As a civil-engineering student, Tom Anselmi worked on mining projects in Western Canada. In the summer of 1983, the future Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment executive pocketed $6 an hour as a surveyor at a coal-mining camp near Hinton, Alta.
Its footprint is multiple times larger than what exists in Toronto, or at True North Square, a similar project under development in downtown Winnipeg. In the most recent moves, former Hockey Canada boss Bob Nicholson was promoted to Oilers chairman and alternate governor, Ken Holland was brought in as general manager and president of hockey operations, Dave Tippett was hired as head coach and Anselmi is taking over off-ice duties previously handled by Nicholson.“In Bob and Ken, I think I have partners in crime that want to take this team to where we need to go next,” Anselmi said.
Before joining MLSE in 1996, he helped build Rogers Arena in Vancouver as vice-president and general manager for Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment. He also spent years in Toronto overseeing the development and opening of the SkyDome.“I was playing golf – and not getting any better – when this came around,” Anselmi said. “We started to talk and it interested me.”“When you look at it, it is the epicentre of something great,” Anselmi said.
The Oilers enter a game in Calgary on Saturday 4-0-1 over their past five games. It is the first of three meetings this month between the provincial rivals and comes only days after Edmonton won for the first time in Toronto since December of 2010.