Former NHL-er now running Renton’s Castle Ice Arena

Published 12:12 pm Friday, April 5, 2013

One might miss Castle Ice Arena’s location, tucked  in the Renton Highlands, but for those who love to skate, it’s a destination.

“We have more broom ball rentals than we have anything else here, if you can believe that,” said Jamie Huscroft. He’s the general manager for the rink and also a former Boston Bruins defender, in the National Hockey League.

Huscroft said the hockey community is still growing in Renton, but business is good.

“It’s still growing, but we still get people who come by Castle and go, ‘Golly, I never knew we had a rink here,’” he said. “On the other hand it is packed.”

During the winter months it is busy, especially for broom ball. It’s a sport for the non-skater, with players outfitted in sneakers and protective gear, running around on the ice, aiming at hockey nets with a plastic broom and ball.

Teen Night is also popular with about 300 kids skating to music from a DJ, under disco lights.

Amateur teams from the Greater Seattle Hockey League use Castle for matches. The rink hosts clinics for adults interested in learning and Castle has a feeder program into the league.

As the U.S. and Canadian women’s teams have achieved more success and increased in popularity, interest from women has grown at a quicker rate than men, said Huscroft.

“We have a lot of girls in our program; we probably have two per team,” he said of the youth programs.

If Seattle gets an established NHL team, Huscroft predicts that hockey growth will be huge in the area.