The man known as the “Scottish Gretzky”, from Edinburgh, Scotland, Tony Hand has announced his retirement after 31 years in various British Hockey Leagues. He played for Murrayfield Racers, Victoria Cougars, Edinburgh Racers, Sheffield Steelers and a few other teams over the course of his career.

His stats are obviously inflated due to the lack of competition in the British hockey leagues, but his best season came in 1985-86 while playing for the Murrayfield Racers. In 35 games he compiled 105 goals and 111 assists. His stats fluctuated towards the end of his career but for a good five years after that season he never had less than 50 goals and 80 assists consistently playing over 30 games a year. In total he played in over 1,600 games and collected over 4,200 points in those games. He has been a player-coach on every team he has been on since 2001, when he was the player-coach of the Dundee Stars.

He was drafted with the last pick in the 1986 NHL Draft by the Edmonton Oilers, who were in the middle of their dynasty years. According to The Hockey News, at that time Oilers coach Glen Sather said that Hand was the most intelligent player on the ice, besides Wayne Gretzky. After playing in Oilers camp he decided to go back to England and spent the rest of his career there. He also didn’t make the Oilers out of camp.

When asked about training with hockey Hall of Famers that were on the Oilers back then like Messier, Gretzky and Kurri, he said, “In hindsight, it would have been great to stay out there and make a real go of it, but I had nobody to guide me on how to handle something like that or tell me what I should do. At the same time I had people asking me to come back. I loved Murrayfield and I’m a loyal person. I didn’t want to let anyone down there. Of course, I would love to have seen what would have happened if I’d stayed out there and given it everything, but I don’t dwell on it and it doesn’t keep me up at night.”

The legend of Tony Hand can be chalked up into a list of great “what if” stories. He could’ve joined the Oilers in 1986 and bonded immediately with the legends on that team and could’ve gotten a few Stanley Cup and could’ve been a hockey Hall of Famer. On the other side of the coin, his stats could’ve been inflated by playing against poor competition and playing in the NHL would’ve made his stats be deflated and he would’ve been an average to poor NHL player.