My Hometown… with Byron Froese

MONTREAL - While the Habs may call Montreal home during the season, they'll never forget where they came from. Long before Byron Froese first hit the ice in the NHL, he was taking his first strides toward stardom back home in Winkler, Manitoba. Check out Byron's insider guide to the must-sees back in his hometown.

BEST HANGOUT:
Winkler Centennial Golf Course. It's great to be out there in the summer golfing with the guys. There's a pretty good restaurant there, too.
BEST PLACE TO GO SHOPPING:
There aren't many places to shop, but there's a mall there. They rotate stores in and out. I don't really shop in Winkler. I think most people go to Winnipeg. It's just an hour-and-a-half away.

FAVORITE RESTAURANT:
There are some good restaurants in Winkler, some good summer joints. Iceberg Drive-In is good. There's also Charley B's. They're both burger and fries places in the summertime. Then, DJ's Family Restaurant is probably the best pizza ever. It's my favorite restaurant by far. Every time I go home, I have DJ's pizza. All of the pizzas are good there. They have good Tex Mex, pepperoni, everything. They sell frozen pizzas and I buy about 15 of them to take them back for the summer in Calgary.

HOME ARENA AS A KID:
It was Winkler Recreation Centre. I always liked the smell when I went in there. (Laughs) It's a good rink. There's enough seating for maybe 800 to 1,000 people. Everybody would watch Flyers games there. We have a Junior team that plays there, so I went to watch a lot of games there as a kid. I always bough five-cent candies there, which I'm sure now are 25 cents. (Laughs) It was a good spot.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:
Parkland Elementary School. It was basically in my backyard. We moved to a new house when I was in Grade 3 or 4, so I could walk through my backyard and go right to school. It was actually built on my dad's land. It's pretty standard, big soccer fields, basketball court. I always liked math class. I was good at it. In grade school, I remember we would always know the assignments beforehand, so I would just do the work at home. Then, when I got to class, my work would be done and we were allowed to play mini-sticks in the hall.
WHAT IT'S FAMOUS FOR:
Farmers. There's some great farmland around Winkler. I think that's what attracted a lot of people. My dad farmed with his brothers for a long time. They still have the farm, but my dad doesn't really work on it anymore. His two brothers do, though. Winkler also has some companies like Meridian Manufacturing, which is a bin building company. There's also Triple E. They make campers and ship them everywhere.
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