Asham greatly relished his time in Red Deer
You might say it was somewhat overdue.
It was just a matter of time before the Red Deer Rebels franchise leading scorer would be honoured with a bobblehead of his likeness and Aaron Asham’s time came Friday.
“I’m very happy with it. I never expected to have one made but it’s an honour,” he said prior to the Rebels game versus the visiting Swift Current Broncos. “I like the hair, it’s on point. I had to grow up a little and cut it, it’s not as long now.
“I’m very happy with it and very honoured for sure. My family is very excited and my sons are definitely excited to get one, so it’s definitely an honour for sure.”
Asham scored 131 goals and collected 292 points during his four seasons with the Rebels, starting in 1994. He was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the third round of the 1996 NHL entry draft and went on to play 789 games over 15 seasons in the NHL with Montreal, the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers.
He was a star forward with the Rebels, a player who could score but also play a rugged game, all the while building long-lasting memories and friendships.
“This is a place where I came as a 16-year-old and kind of honed my skills and became the player I was,” said Asham, who lives in the small town of Point Lookout, on Long Island, N.Y. “I have a lot of great ties here. I still keep in contact with my billets every now and then and then obviously with all the guys I played with.
“It’s been close to 30 years but whenever we see other it’s like we never left. The memories . . . there are too many. I actually had lunch today with a couple of guys I played with here, Lance Ward and Pete Vandermeer, and that’s all we did for two hours — just tell stories about our Red Deer days, our junior days.
“It’s true, the best time of your hockey career is your junior days. It’s always nice coming back and catching up.”
Asham was far from the biggest player with the Rebels (“I was five-nine or five-10 and maybe 140 to 150 pounds when I came here”) but he could scrap as well as score.
“I became I guess an offensive fighter. I’d have five to 10 fights a year here,” he said. “I kind of found my way and found my game style and continued that into my pro years, even though the scoring went down a bit.”
Indeed, Asham didn’t have the same offensive success at the pro level he enjoyed in Red Deer and knew he had to change his role in order to stay in the NHL.
“I played a physical game, hard on the forecheck. I’d pot 10 to 15 goals a year and have 10 to 15 fights,” he said.
“I went in thinking I was going to be a scorer but realized quickly that the (pro) game is a lot faster, a lot stronger, and I was going to have to change my game to be able to stay.”
As a result, he bulked up and eventually played at a little over 200 pounds.
“I put on some weight, I had to do it to stay in the league. I tangled with some bigger guys than I was used to.”
Asham, who’s now 45, fought some of the NHL’s toughest players, including the likes of Colton Orr, George Parros, John Erskine, Matthew Barnaby and Cam Janssen.
“I did as best as I could,” he said. “It was fun, I enjoyed doing it in the NHL and I enjoyed doing it here in junior. It was part of the game although it’s slowly dying out now.”
Asham is currently working with the Islanders as the team’s director of amateur hockey.
“We have a lot of youth programs there,” he said. “I’m still involved very much and I have a young son (Cruz) who’s starting to play. All I’ve ever know is hockey and I wanted to continue with it after my playing career . . . kind of help the kids, including my son, to be the best they can be.
“I just want my son to have fun, I don’t have any expections for him and don’t want to put pressure on him. Just go out there and have fun.”
Asham also coaches with the Junior Islanders U18 and pee wee teams.
“We have a lot of learn to play programs, getting kids involved in the sport,” he said. “So I’m at the rink a lot. I’m a rink rat which I’ve always been, so I’m right at home.”
Every summer Asham returns to his hometown of Portage la Prairie, Man., where he started a charity program called ‘Arron’s Chance to Play’.
“The program helps young people around central Manitoba to be able to play hockey,” said Asham, whose family is from the Kinosota indigenous reservation just north of Portage, and whose great-grandfather was the chief of the Ebb and Flow reservation.
For Asham, the program is a way of paying back the aid he received as a young player.
“I had a lot of help from the reservations around Portage, help with my career and paying for my (minor hockey) fees,” he said. “This is the 20th year of the program coming up. We’re trying to help as many kids as we can to get on the ice and play the sport that everyone loves.”
Asham is also the founder of an annual charity golf tournament, held the third week of July.
“For a small community we’ve raised 20 to 30 thousand dollars a year,” he said. “We have a nice little pot there and we’re getting it out to as many kids as we can.”
Asham takes pride in the fact that he remains the Rebels all-time points leader despite all the years that have passed.
“Obviously it’s nice but there are guys who could have beaten my record if they had played more years,” he said. “I know that, but it’s still nice to have your name in the record books.”
Asham still holds the Rebels franchise records for goals and points. Brandon Hagel holds the assist mark of 186.
Even though his marks have stood through all the years, Asham doesn’t except his records will last forever.
“All records are made to be broken,” he said. “Hags did it a few years ago with my assist record. It’s just a matter of time.
“It’s been close to 30 years but someone is going to end up breaking it and I’ll be just as happy for him as I was for Brandon to break my assist record.”
