Born and raised in Burlington, Lance Nethery was a superior athlete from the ‘get go’. At an early age, he demonstrated the raw talent and natural ability to compete in numerous sports. In his teenage years, he had to make a choice and fortunately for Burlington and the hockey world he chose hockey. Lance was an important cog in the Burlington Minor Hockey team that won the Ontario Minor Midget Championship in the 1972-73 hockey season, a first for Burlington.

In 1974-75 Lance joined the Burlington Cougar Junior B team. He was their leading scorer and led the league in scoring as well. He was named the league's Most Valuable Player. School was always important to Lance and he did well. His academic success combined with his exceptional hockey skills made this talented Nelson student-athlete very attractive to Ivy League Schools. Lance chose Cornell which also graduated the likes of Stanley Cup Champions Ken Dryden and Joe Nieuwendyk.

At Cornell, Lance was a two-time All-American and to this day is recognized as their all-time leading scorer and the all-time leading scorer in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC). He was named to the All-Decade Team for the ‘70’s and was recently named to the ECAC Top 50 Players of the 50 years, 1961 to 2011. In 1979 the New York Rangers drafted Lance and he made the team starting the season in New York, eventually being traded to Edmonton.

Lance concluded his NHL career by signing with Davos in Switzerland in 1982 and was instrumental in helping them to two Swiss Championships between 1982 and 1990. There is a theme here for it seemed that for every hockey venue that Lance joined, in whatever capacity, they became a force in their league.

His playing days over, Lance went into coaching in 1990. Over the next decade, he led the Mannheim Adler team, as Head Coach in the German Ice Hockey League, to three championships, being named twice as the German Ice Hockey Coach of the Year. He also won the prestigious Spengler Cup by coaching Koelner Hale on his return to Davos Switzerland.

His next career move in took Lance to the management role in hockey as he became the General Manager of the Frankfurt Lions in the German League. Under his inspired direction, in 2004 they won the German Championship. He was again bestowed another honour being named Manager of the Year.

Lance has continued in the management side of the game he loves. Lance is presently the Chief Executive Officer or Geschaftsfuhrer of the Koelner Eishockey Geselifschaft (Koelner Hale Hockey Club).

2021 brought a new honour for Lance, as HC Davos inducted him into their Hall of Fame, as the franchise celebrated 100 years of hockey. Lance was named one of their top 48 players in the history of this iconic franchise. 

Lance Nethery, is a homegrown boy who made it to ‘the show’ and went on to excel at every level of his career in hockey. If you knew him as a schoolboy you would know why and if you didn’t, you now know why he is welcomed into the Burlington Sports Hall of Fame.