On this edition of ‘MOJ on Sports’, host Bob Marjanovich talks with Josh Gorges who played for his hometown Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 2000 to 2004.
The Rockets, with Gorges as team captain won the Memorial Cup in 2004 when Kelowna hosted the event.
‘I kept thinking to myself, what a way to go out, what a way to finish my junior career, to be able to win a Memorial Cup in my home city for my hometown team as the captain, and then go on to hopefully play pro hockey after that,’ says Gorges. ‘So, it was a pretty remarkable time. One of the biggest highlights of my career. Something that I’ll never forget. It was amazing.’
After going undrafted in 2002, Gorges signed as a free agent with the San Jose Sharks.
He is best known for his time with the Montreal Canadiens, where he played from 2007 to 2014.
Gorges tells Marjanovich that he refused a trade from the Montreal Canadiens to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
‘When my agent called me and told me that I thought he was joking the first time. I said, they’re not going to trade me to Toronto. That’s one of our biggest rivals, that they don’t make trades with each other. But then when I found out it was real, I just kept thinking, how could I go be the same player that I’ve been from Montreal, a heart and soul type guy? How could I do that for a team that I’ve hated for seven plus years? It was Toronto and Boston. You just couldn’t imagine yourself playing for those teams after being in Montreal that long.’
In addition to the Sharks and Canadiens, Gorges also played for the Buffalo Sabres, where he served as an alternate captain during his time there.
He retired from professional hockey in 2019.
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