Remembering Nick Wasnie

Selkirk's Nick Wasnie won two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens in 1930 and 1931.

Selkirk native Nick Wasnie was a hockey trailblazer in more than one way. Most notably, Wasnie was the first player of Ukrainian descent to play in the National Hockey League. A long list of such hockey talent would soon follow - Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, Bill Mosienko, to name a few – as Canada's prairie provinces had a large Ukrainian population.

Demetrius and Ann Wasnie made the trip across the ocean from Kopychnytsi, Galacia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1902. They made the trek across the sea with their three-year-old son Fred. Demetrius was 28 and Ann was 26 when the family immigrated to Canada from Lvov via Hamburg on the ship Bulgaria. They settled on a farm in the township of Selkirk and had ten children together. Demetrius was known for his culinary talents while Ann’s housekeeping was second to none.

Nick was born on January 28^th, 1903 in Selkirk. The fourth of nine children. The original spelling of his name that was registered at birth was Nickolas Waesne. Wasnie appears to be the spelling more utilized later in his life although Waesne appears on his US Immigration papers.