Wickenheiser sizes up prospect
Would-be Canuck winger has ‘dynamic element’ and ‘a nose for the net’
If Kole Lind ever requires public relations help, he should hire Hayley Wickenheiser. Less than five minutes after a call was put into her agent asking if Wickenheiser would talk about fellow Shaunavon, Sask., product Lind, Canada’s greatest ever women’s hockey player was on the phone, raving about the 19-year-old Vancouver Canucks prospect.
Lind is making things miserable on opposing WHL goalies as a right wing with the Kelowna Rockets, with 22 points, including eight goals, in 12 games.
Shaunavon is a farming community of about 1,800 in southwest Saskatchewan. Everybody knows everybody. It’s one of those places.
Hockey people in particular know hockey people, and Lind’s dad Ashley, 41, recalls coming through the minor hockey ranks alongside Wickenheiser, 39, when they were growing up in the area. His first vivid recollection of playing against her was when he was eight years old.
Ashley and wife Marcia run a farm in nearby Admiral, Sask., and head up one of the more prolific hockey families in the region. Kole’s sisters Tenelle, 16, and Taylor, 15, are key members of the Swift Current Wildcats, a squad in the Saskatchewan female triple-A midget league. Youngest sibling Kalan, 12, is an underage bantam with the Swift Current Broncos and he had an impressive 12 points in his first seven games.
Kole, of course, is the one drawing the most attention now.
“I remember his dad as a player and it’s fair to say that Kole is more skilled,” Wickenheiser quipped. “Kole comes from a great family. He’s a grounded kid. In a lot of ways, I think he’s your typical Saskatchewan farm boy from a small town.
“He’s got a nose for the net and seems to have the ability to score timely goals, and not everybody can do that. He’s a good size, and I think he’s not going to be afraid to play in the physical areas at the next level. I also think he’s going to be a good team guy. He comes from a community environment and he remembers where he’s from.
“He has that dynamic element as a player, but I also think he’s going to be a guy who will show up night in, night out.”
Wickenheiser and Lind aren’t in frequent contact. For instance, they each joked about being surprised when they were both entrants in a summer camp two years ago in Florida that was run by skills coach Darryl Belfry.
Wickenheiser does keep up on Lind’s exploits, though, following how the six-foot-one, 185-pounder did in midget with the Saskatoon Contacts and now junior with the Rockets, along with all that went into the Canucks using a second-round pick, 33rd overall, in last summer’s NHL draft to snag his rights.
When she started up her apparel line, she sent him a care package. Lind wears a black Wickenheiser signature ball cap in the dressing room before every practice and game with the Rockets.
“When he was young, I remember thinking, ‘This kid is going to be a player of some sort,’ ” said Wickenheiser, who announced her retirement from international hockey last January. “You could just tell — the way he skated, the way he moved the puck, the way his smarts matched his physical ability.
“I’m really happy for him, and I think Vancouver Canucks fans will be happy with him for a long, long time.”
Lind is a Wickenheiser fan, too. You probably figured that was coming.
He said “she’s the greatest women’s hockey player the game has ever had, and just to know her and have her support pushes me to go further.”
Ask him about who he modelled his game after growing up, though, and he goes with another Prairie product, picking Jordan Eberle.
It’s logical. Now with the New York Islanders, Eberle, 27, is a right shot right-winger known for his offence. Lind would have been about 10 years old when Eberle first burst on the national scene, with his timely tallies at the world juniors. Eberle was playing in the WHL for the Regina Pats then. Regina is about three and a half hours from Shaunavon.
One of the knocks on Eberle over the years has been his commitment to defence. That’s one of the questions about Lind.
Expectations of his play in his own zone have been increased by Rockets head coach Jason Smith this season, according to both Lind and Smith.
For instance, a year ago Lind would come out for the final few seconds of a penalty kill. This time around, Smith has opted to use him on one of his two main forward duos when down a man.
“It’s helping me understand the game even more,” Lind said.
“I think Jason has really laid it on me and I want to be a guy that he can rely on in all situations.”
Smith, 43, who’s in his second year at the helm of the Rockets, said he’s seeing growth in Lind.
“I think after going to his first rookie tournament and playing against men at training camp, he knows what it takes,” said Smith, who manned the blue-line in the NHL for 1,008 regular season games and spent two years as an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators before coming to the Rockets. “That first training camp is always a real eye-opener.
“With all young players, the offensive zone is the fun zone. It’s easy to play there if you’re skilled and getting results, but you have to be accountable in your own zone. It’s not about being an elite defender. It’s about being responsible, about not cheating, about your coach being able to put you on the ice late in the period for a faceoff in your own zone.
“Kole is trending in the right way. He’s maturing. He’s taking advice. He can deal with criticism.”
Lind was a fourth-round pick of the Rockets in 2013 WHL bantam draft after he produced 22 goals and 46 points in 20 regular season games with his Swift Current Raiders bantam side in 2012-13.
He played the following season in midget with the Saskatoon Contacts, and put up 21 goals and 37 points in 44 regular season games. The next year, when he was 16 and could have been a full-time regular with the Rockets, they sent him back to the Contacts and he flourished, tallying 45 times and recording 79 points in 44 regular season games.
His coach there was Marc Chartier. He’s the father of former Rockets sniper and current San Jose Sharks farmhand Rourke Chartier. His hockey resume includes being a teammate of former Canucks coach Willie Desjardins under coach Dave King with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies when they won the CIAU national title in 1983.
“He knew where the net was from 200 feet away,” Chartier said of Lind. “Great work ethic, great kid to coach. He never took days off.”
Last week, Lind was named to Team WHL for the Canada-Russia Series, which Hockey Canada lists as one of its precursors to picking the world junior team. They’ll play Nov. 6 in Moose Jaw and then Nov. 7 in Swift Current.
Lind scored 30 goals and had 87 points in 70 regular season games last season with Kelowna.
“I think Vancouver Canucks fans will be happy with him for a long, long time.” — Hayley Wickenheiser