween, Cameron dressed up as Ranford.
The apple does not fall far from the tree, and the boys’ interest in hockey is one they share with their father. Shortly after gifting the Ranford hockey card to Cameron, Marc invited his sons to go through his big collection of hockey cards and choose players they’d like to try and contact. Marc's collections includes a number from the 80s and 90s.
“To get them to practice writing we started sending letters to older, retired players,” said Shannon McPherson, the children's mother.
“And the rewards have been so exciting for them,” Marc said.
In their letters, the boys wrote a little about themselves, questions about the player’s time in the pros, and included hockey cards, offering to exchange autographs. The boys autographed photos of themselves, taken at the rink in their backyard, to send to the players.
“We sent a lot,” said Cameron, who wrote to players as far away as in the Czech Republic.
“We only made two shelves to put them on and we already need more,” he added, describing how each signed hockey card they’ve received is then displayed in their home.
Among the responses, Cameron said one of his favourites was from Marcel Dionne, who spent most of his career with the LA Kings. Not only did the retired athlete return a signed hockey card, he also returned the photo sent to him of Cameron, which Dionne signed and marked down his total number of goals on.
One of Carter’s favourite returns was from Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers.
“He wrote ‘best wishes to a fellow goalie’,” Carter said excitedly.
One time, Carter sent over five hockey cards to Tommy Söderström, who played with the Flyers as well as the New York Islanders, and he received ten more signed hockey cards, along with a postcard.
“He was the furthest away,” Carter said about the hockey player who lives in Sweden. After Marc posted a thank you online, Söderström messaged him personally and sent an image to the father of Carter’s autographed photo up on his fridge, hanging next to postcards and photos of his dog.
Marc’s collection of cards also includes some baseball and football players, a few of which Carter recently reached out to but has yet to hear back. These include Rocket Ismail and Bryn Smith, the second of which played with Carter's namesake, Gary Carter.
The boys are also still waiting to hear back from more hockey players too, which they said makes them feel happy and excited.
