Mitch Calvert
For government purposes, Fort Frances Jr. Sabres’ forward Graham Dyck is known by his given name on his birth certificate.
But when he’s on the ice, or joking around with his teammates in the locker-room or away from the rink, he’s addressed with a different handle: “Gidder.”
“That’s my mom’s work there,” explained Dyck, who is so dedicated to the nickname that he has it tattooed on his body.
“I’ve had it my whole life and when I went and played in Kenora, it just stuck and everyone has always called me that ever since,” he added.
“I’ve always had number 12, too, though my roommate [Mario Boivin] sniped that number on me this year, so I got stuck with 11.”
“Gidder” is just one of the nicknames tossed around among Sabres’ players. And while nicknames are used extensively in locker-room banter, they also have a practical function on the ice.
Abbreviating one’s name, making it less syllables, allows players to call for a quick pass rather than yelling out a guy’s full name. It also distinguishes the voice of a teammate from that of a devious opponent trying to cause a turnover.
“It’s a lot easier on the ice [to use a nickname],” Dyck reasoned.
As such, the Sabres’ locker-room features a “Baumer” (Brendan Baumgartner), a “Sink” (Chris Sinclair), a “Thunder” (Kalib Thunderchief), a “Spooner” (Ryan Witherspoon) and a “Bouch” (Rod Bouchard), among others, but it’s the handles that carry stories behind them that build character and are the fun ones to sport.
“We call [Kyle] Turgeon ‘Smiley’ because he’s always got a big smile all the time,” laughed goalie Ryan Faragher.
“My nickname’s ‘Fedsie,’” he added. “A guy I used to play with in Thunder Bay [Randall Hanlan] nicknamed me after Roger Federer, no clue why, but he decided to do it and it stuck with me.”
Since most every player is tagged with a nickname, there’s a certain etiquette to the whole process—meaning you should never assign yourself a nickname unless you never want to live it down.
“Not really, it doesn’t really work out that way,” Dyck said.
No matter how the nickname was created or by whom, it’s always assigned in fun and helps establish camaraderie among teammates.
“We call my roommate [Boivin] ‘Munson’ [after Roy Munson from ‘Kingpin’],” Dyck explained. “We just bug him, just goofing around, it’s a joke more than anything.”
Nicknames tend to stick with players from PeeWee to junior and beyond, and often means getting referred to by that moniker more often than their given names.
“Hopefully you get a good one because some guys get nicknames they don’t really like, but we have a good group of guys and we all get along anyways,” Dyck added.
“I lucked out, I guess.”
