A resident of Diamond Valley, Alta., a town roughly an hour south of Calgary, is prepared to gift Edmontonians what they’ve been longing for — a Stanley Cup.
In this case, it’s a replica.
Wildfred Plester built his own Stanley Cup about 20 years ago when the Calgary Flames were in the running for the 2004 Cup.
“The team at Black Diamond Industries is probably the only people that can make a claim that they’ve held onto a Stanley Cup for 21 years,” Plester jokes.
Pleister kept the 10-foot-tall trophy in his storage facility, thinking he’d be able to bring it back for the next time the Flames enter the final round.
But, it’s been slowly rotting.
“We just took it apart and put it in the storage, anticipating the possibility of maybe next year, and that became next year and the year after that…here we are,” he explained.
Plester is on the hunt to find his trophy a new home, and seeing how the Edmonton Oilers have been performing lately, he suggested Edmonton could be that place.
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“Whether that’s a sports bar or maybe even the Oilers to use it on display somewhere to maybe take pictures. I’d like to see somebody be able to appreciate it rather than our own staff,” he explained.
According to Plester, the trophy was made mostly out of flat sheets of metal and straight aluminum tubing.
Working on the bowl alone took him about 15 hours to measure dimensions from the original cup, scale up, and transfer those details to his replica.
Constructing the whole masterpiece took a lot longer than anticipated.
“All of that took 225 hours to do the construction and 40 hours of polishing,” Plester said.
Deciding to give his replica version to Edmontonians wasn’t a matter of swallowing pride.
Plester said he admired the Oilers through their glory days when the Oilers won the Stanley Cup on five occasions — 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990.
Since rebuilding this trophy, he’s had to replace the wood base and polish it up again.
During the 2008 NHL Playoffs, Plester was requested to display his Cup outside Scotiabank Saddledome as part of celebrations and festivities for the Flames.
As the Oilers are now Canada’s last remaining NHL team, support for the team has grown.
Ipsos polling conducted for Global News finds 63 per cent of people surveyed are cheering for the Oilers against the Florida Panthers.
That’s an increase of six per cent from last year.
“Albertans may feel at times the rest of the country doesn’t appreciate them, but that doesn’t apply here,” Ipsos Public Affairs Senior Vice President Kyle Braid explained.
Eighty-five per cent of respondents say a Stanley Cup win will strengthen national pride.
“A lot of this is generated by what’s happening with the U.S., and this is an opportunity for Canada to stick one to the U.S.,” Braid added.
Despite the contested rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton, Plester says he’d be happy to see the real Stanley Cup return.
“How I see it is during the regular season, yes, we’re fighting it out to see who wins. Ultimately, we are all Canadians we’re all Albertans we’d be more than happy to see it come back to Alberta,” Plester said.
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