• Craig Ludwig - 2002

Craig Ludwig is a native of Eagle River where he played youth hockey for the Eagle River Recreation Association and was a part of numerous state title. As a prep player at Northland Pines High School, Ludwig played on four straight WIAA State Tournament teams. He went on to play on the USA Hockey National Junior Team that toured Germany in 1979-80. A walk-on at the University of North Dakota, Ludwig won a spot on the team and was a member of the Fighting Sioux National Championship teams in his freshman and junior years. As a junior, Ludwig was named the University of North Dakota’s Most Valuable Player.

While a college freshman, Ludwig was picked 51st in the 1980 NHL Draft by the Montreal Canadiens. Following his college career, he played eight years with Montreal, and was a member of the Canadien team that won the Stanley Cup in 1986. After a one-year stop with the New York Rangers, Ludwig went on to finish the balance of his 18-year NHL career with the Minnesota, and than Dallas Stars, where he was again a member of a Stanley Cup winning team in 1999. Ludwig stayed with the Dallas Stars after his retirement, working in public relations and player development.

Ludwig is well known for his generosity and willingness to share his success with various groups to help them benefit financially. Following Montreal’s Stanley Cup win in 1986, Ludwig arranged for the Canadiens to play a celebrity softball game in Eagle River for the benefit of Special Olympics and the Eagle River Recreation Association. Ludwig spent countless hours making himself and the Stanley Cup available for pictures and autographs following each of his Stanley Cup wins. In the early years of the Eagle River Hockey School, Ludwig leant his support to the school by serving as an instructor.

Even after retirement, Ludwig has done much throughout his career to bring credit to his sport, his community and himself by giving back to sport through coaching and many charitable acts connected directly and indirectly to the sport of ice hockey, and truly epitomizes all that is good in Wisconsin Hockey.