Top coaches praise top hockey prospects

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Imagine being given a chance to prove your worth in your dream career. You are given less than 60 minutes to demonstrate your skills, not only to senior professionals in the field, but to millions of complete strangers. Now imagine that there are 39 other individuals also invited to do the same. All this before the critical gaze of the media, scrutinizing every move.

Now imagine that you are just 17 years old.

This was the case for 40 Canadian Hockey League players invited to the sixth annual CHL Top Prospects game held Feb. 7 in Calgary.

The Top Prospects Game is a relatively new annual hockey event. The top 40 junior hockey players-eligible for the NHL entry draft in about four months-were invited to play in a nationally televised hockey game. It gives the players a chance to show how well they play against and alongside the best draft-eligible hockey talent in the CHL.

The two teams are coached by Don Cherry and Bobby Orr. So far, Team Orr has won three games and Team Cherry has won two.

Two First Nations hockey players were among the prospects.

One was 6'2", 221 lb Colt King, who plays for the Guelph Storm team in the Ontario Hockey League. The 17-year-old is from Thunder Bay, Ont., and was ranked 27th among North American skaters by the Central Scouting Bureau.

The other First Nations player was the Western Hockey League's Jordin Tootoo, who plays for the Brandon Wheat Kings. The 5'9", 185 lb forward is ranked 96th among North American skaters. He calls Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, home. This past summer, Tootoo played for the Canadian National under-18 team. He was named team captain and led Team Canada to the gold medal at the Four Nations Cup held in Slovakia.

On Feb. 6, the players were up early for a skills competition at the University of Calgary campus.

King was on Team Purple; Tootoo was on Team White. At lunch it was decided that Don Cherry and Bobby Orr would coach the respective teams.

Tootoo said, "We get to meet a lot of new guys. These are the top-notch players in Canada, and I'm looking forward to looking up to some of these guys and taking a few pointers from the boys. We've got to work hard, and do what we do best."

He said he was "trying not to think about" the skills competition. "My legs are a little nervous," admitted Tootoo. "I think I'll be all right."

Tootoo was indeed all right. He had the hardest shot of all the prospects; his "slow" shot speed was 92 mph and the high speed shot clocked in at 96.1 mph.

The game ahead was on Tootoo's mind.

"I'm just going to do the same whatever I'd do in any other game, and I'm just going to go out there, play my game, and not change anything. It's only one game, so it's just like a regular season game for me."

Tootoo said the fans should not expect him to drop his gloves, something that he's earned a reputation for in the Western Hockey League.

"If it happens, it happens. I'm just going to go out and play above my size, like I usually do . . . . I'm not going to go out looking for it, because it's a game where I have to show what I got, and I'm not out there to run around and hurt guys and stuff."

King is also a physical player.

"I like to play physical, take the body. I play hard-nosed, up and down my wing. I'm more like a power-forward, I guess. That's the terminology you could use. Everything, all my other game, just wraps around my physical play. If I play physical, it opens up more ice, more skating room, more room to make more plays."

King said when he went on the ice for the skills competition he "was just hoping that they'd look at the results rather than watching the actual competition, but I'm happy with it. It went better than I expected it to go. It wasn't really all that bad. There were other guys who were feeling nervous, too, so we're all feeling the exact same thing."

King said there were a lot of strong players on Team Purple, which Don Cherry coached.

"I don't know what [the White] team looks like, but I think we've got a really god shot at winning this. It's going to be a really good game, really fast-paced. I'm really excited to play," he said before the game.

King's tough talk extended to extreme action on the ice.

"My gloves aren't glued on. If someone wants to challenge me, I'm not scared to fight. It's just something that happens in the game. I play tough, and I play physical, so I expect to see something like that happening. If it happens, it happens, but I'm not going to look for it unless things get out of hand, and people start getting chippy or whatever."

Unlike the NHL All-Star game held in Denver less than a week earlier, where more than 20 goals were scored in the 60 minute game, the score in this game was slightly closer. Team Orr won 5 to 3 over Team Cherry.

After the game, both Tootoo and King were pleased with how the Feb. 7 game turned out.

King, who played on Team Cherry, said, "It was really exciting. It was a really fast-paced game. I don't know, it was really fun to be in, a great experience. It was pretty much what I expected. I expected a lot of good talent and a lot of speed, and a lot of physical play, and it was all there. It was a pretty good game, I thought. It could've went either way, but unfortunately for us, we couldn't get any bounces.

"All the scouts were here watching, and I just wanted to show them what I could do."

Tootoo played for Team Orr. Along with the euphoria of winning the game, he was also pleased with his own performance.

"It was a lot of fun, it was good to win. Like I said, it's good to meet new friends, and this is going to be a game I'll cherish for the rest of my life.

"It's a great bunch of guys, and you know, I had the best NHL player (Bobby Orr) coaching behind me."

After the game, King's family waited to visit with him for a few minutes and commented on his on-ice performance.

Joannie Malcolm, Kings's mother, said, "I thought he did really well. He was playing with all the same bracket of hockey skills, so he did really well."

Malclm and her sister came from Thunder Bay to watch the game.

King's uncle, Gary Goodwin, said, "I thought he played a great game tonight. Solid hits, smooth hands. He had some nice passes."

"I think he probably played a game that Don Cherry would like," said his aunt, Debora Gilliam.

Both Orr and Cherry had positive things to say about each of the players.

"I thought he was great," said Cherry of King.

"I think I played him to death. I had him on about four lines when we got injuries. He played a great game. I think he played about 40 minutes tonight, so I really think a lot of him. He's a nice big kid."

"I thought Colt played great tonight," said Orr, who watched him from the opposing bench.

"I've seen him play a lot up in juniors. I've watched him the last couple of years. Tonight was, I think, the best game I've ever seen Colt play. He was taking the body, handling the puck. I thought he played great."

When asked about Tootoo's performance, Orr said, "Is he a hard rock or what? He's a tough kid. Everyone's always talking about size in our game, and if there's one player that's not real tall, but he's just as strong as a horse, and if there's one, he's looked at as small. He's not 6'4". He's one that could play in the National Hockey League. He's got a heart as big as this rink, and he plays very, very well. I was really impressed with Jordin."

Cherry was also very impressed with Tootoo.

"Tootoo, I wish I'd have had him in the Boston Bruins. He looks like he should have played for the Boston Bruins. I just think he's great, and I don't know if a lot of people know of Stan Jonathon, Brian Killaroy. Bobby Orr said 'he reminds me of Stan Jonathon,' and he's a great hockey player, and he will be in the National Hockey League, there's no doubt in my mind."