IORIO LEARNING ON THE JOB
(Courtesy of Perry Bergson, Brandon Sun) — What Vinny Iorio lacks in experience, he more than makes up for in enthusiasm.
Iorio, who won’t turn 16 until Nov. 14, is the third-youngest player in the Western Hockey League behind Cole Dubinsky of the Regina Pats (Dec. 4) and Sebastian Cossa of the Edmonton Oil Kings (Nov. 21). The latter, a goaltender, is returning from the injury list and hasn’t seen action this season.
In total, there are 48 players born in 2002 in the league, with 32 of them born from Jan. 1 to May 31. Iorio is one of just four 2002-born players who are so young they won’t meet the Sept. 15, 2019 deadline for the 2020 National Hockey League draft, pushing him back to 2021.
“I think about it sometimes in practice when I go up against Higs (Schael Higson) or Lindo (Linden McCorrister) but in games, I feel like I just have to play my game,” Iorio said. “It doesn’t matter how old the other teams are or how old our boys are on our team. You just have to work harder and get down to pucks and win the game.”
At six-foot-two and 205 pounds, the gregarious youngster’s size certainly belies his youth.
If there is an element of time he’s worried about, it certainly isn’t his age. It comes on the ice.
“Probably the biggest thing that has surprised me is the amount of time that I have compared to when I played in midget last year,” Iorio said. “There’s not as much time as you think. You have to be very poised with the puck and make the right decision and pretty much the simple decision every time because the puck’s going to end up in the back of your net if you don’t otherwise.”
Iorio and his Wheat Kings are in the midst of their annual West Coast swing, which this year heads through the B.C. Division.
The Coquitlam, B.C., product got close to his hometown when Brandon visited the Vancouver Giants in Langley last Sunday and was excited to make his first trip back.
“It’s going to be nice,” said Iorio said before the trip. “I have a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean a lot of friends and family coming to watch me. It’s going to be great.”
The only WHL building Iorio, who is the son of Jennifer and Mario and older brother to Olivia, played in prior to the trip was in the Langley Events Centre.
One reason he had not toured a lot of B.C. arenas is that he spent the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault. Minn., the same school that current NHL players Sidney Crosby, Zach Parise and Jonathan Toews attended.
That may actually be part of the reason he ended up in Brandon. Since a vast majority of Shattuck-St. Mary’s alumni go on to play in the American college ranks, Iorio dropped to 27th overall, where the Wheat Kings selected him with the pick they acquired at the 2016 trade deadline when they sent Braylon Shmyr and Colton Waltz to the Saskatoon Blades for Mitch Wheaton and Higson.
Iorio committed to the team during the annual prospects camp in late May.
The youngster has certainly impressed Wheat Kings head coach David Anning.
“He’s come in and shown very well for us,” Anning said. “We’ve been able to put him in some really tough situations for young guys and he’s adapted and adjusted very well. He’s certainly working on improving his defensive-zone play and I think he’s done a nice job of adjusting to the Western Hockey League. He’s had hard matchups on a regular basis and he’s done a good job in our end.”
Iorio posted 32 points in 39 games in bantam prep and 23 points in 52 games in his first year of midget, so he does have offensive ability. He hasn’t earned his first WHL point in 10 games yet, but Anning said that will come.
“You can see when he plays with the puck how skilled he is,” Anning said. “He sees the ice well and has done a great job getting the puck moving out of our end. When he gets the puck on the offensive blue-line, he makes things happen. We’re really excited about him as a young guy. I think he’s done very well to start the year and we expect him to keep improving.”
Iorio said it took a couple of games to adjust but that he is already noticing the growth in his game in areas such as his playmaking, decision making and defensive play. But he’s the first to say that his game needs continued improvement.
“I’m a young player so I obviously need work on everything,” Iorio said. “Skating is one thing I need to work on and transitioning. In the Swift Current game (a 3-2 shootout loss to the Broncos at Westoba Place on Oct. 13), I got burned a couple of times so I’m really starting to focus on transitioning even after practice, just getting a couple of extra reps in with (assistant coach) Don (MacGillivray). That will help in the long run for sure.”
His Italian surname has proven to be a tongue twister for some people. He prefers “eye-or-e-o” but said “e-or-e-o” is also something he commonly hears. The actual Italian pronunciation is a more nuanced “yor-ye-o” with a tongue twist.
He chuckles that one of the nicknames he’s heard so far is “Oreo.”
While he works hard in practice, it’s obvious that he relishes every minute of the experience. It’s not unusual to see him after a drill catching his breath with a wide smile on his face.
Iorio said he’s never been on a closer team than the one he’s on now. A club that closes out its season high 7-game road trip this weekend with games against the Blazers and Rockets in Kamloops and Kelowna respectively.
“It’s a lot different than the locker rooms I’ve been in, in the past,” Iorio said. “The boys are so tight. We’re all buddies and it’s great. There are no different cliques, we’re all one and share laughs and chirp each other. We just have a lot of fun. It’s awesome.”
