Turning Pro

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This article was published 27/09/2018 (2548 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As National Hockey League debuts go, Zach Whitecloud certainly drew the short straw on April 5.

In his one and only NHL game so far, he lined up with the Vegas Golden Knights against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

“I was line matched against McDavid and (Milan) Lucic and (Ryan Strome) the entire game,” Whitecloud recalled recently as fellow Brandon professional hockey players Matt Calvert, Micheal Ferland and Ryan White listened. “That guy came to my side every time. Defending him is like nothing else.”

Welcome to the NHL, kid.

White agreed on Whitecloud’s assessment of McDavid.

“He’s crazy,” White chuckled. “I remember one time in Phoenix a couple of years ago we had him back to back. We beat them in Phoenix the first night, which was rare, but he came down the half wall, and I’m the centreman, so I came over to challenge him, and he gave me a little shake and I went to the ice and he walked in and took the shot. The puck comes right back to him and he comes down again and I’m standing there and give him the whole outside — ‘Go ahead, you can have it’ — and he goes around and takes the shot. I went up to the next face-off and said ‘Hey kid, can you settle down on me? Come on.’ He’s laughing on the draw and (Edmonton winger Milan) Lucic is standing there staring at me.

“He’s something else, that kid. Sid (Crosby) is great, Ovi (Alexander Ovechkin) is unreal, but that kid is something else. Individually he’s the best. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Brandon has also never seen anything like its current crop of homegrown players competing at the highest levels of the game.

While White spent last season in the American Hockey League, he’s played 313 NHL games since making his debut with the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 5, 2009 against the Boston Bruins.

Ferland has played 250 with the Calgary Flames over the past four seasons, although that’s about to change, as it will for Calvert, who has spent eight seasons and 416 regular season games with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The fifth member of their exclusive club, Joel Edmundson of the St. Louis Blues, was unavailable for the roundtable, but has 205 games under his belt.

None of them come from big money, a fact they say has changed everything.

“Every day it still drives us,” White said. “We’re probably all still trying to put food on the table for our own families now that we have them, but at the same time you always want more for your parents. For me, that’s probably the only reason that I’m still playing. It drives you to keep playing and have a good means of getting some more money and living a better life.”

Whitecloud went out and bought himself a new vehicle after he got his NHL signing bonus — “I literally had to. My dad sold my other one” — adding that was his treat to himself for his hard work.

He hopes to one day be able to provide for his parents and family.

Calvert said his parents will probably work until they are 65 because they spent their money on three boys playing hockey. But he says they taught him well about stretching a dollar.

“It’s ingrained in you,” Calvert said. “The boys still call me frugal all the time and cheap. You want to spend it on yourself and get nice things and it took me a long time to accept that you actually have money because I was raised to be so disciplined. You want to give back to your parents as much as you can … There’s a reason why it’s us four in here. It’s how we were raised, the morals that our parents put in us. You work for what you get.”

Ferland has another motivation as well.

“It gave me a chance to give my daughter stuff I never had,” Ferland said. “All the hard work that I’ve been through, it’s nice to be able to buy a house and not live in apartments. It’s nice to give my daughter a better life than I had. I know my mom worked hard to keep me in hockey.”

Ferland moved to Brandon from Swan River when he was two and started skating at age six. He received his first set of equipment from his older cousin, who was the first to play in the family, and started playing at age eight.

He spent plenty of time at the South End community centre.

“I would just put my skates on at home and skate down to the rink and skate home when I was done,” Ferland said.

“No nicks in those blades,” White quipped.

Whitecloud, who was born in Brandon, started skating at age two or three on the Assiniboine River at Sioux Valley, and playing at age four.

The Calverts had a tiny backyard rink, and he would also head over to the Westridge community centre.

“That’s pretty much where I grew up, right by Linden Lanes.” Calvert said.

He started playing at age six because his two older brothers were in the sport. As a result, his parents made him wait an extra year.

White first hit the ice visiting family in Souris at age three, and started playing at age five. His family’s backyard rink was used in addition to the nearby Green Acres community centre.

“Kids have so much ice time now,” Calvert said. “We were all developed in the outdoors.”

Whitecloud acknowledges the role former Brandon Wheat Kings captain Brad Twordik played in his development when he coached him in high school.

“He was kind of the one who lit a spark under my ass, and said ‘Dude if you don’t pull yourself together, you’re not going to see AAA, you’re not going to make it out of high school or anything like that,” Whitecloud said. “That was a big one for me.”

Former Wheat King Brad Wells coached Ferland with the midget AAA Wheat Kings, and wouldn’t accept any excuses while preaching the value of hard work.

