Claimed: The SPICEYest bio of them all

[canucks30 27]

The SPICEY BIO

 

SPICEY, a draft pick in the 6^th round of the Oslo Storm, has a lot of doubters to prove as he gets started in his first season in the VHLM. He’s 6’3 and 210 pounds so he has the natural size and skill set to make it at the next level but his lack of experience is going to be a hindrance going forward and he’s really going to have to work hard to make up for it.

 

Becoming a Hockey Player

Spicey grew up in the suburbs just outside of the Toronto in Canada. He grew up playing soccer until he was about 6 years old when he finally strapped on a pair of skates and started playing hockey. He spent a couple years just playing in house league before he finally realized he had a real talent for the sport and began committing to making it to a rep team. It wasn’t until he was 10-years old that he finally made it up to playing rep and from there, no one was stopping him. He spent his summers in the USA playing hockey and really testing out just how far he could go.

 

He started out playing defence and loved caring the puck up the ice. He did it so much that his coach had to start putting out his most defensive winger every time Spicey was on the ice in order to have someone to drop back when, not if, Spicey went up the ice. Spicey’s natural offensive ability led to the coach sometimes putting him on the power play as a winger in order to play two offensive defensemen. From there, it was a short jump to Spicey playing winger and, as he began working on his face-offs for the penalty kill, he was eventually moved to being a centre full time.

 

High School

Once he got to high school, the town was already on watch. Growing up in a small town of around 5000 means that anything of interesting that comes up is instantly payed attention to. He made his varsity high school team as a junior and almost every night he practiced with either his rep team or his high school team. 15 hours a week were spent on the ice as he tried to make up for the four years he lost playing soccer and not being on the ice. His natural skills and strength made up for a lot of it but to keep up with his top level of play and keep progressing he was forced to sacrifice school and the rest of his life in order to focus on the sport.

 

When he turned 16, just 2 years ago, he collapsed at the end of a particularly tough week of practice. It was then that he realized that he needed to take a step back from the game and focus on life. His marks rose and he finally started to enjoy life. It was a year of just playing high school hockey and practicing maybe once or twice a week. He knew that his game would suffer in the short run but he hoped that, on return, he would be more focused and able to better appreciate and take a stride forward in his game over the long term.

 

He came back in a big way when he turned 17 after being drafted to the Sarnia Sting in the OHL. He was a late round pick as he was viewed as a high-risk prospect but he quickly took the league by storm and finished the season on the second line as well as taking face offs for the first line power play. His big body was perfect for screening in front of the net and his strength means he is perfect for overpowering the defencemen to bury those garbage goals.

 

The OHL and the Future

Sarnia might not have lasted too long in the playoffs, being swept out in the playoffs in the first round, but Spicey had done enough to put the VHLM on watch. His year off did him no favours as he could only watch as he slowly fell down the draft boards with much more low-risk prospects being taken in front of him. When he finally got taken by the Oslo Storm, he knew he would have to really focus on his next year coming up. He managed to go from a late round OHL pick to a VHLM draft pick in one season and, if he wants to make that same sort of jump next year, he’ll have to put in even more work to, first off, earn VHLM minutes and, secondly, convince a VHL team that he is worth using a valuable pick on.

 

His career may just be beginning or may just be coming to his end, the next year may be the more important year of his life in determining this. The Oslo storm had a strong draft class and have a young team that could challenge for the next 2 or 3 years which might be perfect for Spicey. Even if his role isn’t the largest this year, when the top of Oslo’s draft class makes the jump next year, Spicey might finally get his chance to lead a pro team. Building up this year is going to be necessary if he wants to lead this team in the future and maybe even a VHL team in a couple years.

 

As he makes the long trek from Toronto to Oslo the only thing on his mind has to be practice and the focus it’s going to take to make it at this level. It won’t come easy to him, nothing ever has, but with the right mentality the scouts in the VHL are going to be on watch and the other 4 VHLM teams might soon come to regret their decision to not take on the high-risk prospect as the reward soon far outweighs whatever perceived risk there was going into the draft.

[Bushito 1,945]

So Spicey this steal of the draft is