SHINKARUK A HOCKEY PLAYER FROM THE START
There’s an argument that the first scouting report on Vancouver Canucks prospect Hunter Shinkaruk was compiled some 17 years ago, while he was bouncing around between the cabins of Lake Windermere.
“He was two years old and he had a stick in his hand everywhere he went,” remembered Dan Bertram, the former Canadian world junior team forward whose family had a place next to the Shinkaruks at the vacation hotspot near Invermere.
“He always carried that stick. He always walked around with that stick.
“And then it wasn’t too long before he was roller blading around. Most people have trouble standing up on roller blades when they start, but he was two years old and he could do it. He was a phenom and you could tell right away that he loved the game.”
The Canucks loved Shinkaruk, 19, and his potential enough to take him 24th overall in the NHL Draft in June, and the Calgary native showed enough flashy offensive skills in training camp and the preseason that there was some suggestion of him at least starting the year with the big club. Instead, he was sent back to his WHL squad, the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Fans in these parts can see him live for the first time since then on Friday, when the Tigers visit the Vancouver Giants at the Pacific Coliseum.
Bertram, 26, will undoubtedly connect with Shinkaruk sometime over the next couple of days, too. A second-round selection of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2005, Bertram played a couple of seasons in the minors and now works for a Vancouver investment firm.
Bertram has assorted ties to hockey in the area besides Shinkaruk. The Calgary native was drafted by second overall by Giants in 2002, right after they nabbed Gilbert Brule with the top pick, but he opted instead to go to Boston College. Bertram was part of his first of two world junior wins with Team Canada at Rogers Arena in 2006.
Mason Raymond was a teammate with the Junior A Camrose Kodiaks and Cory Schneider was his roommate at university; Bertram remains tight with both of the former Canucks.
In fact, Bertram and Raymond used to have Shinkaruk work out with them during the summers.
“I remember when he was 14, Mase and I looked at each other and looked at him and said that he was the most skilled guy on the ice,” said Bertram. “Mason still skates with him in the summers and is still amazed by his skills.
“It’s not just about skills, of course. There are different things at play. He’s a young kid. He’s going to have to battle, but I’m 100 per cent certain he’ll be an NHLer. It’s just a matter of when.”
Bertram’s biased. He can’t duck that. He’s known Shinkaruk since he was truly just old enough to pick up a stick. On the flip side, Bertram should have insight into what it takes to get to the top level. He’d get it from Raymond and Schneider; his world junior teammates included Carey Price, Kris Letang and Jonathan Toews.
“To this day, he lives and breathes hockey,” Bertram said of the 5-foot-11, 179-pound Shinkaruk.
“I’ve had a chance to be around the Toews of the world and that’s what they’re like. Everything is about hockey for them.
“I know lots of guys say it. And they do think hockey is pretty cool. But they also think cars are cool and chasing girls is cool and so on and so on.”
The Giants’ game is the third of four in B.C. for the Tigers. They were at the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday and they head home after visiting the Kelowna Rockets on Saturday.
Shinkaruk was still with the Canucks for Medicine Hat’s first five games and missed another five with a hip injury. The Kamloops game marked his fourth one back. Going into Wednesday, he had five goals and 12 points in 10 games.
He admits that coming to the Coliseum now takes on a whole new meaning for him with the Canuck connection.
“I know it’s a game probably marked on a few people’s calendars,” he said. “I want to be one of the best players for the Canucks and that’s a start to show them what I can do.”
It’s also another step in the audition process for a spot with the world junior team. Shinkaruk was one of the final cuts with last season’s team.
“I’ve been lucky to be close to Danny,” said Shinkaruk. “He’s been a role model.
“He’s a guy I can ask questions of, a guy who’s been through a lot of the same things.”
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