Michael Peca of the Columbus Blue Jackets. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

The 34-year-old, two-time Selke Trophy winner was born and raised in Toronto, and has captained two NHL teams so far in his career (Buffalo and the New York Islanders). The veteran has also made stops in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Toronto, before signing on with Columbus last season.

CBCSports.ca: How did you get into hockey?

Peca: "Well, I think growing up in the Toronto area it's pretty much every kid's God-given right to get into minor hockey. I actually got started a couple years younger. My grandmother was good friends with a lady who ran the Humberview House League organization in North York, and she said if you're starting Michael's brother there you might as well start Michael at the same time. So fortunately for me I started a little early, at three and a half, playing with kids a couple years older than me."

CBCSports.ca: What was the first game you can remember playing?

Peca: "I just remember when I was young, shooting from the boards and always seeing the puck go in the far side of the net, along the ice, barely moving. But I think the first memories that I really remember is playing on the select team with my older brother for a couple years in the Downsview area for the North York teams, and they were always a lot of fun. "

CBCSports.ca: Who was your funniest teammate?

Peca: "Growing up, I had a lot. I played minor hockey with Kevin Weekes, who's gone through the NHL, and we played together for six years in the Toronto Red Wing organization. He was a pretty funny character, very outspoken, very articulate, was able to combine the two and have a really good sense of humour about him. I think he liked to do impressions of our fathers, things like that, and it was funny to be in the room with him."

CBCSports.ca: Where was the most memorable tournament you've ever played?

Peca: "That's a hard one, because I loved all the tournaments I used to go on. I think when I was younger the tournaments we always used to go to in Sudbury (Ontario) were my favourites. I always loved going up north, whether it was Sudbury or North Bay. It was always a fun time. We went up every other year, I think, up from the age of nine all the way up to maybe 13 or 14."

"But if I had to pick one tournament that really stood out from the others, it was probably my last year in minor hockey, in bantam. We went out and played in Kamloops (B.C.), at the Kamloops International Bantam Tournament. That was a pretty amazing experience--I think it was the first time a lot of us had been on a plane. Then playing the famous Notre Dame hockey program in the finals and beating them, that was a pretty exciting moment."

CBCSports.ca: Where was the worst arena you've ever played at?

Peca: "Wow, there was a lot. (laughs) The worst rink structurally and everything else, but had a lot of character was probably Dixie Arena, which is home of the Mississauga rep team. On Saturday nights they'd turn it into a teeny-bopper dance club or something. A lot of people from hockey years past refer to rinks as barns, and Dixie Arena truly was a barn."

CBCSports.ca: Where was the coldest game of hockey you ever played?

Peca: "We used to go up to Sudbury, places like that and play, but I always remember Ottawa being the coldest place that we ever played. For whatever reason it just always seemed a lot colder in Ottawa that anywhere else."

CBCSports.ca: Who was the most memorable hockey parent you ever met?

Peca: "My favourite ones were the parents of a good friend of mine, Paulo Di Stasi. Both his mother and father. I remember his mother, Maria, every time I look back at old tapes. She was one of the vocal ones, cheering kids on and getting them to hustle. She was a very positive and powerful voice in the stands, and she was always like a second mother to the boys."