Juniors Who Made the Jump

Originally published in Rinkside in 2004

By Lucas Aykroyd

Getting good grades. Getting rid of pimples. Getting to know cute girls. These are typical concerns for guys who are 18 or 19.

But when it comes to holding down that first professional job, few face the kind of pressure that a teenage NHL rookie experiences.

The media could carve him up: “This kid rates a D for his defensive zone coverage. His poor physical play is a blemish on this team. He looks better-suited for women’s figure skating than the world’s toughest hockey league.”

Or the teen could simply fail to meet the expectations of his NHL club and find himself heading back to junior hockey after five or ten games.

However, there is a select group of young men who make the jump to the NHL straight out of junior and never look back. Not all require seasoning in the minors.

Trevor Linden is a great example. A two-time Memorial Cup champion with the Medicine Hat Tigers, Linden was drafted second overall by the Vancouver Canucks in 1988. The strapping forward’s 59-point NHL rookie campaign earned him Calder Trophy consideration in 1989. He was the youngest player in the League that year.

“For me, the transition was pretty seamless,” Linden said. “I was fortunate that I came to a team that was looking to make changes and hadn’t had a great season the year before. I had every opportunity to step in and make a difference.”

Linden had other factors in his favor. For one, he already stood 6-4 and 200 pounds. His willingness to grind it out along the boards helped him thrive amid the NHL’s physical style. And as a graduate of the Western Hockey League, he was already accustomed to a grueling travel schedule. During an extended road trip, a WHL club can end up logging more than 2,500 miles on the team bus.

That’s something NHL rookies from small countries like Finland or the Czech Republic likely have never experienced. But many European teenage prospects have a different advantage: they’ve played against grown men before.

Moving up through a local club system, these players usually establish themselves in their national senior leagues. Prior to entering the NHL, Mats Sundin had 18 points in 34 games with Djurgarden of the Swedish League in 1989-90, while Ilya Kovalchuk tallied 64 points in 51 games for Spartak in the Russian second division in 2000-01. Daniel and Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks were named 1999 co-MVPs of the Swedish League. And so on.

Granted, young Europeans need time to adjust to the smaller North American ice surface and a different off-ice culture, but the value of having competed against full-grown opponents can’t be overemphasized. That’s why it’s remarkable when a kid comes in straight from Swift Current or Rimouski or Windsor and holds his own.

At 19, Ed Jovanovski made himself a feared physical presence during his rookie campaign, bouncing bodies all over the place as the Florida Panthers raced to the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals. Most impressively, the 6-2, 205-pound defenseman wasn’t afraid to take on the massive Eric Lindros in the Eastern Conference Finals with the Philadelphia Flyers, and their battles have become the stuff of legend.

“Coming into the NHL is kind of overwhelming at times, but it was a pretty easy transition for me with the group of guys we had there,” said Jovanovski, pointing to such Florida veterans as Brian Skrudland and Dave Lowry as role models.

Jovanovski’s nine points in the 1996 NHL playoffs still remains a career best for this current Norris Trophy candidate. Like his current Vancouver teammate, Trevor Linden, the Windsor native was chosen as Rookie of the Year by The Hockey News.

Both Jovanovski and Linden were viewed as can’t-miss prospects when they were drafted. But many young talents struggle to live up to their advance billing.

Some who appear to have superstar potential in their early teens simply trail off. Greg Koehler, who captained the Toronto Marlboros peewee team at age 13, was dubbed a “prodigy” in Ken Dryden’s 1989 documentary Home Game. Entering the 2003-04 season, Koehler was still playing hockey, but the realization of his NHL dream amounted to one game with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2000-01.

A better-known example is Alexandre Daigle. Drafted first overall by the Ottawa Senators in 1993, the flashy Quebec junior star quipped: “Nobody remembers who was chosen second.” Unfortunate words, since #2 pick Chris Pronger would go on to win the Norris and Hart Trophies in 2000 with the St. Louis Blues.

At 18, Daigle enjoyed a respectable rookie season with Ottawa, scoring 20 goals and 31 assists, but he never bettered those numbers. He seemed weighed down both by public expectations and his $12.5-million contract. After retiring prematurely from 2000 to 2002, he has revived his career as a journeyman forward in Minnesota.

So besides talent, what spells the difference between success and failure for a junior making the jump? One key element is conditioning.

Most teens are hard-pressed to match the physical strength of other NHLers, yet they have to try. Granted, Mario Lemieux was reportedly unable to bench-press 180 pounds at his first training camp with Pittsburgh in 1984, and still won the Calder Trophy. But remember, there we’re talking about arguably the most talented player in League history.

Today, NHL prospects train hard in the off-season. But they often need to learn more sport-specific workout routines that build core power and stability, enabling them to avoid injuries and perform with the explosive energy that marks top NHLers.

“The players’ physical strength is amazing,” said Vincent Lecavalier, who broke in as a highly touted 18-year-old center with Tampa Bay. “In juniors, defensemen were smaller than me. Now they’re 6-5, 240. It’s a whole different story.”

Strength and speed go together. The tempo of NHL hockey rules out “taking a night off.” Passes fly tape-to-tape, and accuracy and velocity are the keys to scoring on goaltenders in the pro game.

But even if a budding teen star catches up in those areas, there’s more to learn.

“The biggest part is the defensive part of the game,” said Denis Savard, a former scoring star and current assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks. “As a junior, when you’re one of the best players, they pretty much let you do your own thing offensively. They don’t really bear down on defensive stuff with you.”

