Baum Making His Mark in First AHL Season
Feisty Dan Baum is bringing some Western Hockey League-style grit to the American Hockey League this season.
The Cougars product has carved out a role for himself with the Edmonton Oilers AHL affiliate, the Toronto Roadrunners.
His season began with talk of Baum nearly returning west to Prince George for an overage season.
The Oilers decided to have Baum, 20, stick around in Toronto to try his hand at the pro game. The early portion of his season was a bumpy ride for both player and team, as the Roadrunners endured a season-opening nine-game road trip through various corners of the far-flung AHL.
The Roadrunners struggled and lugged a 5-11-3-0 mark by November 26. Slowly, however, a nice mix of AHL veterans in Jamie Wright, Dave Roche and Bobby Allen came together with what was largely a young core of players.
Jeff Woywitka, the former Red Deer defenseman, came over to the Edmonton organization from Philadelphia in December and helped strengthen the Roadrunners’ back line.
What resulted has been a climb up the AHL standings, and the Roadrunners stand a chance of making some noise in the Calder Cup playoffs this spring.
Baum’s year has progressed much the same way. Edmonton’s eighth-round pick (215th overall) in the 2001 National Hockey League Entry Draft, Baum battled the rough start.
Explains Baum, “At the start of the year, it was hard to get in the lineup. We have a lot of good players.”
“Injuries and call-ups gave me a chance to play, and now the coaches have confidence in me. I’m getting the confidence back that I had in junior, carrying the puck up ice and not just getting the puck off my stick.”
“Coming in here, it’s huge to do well in junior so you come in here with some confidence.”
Certainly he irritated many an WHL opponent during his four-year stay with the Cougars. His final two seasons of junior hockey saw him lead the Cougars in penalty minutes, including 218 minutes last season.
Baum also showed a junior scoring touch toward the end of his Prince George career. He surpassed the 30-goal mark in each of his final two seasons, topping all Cougars scorers in 2002-03 with 32 markers.
Finding his niche in the AHL takes some time for most players coming out of the Canadian Hockey League.
“I’m getting used to [the AHL game]. I’m starting to play my game. I’d rather go and get under guys’ skins.”
The scoring has yet come to come for Baum (3-4-7), who has been used on the Roadrunners’ checking line.
But Baum is making a spot for himself in the Toronto lineup playing a gritty, nasty sort of game, particularly given his modest size (6-1, 189 pounds). AHL opponents have found Baum to be an annoying presence this season. His handiwork this season places him second in penalty minutes on the Toronto lineup to former WHL roughneck Rocky Thompson.
The jump from Prince George to metropolitan Toronto has been an interesting one for many of the Roadrunners, Baum not being an exception. There’s the traffic, the hustle and bustle and the high cost of living that a player barely out of his teens adapts to there.
“Eighty thousand to four or five million people,” is how Baum, a native of Biggar, Saskatchewan, describes the shift in lifestyle. But Baum has softened the transition for himself, living together with a few of his teammates.
Still, Baum realizes, ’Here you’re just a small fish in a huge pond.”
Of course, it’s still hockey and it’s good hockey at that.
”It’s good in the AHL, the life of a hockey player. The only better life is up in the NHL, and that’s what you’re working for down here.”
For all of the novelty of playing hockey in Toronto, Baum recalls the appeal of playing his junior hockey in Prince George. Even the Cougars’ travel demands did not faze Baum.
“I actually liked the travel. I didn’t mind it. We got to a lot of tourist sites, Seattle and big cities like that. When I was young [growing up], we never really got to travel. We traveled through British Columbia, one of the most beautiful provinces in the country.”
When the Cougars stayed put in Prince George, Baum enjoyed his home base as well.
“It was awesome. I wouldn’t want to play junior in any other city. It was unreal.”
Story provided by Patrick Williams
