The search for success brings Croat to Canada
Rendulic trying to make history as an NHL regular with the Canucks
The greatest player in the history of Croatian hockey was playing poker with his friends in Zagreb when he hit the jackpot and signed with the Vancouver Canucks.
All Borna Rendulic has to do now is actually make the National Hockey League team. The Canucks appear to be giving him a fair chance, playing the 24-yearold winger at training camp alongside Sven Baertschi and Bo Horvat.
Granted, the Croat may only be keeping those core NHL players company until Jannik Hansen returns from the World Cup of Hockey. But Rendulic has gone through a lot to have this chance and does not plan to go meekly to the Utica Comets, which is likely where he is headed.
Croatia has only 562 registered players among its population of nearly 4.5 million, so Rendulic left home at age 15 to play junior hockey in Finland.
“Hockey in Croatia is pretty bad,” he said before Sunday’s scrimmage here. “Two indoor rinks in the whole country. My age, when I was younger, there was only one team. So it was pretty tough to make it and I knew I wanted to do this, so I moved to Finland when I was 15 years old and spent seven years there. I did all junior, then signed as pro, then signed with Colorado.
“It’s been really hard. When you come from a different country, you are like the import. You’ve got to get used to the life and the lan- guage and all the things around you. I was really lucky to have good people who taught me how to play hockey.”
He signed his first NHL deal two years ago with the Colorado Avalanche, for which Rendulic played three games. But last season he had 38 points in the American Hockey League with San Antonio, and
when the Avalanche chose not to qualify Rendulic and he became a free agent on July 1, the Canucks signed him to a two-way deal that includes a healthy US$200,000 if he plays in the AHL this season.
He is six foot two and fast, and plays a straight north-south game.
“My agent called me one night,” Rendulic said. “I was playing poker with my friends; it was like 11 p.m. He said: ‘Are you interested in playing for the Canucks?’ I said: ‘Yeah. What’s the deal?’ After 10 minutes, I called him back and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll sign with the Canucks.’”
Goran Bezina is believed to be the first Croatian to play in the NHL when he logged three games with the Phoenix Coyotes in 2003-04. But Bezina grew up in Switzerland, and Rendulic said he is the first player born and raised in Croatia to play in the NHL.
“In the hockey world there, I’m kind of famous,” he said. “But it’s not like I’m famous in the country.”
Maybe he’ll be famous in this one.