So terms like “backchecking” and “attention to detail in all three zones” must now become part of the teen’s vocabulary. Today’s NHL doesn’t look kindly upon whiz kids who prefer to hang out near the red line looking for breakaway passes instead of coming back, even though that may have boosted their offense in junior.

In addition, expectations for junior-aged players vary depending on their backgrounds. Just ask Dennis Hull or Valeri Bure.

When Dennis entered the NHL at 19 with the Chicago Blackhawks, he was doomed to labor in the shadow of his more gifted older brother Bobby (“The Golden Jet”). Similarly, when Valeri entered the NHL after three sizzling seasons with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs, many fans expected him to be the second coming of his older brother Pavel (“The Russian Rocket”). While both played well, neither vaulted to the top on genetics alone.

At the other end of the spectrum, few scouts expected Luc Robitaille to dominate in the NHL. Los Angeles drafted him in the ninth round, 171st overall in 1984. People questioned the foot speed and defensive play of this sniper, who tallied 191 points for the Hull Olympics in his last year of junior.

Robitaille made his critics eat their words. Playing in a low-pressure environment, he captured the 1987 Calder Trophy. Today, with more than 1,300 career points, he can almost taste the satisfaction of becoming the NHL’s all-time leading scorer among left wingers, with only Johnny Bucyk left to catch.

Speaking of eating, that’s another area where juniors making the jump often need to improve. Teens love their cheeseburgers and sodas, but junk food doesn’t provide the nutritional boost NHLers need. With the guidance of strength and conditioning coaches, young players can adopt a diet appropriate to their weight and size, featuring good carbohydrate and protein intake along with plenty of fluids.

When the elements for on-ice success are in place, everything else should follow from that. Still, sometimes these kids are unavoidably reminded of their youth.

When an 18-year-old Brendan Shanahan scored his first NHL goal, he decided to commemorate the occasion by buying drinks for his New Jersey teammates after the game. However, the local establishment wouldn’t let him in because he was under the legal drinking age. “I wound up handing in my money from outside the door, and I went home while my teammates drank on me,” Shanahan said.

Sometimes coaches provide a heads-up. Darryl Sutter put things in perspective for Patrick Marleau when the latter debuted at 18 with the San Jose Sharks: “Maybe I like him so much because he’s a farm boy like me. Real humble, quiet, teachable. About the only extravagance I’ve seen from him so far is buying a Corvette. Cost him something like $53,000. So I started bugging him, reminding him his dad could’ve bought an entire section of land for that kind of money. I think it kind of embarrassed him.”

Players of Marleau’s generation generally find it harder to enter the NHL and dominate than their 1980’s counterparts did. Steve Yzerman, Ron Francis, and Joe Sakic became immediate stars and team leaders when they broke in with struggling franchises in Detroit, Hartford, and Quebec respectively.

Denis Savard, who made an early impact with Chicago, explains: “Things go in cycles. In the 1980’s, things were different. Older guys are still playing today who would have already retired back then. Right now, we’re in a cycle where older players are going to play longer.” That relates largely to veterans knowing how to pace themselves and how to get proper conditioning, nutrition, and rest, just as rookies must.

Ultimately, success can come down to confidence. Players who have excelled in junior should eventually be able to display the same skills in the NHL if they apply themselves.

Power forward Owen Nolan recognizes the value of perseverance. After being drafted number one overall in 1990, the Cornwall Royals graduate had a disastrous rookie season with Quebec, scoring just three goals. It was a tough pill to swallow, considering how he had dominated the Ontario Hockey League. But Nolan rebounded as a sophomore, surging to 42 goals and showing he could be an elite NHL player.

Nolan’s advice for juniors making the jump is simple: “You have to expect it to be tough the first couple of years, but don’t get down on yourself. It’s not an easy transition to go from playing with kids to playing with men. The frustration may set in, but try not to let it get to you.”

Young talents who take those words to heart may find themselves holding down an NHL job for many years to come.

The Kids Are All Right

Here are three dynamic juniors who jumped to the NHL at age 18 this season and should continue to impress in the future:

Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins: Won NHL Rookie of the Month for October with a 1.96 GAA and .943 save percentage. Numbers slipped afterwards for this Cape Breton Screaming Eagles graduate, but the mobile young goalie’s upside for a struggling Pittsburgh team is immeasurable.

Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes: Dubbed the “heir apparent” to Ron Francis in Carolina, this crafty center has great on-ice vision. Former Peterborough Petes ace was picked #2 after Fleury in 2003 Draft and should also contend for Calder honors.

Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins: Gifted pivot from Acadie-Bathurst Titan surprised many with dynamite training camp to earn roster spot. Picked 45th overall in 2003 Draft. Shows unexpected physical edge as well as scoring touch.

Youth Gone Wild

Youngest player drafted first overall: Pierre Turgeon, Buffalo Sabres, 17 years and 10 months, 1987

Youngest player to appear in an NHL game: Bep Guidolin, Boston Bruins, 16 years and 11 months, November 12, 1943 in 3-1 loss to Toronto

Youngest NHL player to score 50 goals: Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers, 19 years and two months, 1979-80

Youngest NHL player to record 100 points: Dale Hawerchuk, Winnipeg Jets, 18 years and 11.5 months, 1981-82

Youngest NHL player to score on a penalty shot: Tim Connolly, New York Islanders, March 21, 2000 versus Pittsburgh’s J.S. Aubin