White played with Joel Malchuk and was coached by his father Kevin.

“If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know if I’d be as knowledgeable about the game,” White said. “He really taught us about the game.”

He also says former Wheat Kings defenceman Cam Plante had a big impact.

Calvert said that Craig (Chevy) Anderson and Mark (Johnny) Johnston literally had a sizeable impact for him when they measured the tiny youngster a few inches taller than he actually was to give him a chance in midget.

“My first year I went in, I was barely five feet tall, and Chevy was a small guy and so was Johnny,” Calvert said. “Those were the guys who gave me a chance when I was a tiny kid. Those were the two who really shaped my career.”

Ferland and Calvert would become Brandon Wheat Kings, while White played his four-year Western Hockey League career with the Calgary Hitmen.

Whitecloud took a different route, going from high school hockey to midget AAA to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League to Bemidji State University. He was signed as a free agent by Vegas in March.

While the game is increasingly changing to more of a white collar sport played at the top levels in prep schools, the blue-collar Brandonites are united by their work ethics.

“For me, I learned the hard way,” White said. “I was never in good shape so I’ve always had to work harder and harder to get myself to compete with these guys.”

For Ferland, who was always a physically gifted specimen in junior, the lesson came loud and clear as he moved on to the next level.

“When I went to my first pro camp at 20 years old I was so out of shape, that’s when I figured out ‘Wow, I need to start working out,” Ferland said. “I need to work hard so that I don’t go to camp and feel the way I felt there.”

Nobody had to teach Calvert.

“I was a guy who was committed to the off-ice,” Calvert said. “I was lucky, I got put in the right hands with Bobbi (Schram at Outperforme Athletics in Brandon) right from the start. I got with her when I was 15 and she developed the business and I kind of developed my training together and it always worked out. But that being said, I always thought that I worked hard and took care of my body and then I see this wave come in (pointing to Whitecloud). It’s been a nice change for me and (Ryan) Whitey.”

“It’s been a shot in the arm,” White agreed.

Whitecloud arrived at The Brandon Sun/Trending boardroom for the round table with his post workout salad in hand. While he’s also built a quick reputation as hard worker and is part of that new wave the older players talk about, he said he’s learned just as much from them.

“There’s always a flip side to every story,” Whitecloud said. “These three have experience. I had issues with it last year and Matty talked to me about it all the time. It’s overworking. I gassed myself out last summer pretty bad. I wanted it so bad and I knew going into college for my second year that I wanted to sign after the year but I had to prove myself in college. These guys know where that fine line is because they’ve been playing for a while.”

Their work ethics manifest themselves in a big way. The three veterans are all known for their ability to go into a corner, win battles and emerge with the puck.

“It’s mental,” White said. “Ninety five per cent of the game you’re just psyching yourself up and telling yourself to believe in yourself. Half the people out there are telling you you’re no good and too soft. You have to tell yourself ‘I’m the man and I’m going to go in there (to the corner) and see what happens.’ I think you learn as a hockey player growing up that pain is only going to be there so long and that reward will be there forever.”

He said even playing summer hockey against Ferland, you know he’s coming in and he isn’t slowing down, so you better get there first or he’s going to run you over.

“I think for the four of us, one of the things that makes us four of the best players to come from Brandon is how competitive all four of us are,” Ferland said.

“Matty is the worst for sure,” White injected to laughter from the others. “You don’t beat this guy in cards without getting it.”

Ferland continued, talking about their summer hockey teams.

“I used to play against Whitey and I used to play with Whitey’s team playing against Matty and none of us like losing,” he said. “Matty would be the worst.”

Calvert said White is exactly the same, and it made him an NHL player.

“He competes, that’s why he’s there and that’s why I’m there,” Calvert said. “We’re not the flashiest guys in the world but for me, that trumps everything. You can be the least skilled or the most skilled, but if you have compete, that’s what get you there. That’s what this room is.”

Ferland, Calvert and White said it’s exactly the same for Edmundson, who also isn’t fun to play against during games.

Even though they are good friends, all that is set aside during NHL games.

“It’s tough,” White said. “They’re both left wingers and I’m a right-winger, I’m not giving them the ice. We’re buddies, but it’s on. It’s a respect thing. If Matty is going into the wall and I see him in a bad spot, I’m definitely going to be ‘Hey Matty, I’m coming,’ but I’m still going to smack him against the wall. That’s my job.”

In a division game against St. Louis while White was a division rival with the Minnesota Wild, White buried one of Edmundson’s teammates with a huge check when he had his head down.

