AS Fife Flyers, the UK’s oldest ice hockey club, prepares to celebrate its 80th year in existence, one of its longest serving custodians is about to hit the 20-year mark that has defined his life both on and off the ice.

Originally from Winnipeg, Todd Dutiaume arrived in Kirkcaldy from Telford Tigers in 1998, leaving the Shropshire outfit, who had run into financial problems, and the then 24-year-old not sure where his future lay.

Now, 20 years on, to say he has been there, seen it and bought the T-shirt doesn’t even cover half the story he’s experienced at the newly-crowned Elite League Gardiner Conference champions.

As well as amazing highs in the place he calls home, he’s suffered some terrible lows in his personal life – a life-threatening brain tumour in 2003 not to mention the tragic death of his wife, Kelly and their unborn twins in 2012 – but he’s now in a good place with a new partner, his beloved daughter and the team he fell in love with.

“If you’d said to me 20 years I’d still be here in 2018, I would have said you were crazy,” laughed the Fife Flyers head coach. “Telford had run into money trouble and I’d been with Ayr [Scottish Eagles] for their European games in Mannheim.

“In the end, I had the option to go there or go to Fife, who I didn’t know much about admittedly. A friend of mine, Bill Moody was at the club and they got in touch. At the time, it felt like it was going to be a good fit for me.

“I needed a job and we won the play-offs that season and turned a bad personal situation into a good season and it was an easy decision to come back the following season, where we won the Grand Slam in 2000.”

From that team success, came a personal nightmare when Dutiaume was diagnosed with a brain tumour, that threatened his life, let alone his career and it was a visit home to Winnipeg that led to him coming through one of his biggest battles.

As he looked back on that chapter in his life, he claims to be fortunate, not only about the fact he’s here to even tell the tale, but from benefitting from being in the right place at the right time.

“It was lucky as I’d been at home for a couple of weeks and hadn’t felt right,” Dutiaume said. “It so happens one of the top brain surgeons happened to be in town on a conference and he was the one who performed the surgery on me.

“I remember laying in my hospital bed in Winnipeg recovering, worrying that I had to get back to Britain because it was getting to a new season. The first thing they told me was I’d be lucky to play again.

“This came as a shock and gave me the motivation to start working again, which ultimately got me through it. I didn’t come back in a good way and the club could have made the easy decision and let me go. My team-mates basically carried me until I got back to my playing weight and my form had improved. Whatever loyalty I had for the club increased tenfold on the back of that.”

Dutiaume recovered and took over from his friend and coach Mark Morrison in 2005, continuing to play as the club went from the Scottish National League and the Northern League, before finding a place in the Elite League in 2011.

The club struggled to adjust to the higher level as their team was understrength and failed to reach the play-offs in that first season.
For Dutiaume, that maiden campaign ended in the most tragic way when his wife, Kelly, passed away along with their unborn twins. The outpouring of grief and support from around the league was overwhelming. The community in Kirkcaldy rallied round their adopted son in his darkest hour, but as he explained, someone needed him more.

“When you talk about losing my wife, you’re talking about the most incredible, difficult period of my life that I’ve ever faced,” he said. “I had a baby girl that needed her dad the next day and I had to pick myself up and somehow get through it.

“After I lost Kelly, moving away from Fife and Kirkcaldy was a definite option for us. I just felt the need to get back on my feet and get back to some sort of normality rather than run away from my life. I can look back and say it was the right decision to stay, but it’s a pain that I’ll live with forever.

“I remember going to the last game of the season and it was a very emotional time. That year, we were short of imports and the ownership weren’t sure it was the right direction, with the costs rising and uncertainty over whether the crowds would come back.

“I was still fragile, but going back and planning for the next season also gave me a purpose. I got back to work and relied on hockey to give me a crutch again and it’s got me through some very difficult times.”

Last Sunday, the Flyers won the Gardiner Conference title for the first time in a group with Scottish rivals Braehead Clan, Dundee Stars and Edinburgh Capitals following a weekend that saw them beat the Clan and the Stars twice to trigger celebrations at the club not seen since making the step up.

As well as being the only man to take a Scottish club to the end-of-season play-offs twice, life at the moment is good for the 44-year-old on the back of that success as he summed up exactly what the club means to him after standing with him through good times and bad.

He added: “Fife Flyers are fully integrated into my life and being somewhere for the length of time I’ve been here is very special with the amount of players I’ve played and worked with and made many friends.

“The ownership have been more than supportive to me throughout my time here and have been there for me through good times and bad. I’ve been able to turn to them at difficult points of my life and some great celebratory moments too so Fife Flyers are intertwined with all my life.

“My daughter was born here nine years ago and comes to the games every week. It’s become a big part of her life and it’s very much a family thing for us.

“As a team, we’ve been through some tough times, but the management believed in the process that we’ve tried to do over the years. Trophy aside, this team have made steps and improved every year. It was something we worked towards and I’m happy we’ve managed to keep that going. I have a very supportive partner, a lovely daughter and this season, the team is as successful as it’s ever been and it’s so good to have turned the corner and be able to move forward in my life. But I’ll always be forever grateful to Fife Flyers for what they did for me through the years.”