Saganiuk cheers on grandson Colby with Leafs
Rocky Saganiuk laughs heartily when told how many Maple Leafs fans felt ancient the moment the club released this week’s development camp roster.
Among the forwards was undrafted Chicago-born Colby Saganiuk. Not the son of the boisterous Ballard-era winger — his grandson.
“I appreciate you calling me, but he’s the most important part of the story, it’s all Colby from here,” said Rocky, who turns 64 next month. “It’s an honour for me that it’s Toronto which sees something in this young man. Now it’s up to him to show what he can do and have some fun with it. I’m just proud he’s my grandson and I can watch him do what he loves best.”
Rocky’s rather modest, because it’s his influence that allowed Colby to navigate some choppy waters for this chance with the Leafs. Rocky’s daughter raised Colby in Dad’s home right up to this summer. When Rocky finally halted his nomadic career, five years in Toronto, one in Pittsburgh, nine as a player/coach in Great Britain, he settled in suburban Chicago operating a youth hockey program, ‘Rocky Hockey’, for kids 10 and under. It ran 21 years and naturally Colby was an early pupil.
“He’d learned to skate at age three in my Dad’s backyard in Edmonton, just had a ball,” Rocky said. “From then, hockey just consumed him and it was my pleasure to coach him in Chicago five or six years.”
Rocky Hockey has a distinguished alumni, William and Alex Nylander, Brandon Sutter and his siblings, Kendall Coyne of the U.S. women’s team and her brother.
“Those kids that went on to play college, university, the minors or the even the NHL, I can’t really (take credit), but I think I did give them the love to want to play the game”.
When Penguins president David Morehouse, whose son shared the same 2003 player birthdate as Colby, offered Rocky the chance to set up a larger tent for kids under that club’s sponsorship in 2017, the clan moved to Pittsburgh. Colby joined an elite under 16 team as a ticket to the U.S. National Development squad, while Rocky launched the Sidney Crosby Learn To Play Program.
“It keeps me six-yearsold for seven days a week,” he laughed. “You get down on one knee and talk about hockey, cartoons and birthday parties. I try to keep up with kids’ TV shows such as Paw Patrol, but I let them tell me everything about the episodes so they feel really cool.
“I travel to 27 rinks in Pittsburgh and as far out as Johnstown and Erie making sure kids eight and under enjoy their start-ups. It’s great gig.”
This was Colby’s draft year, but things didn’t go well for the 5-foot-8, 155-pounder. A slow-healing thigh injury in January of 2019, coupled with COVID-19 meant little or no scouting, while a move to the Erie Otters was for naught when the past OHL season was scrapped. Rocky said NHL teams still talked to Colby right up to the start of the July draft, though his name wasn’t called.