“I could feel Eddy coming up beside me and he was chasing me down,” White said. “I could feel his stick. One of the guys on his team was yelling at him ‘No, no, no, we’re down, don’t fight him, don’t jump him’ and he never did. But he was going to. That’s just the way it is.”

Ferland agreed, saying he grew up with Edmundson.

“In junior, he started fighting and beating the (crap) out of guys and it was so weird watching Joel do that because he’s one of the nicest kids I’ve ever played with,” Ferland said. “Now he’s a beast. He’s mean and hard to play against.”

Edmundson will be the only one of the five returning to the team he started with last season in September.

While Whitecloud made his move from Bemidji State to Vegas at the end of last season, and where he ends up will be decided at camp, the other three all changing addresses.

White finished the season with the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League, his first outside the NHL since the 2008-09 season.

Ferland and Calvert will also leave the only teams they’ve ever known. Ferland was part of a major deal between the Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes on June 23, while Calvert left Columbus to sign with the Colorado Avalanche on July 1.

Calvert, who had spent his entire professional career in the Blue Jackets organization, was renting in Columbus, so that wasn’t a big issue. He and his wife and two kids bought a new house in Colorado.

“I think it was more excitement for us this summer,” Calvert said. “We were ready for something new, and we both knew we were moving on. I can’t wait to live somewhere else and get back to the west, which is probably what I’m most excited about.”

At the end of the season, everything in the Columbus home went into a rented pod, and it’s stored there. Once a player knows where you’re going to be the next season, the pod is dropped off at the new address.

Ferland and his fiancee put their Calgary home on the market and rented a place in Raleigh, N.C. He’s a free agent after this season and isn’t certain what the future holds.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen in my situation so I don’t really want to go out there and buy a house,” Ferland said. “I was pretty shocked about the trade. I wasn’t expecting it.”

If they need any advice, White is the guy to ask.

Since the 2013-14 season, White has played with eight teams in the NHL and AHL.

Last season, without any offers coming in, he went to Vancouver on a professional tryout and got hurt after three weeks. Once he healed up, he headed to Boston on a tryout for a month. He went to San Diego in the AHL for three months, and ended up in Iowa.

“It was a bit of a gong show but you know it’s part of it,” White said. “Your wife knows it’s part of it and you kind of just keep your options open. Like Mike said, you go in there and rent for a year with the best of intentions and see what happens. It’s tough when you start moving around a lot.”

Ferland admitted it will be a shock and a transition.

“I don’t really know what to expect,” Ferland said. “It’s going to be different. I obviously had a lot of good friends in Calgary and now I have to go to a brand new team and don’t know anybody. It’s going to take a little while to get to know everyone and the city, but at the end of the day, I’ll have my family and I’ll be playing hockey so I don’t care.”

Whitecloud listened quietly while the other three detailed their moves. He said he knows what he signed up for.

“No one enters this profession assuming that you’re going to stay on the same team for your entire career,” Whitecloud said. “I’m coming from being a free agent and not even being drafted so I’ll just do what I’ve always done and just play hockey.”

All four have a healthy respect for the men they play against.

Calvert, who wishes he could have skated on a line with Martin St. Louis, said he played against Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings in division games early in his career and had to learn to penalty kill against him.

“That was a wakeup call,” Calvert said. “You go force him, and he wants you to force him. He sucks you in with it and then it’s on somebody’s stick behind you. Easily, he was probably the hardest guy to play against skill-wise. He could break you down with his smarts.”

For Ferland, the biggest of the four, he wishes he could have skated with Datsyuk, but respects what the Boston Bruins top defensive duo brings.

“When you’re in Boston, you’re trying to get to the front of the net against (Zdeno) Chara and (Adam McQuaid). You’re not getting to the front of the net at all,” Ferland said. “And you know if you get to the front of the net, you’re going to get cross-checked to get out of there.”

Now he’s a beast. He’s mean and hard to play against.

White said he would have loved to have played with Jaromir Jagr.

“I want to score man,” White joked. “I’m always playing with the grunts. I remember a shift against Jagr one time when I played in Philly and he had the puck on his stick for a full minute. I could go and get open and hang out for a bit. It was cool getting to play against him. He could score in every era. He was just a freak on the ice.”

Whitecloud admires defencemen Chris Pronger, Al McInnis or Scott Neidermeyer, three very different defenders.

While all four are looking forward to getting the next season going, and the accompanying change it will bring, one rule remains unbroken in hockey.

White, who has literally scrapped for everything he’s ever received, said remembering one thing is fundamental to staying in the game.

“It’s so competitive and everybody’s so hungry,” White said. “The 50th contract in the organization, he’s just as hungry as the number one guy. There’s so much competition.”