If variety is the spice of life, Carl Wetzel has a big spice rack.

Earlier era hockey enthusiasts may recall him as the guy claimed by Montreal (Quebec-AHL (American Hockey League) from Detroit in the Reverse Draft, June 9, 1965. In theory purpose of the draft was to allow minor league teams to draft talent from NHL clubs, clubs who had poached their players for a long time. Wetzel was the only player taken with any NHL time. He was the backup to Roger Crozier.

Wetzel’s professional hockey career reads like a road map. He suited up for 16 different clubs in 14 different American, Canadian and Austrian cities in 15 years. Somehow, he also found time to play a season in Austria plus three stints with the U.S. National team, twice competing in the World Championships, where he was believed to be the only American hockey player named to a Hockey World Championships All-Star team.

He must have felt like Rodney Dangerfield, the way he was treated as a backup professional goalie who often received last-minute phone calls to join teams. “General Managers would often call me and tell me to park near the hockey arena with my goalie gear laid out in my car so I could put it on the starting goalie got hurt badly,” Wetzel said. “Locker rooms were much smaller decades ago. They usually didn’t have a locker for me.”

Wetzel fondly recalled how he chased his hockey dreams as a Detroit youth. “It was a really great city back then, but there was almost no place for me to play hockey as a 12-year-old, he explained. “I’d have to hitch-hike across town to play goalie without pads on. I didn’t even wear goalie pads until I was a high school sophomore.”

At age 18, he joined the Junior League Hamilton, Ont. Tiger Cubs. It was his longest stay with any team, 142 games in three seasons with goals allowed averages from 3.25 to 4.26.

“The University of Michigan hockey coach wanted me to play hockey for them but warned me not to take any meal money, or I’d lose my amateur status,” Wetzel added. “The Hamilton General Manager insisted I take meal money, the Michigan coach found out, called me and said I couldn’t play college hockey.”

Over the next three years, Wetzel played for the Edmonton Flyers, Omaha Knights, Spokane Comets, Indianapolis Chiefs, Fort Wayne Komets and Sudbury Wolves.

Drafted by the U.S. Army in 1962, he missed a season before joining the San Francisco Seals while in the Army in California in 1963-64 before joining the Detroit Red Wings briefly in 1965-66. Following stints with the Pittsburgh Hornets, Houston Apollos and Quebec Aces, Wetzel played on the U.S. National team in the World Championships. Despite the fact the team placed fifth in the World Championships, he made the tournament All-Star team.

A trade to the expansion Minnesota North Stars lured im back to the NHL in June 1967. He was loaned to Toronto (Rochester-AHL) by Minnesota with the trade of Murray Hall, Ted Taylor and Len Lunde, Don Johns and Duke Harris for the late J.P. Parise and Milan Marcetta, Dec. 23, 1967.

Following a couple years in the minors, perhaps his finest performance was with the 1969-70 U.S. National team where he played in 17 games, posting a 1.94 goals against average.

Enjoying Europe, he signed with Kitzbuhel of the Austrian League for a year before a contract offer from the upstart World Hockey Association lured him to the St. Paul Fighting Saints, where he played behind Jack McCartan and Mike Curran.

Wetzel said hockey was simpler decades ago, but life as a player may not have been easier. “We didn’t have as much gear to wear back then. I didn’t wear a face mask until late in my career,” he explained. “I never got a concussion or took any hard shots to the face. I guess I had good gloves. I got a concussion and saw stars once while skiing. I don’t think there was much medication used back then either. But we did drink beer.”

Bobby Hull, the first NHL player to score more than 50 goals in a season, was one the most unforgettable players, Wetzel said. “I remember playing in a game in which he took a shot that hit the goal cross bar very hard,” he explained. “I thought had it hit me in the head, I might be dead.”

Playing goalie may have been a more daunting task years ago when they didn’t wear face masks or have as much equipment on. “It’s easier to stop pucks you don’t see now with all the big equipment,” Wetzel added.

A backup goalie with the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup playoffs at age 18, Wetzel was playing behind Glenn Henry “Mr. Goalie” Hall, who seldom missed a game. “Glenn took a shot under his nose that broke four teeth. There was blood all over. He got 42 stitches in the locker room and went back into the game.”

The minimum NHL salary was $7,500 a year in the 1960s. Hull became the first player to make $1 million a season when he signed with the Upstart World Hockey Association (WHA) Winnipeg Jets in 1972. The Jets signed Hull as a player/coach for $1.75 million over 10 years plus a $1 million signing bonus. Hull scored 77 goals with the Jets in the WHA in the 1974-75 season.

Since he left the NHL for the rival WHA, Hull was not allowed to represent Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, that featured Canada’s top NHL players against the USSR’s national team. A couple years later, Hull and WHA stars including Gordie Howe, played in a second Summit Series. Despite seven goals by Hull, the WHL lost the series four games to one. Three games ended in a tie.

Hull’s slapshots were clocked at 118.3 mph plus he skated up to 29.7 mph. Hull was identified more than most players for his curved stick “banana” blades that created unpredictable puck trajectories, putting goalies without masks at more risk. Hockey stick curves were originally limited to from one-half to three-quarters of an inch, then to one-half inch in 1970.

Russian player Anatoli Firsov, a wing and center on three Olympic Gold Medal teams plus several world titles, was another favorite of Wetzel. “He was an amazing athlete,” Wetzel explained. Firsov was known for his variety of hops, skips and jumps while skating down the ice with a puck.

Playing on the Red Wings with NHL greats Gordy Howe, Alex Devecchio and Ted Lindsey was something he recalled fondly. “We had big guys back then used to protect some of the great players. But most players were disposable,” Wetzel said. “Hockey sticks weren’t as good back then. Some of the great players would slap them hard on the ice. If they didn’t break, they’d keep them.”

Wetzel and his wife lived in the Twin Cities Metro area for a while before taking a ride west of the metro area a couple decades ago. “We drove past this big, old house for sale in Gaylord and my wife she wanted it, so we bought it and moved here,” he explained.

Wetzel served on the Gaylord City Council and Park Board for about a decade. “I wanted to give something back,” he said.