Overlooked Parayko making mark with Blues
Colton Parayko was a small player at the age of 14. Nobody gave him the time of day in the Western Hockey League Bantam draft or for two years after that. Even when he grew about eight inches, the defenceman still played Midget AA for the St. Albert Crusaders.
Not AAA, but a rung below — usually a harbinger that your National Hockey League hopes are a goner.
Now, Parayko’s coming off his first two NHL goals, scored in his third NHL game for the St. Louis Blues.
“It’s a dream-never-dies story for me,” said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, who, of course, fashioned a dream of his own, working at United Cycle by day and coaching minor hockey at night in his early 20s.
Parayko, now six foot five and a chiselled 214 pounds, is exhibit No.1 for a player proving everybody wrong.
The 22-year-old’s initial burst of stardom may wear off. He is a young defenceman and they usually take some time to really learn the NHL game. But Parayko is fashioning a warm and fuzzy story.
He spent two years in the Alberta Junior Hockey League in Fort McMurray, learning from Oil Barons coach Gord Thibodeau. He logged three years at University of AlaskaFairbanks as a business major.
He went undrafted by the NHL when first eligible at 18. He failed to make the Central Scouting Bureau’s list of their top 200-plus players at 19, but went to the Blues as a third-round draft pick anyway when St. Louis took giant leap of faith in the youngster who has a cannon from the point.
Though Parayko may not yet be in the same league as Blues’ vicepresident of hockey operations Al MacInnis, who could shoot like nobody else. “Al was actually the guy who phoned to tell me St. Louis had drafted me,” said Parayko.
“I had one of the longest pauses (on the other end of the line) I’ve ever had,” said Parayko.
A call from a Hall of Famer; hardly what anybody figured would happen when Parayko played in St. Albert.
“I just thought I’d have to take a tougher route (to the pros). Some of my friends were already in the WHL and I was happy for them,”’ said Parayko, who was put on the Edmonton Oil Kings’ negotiation list after one year in Fort McMurray, but he never entertained thoughts of the league himself. He had his eye on college. Former Blues’ amateur scout Marshall Davidson, whose brother John is Columbus Blue Jackets team president, was the major push for Parayko as he quietly watched him in Fort McMurray.
“I could have sworn he was somewhere on our draft list. I’ve looked back and can’t find him, though. I guess I’ll take the bullet for that,” Rick Jackson of Barrhead, one of the Bureau’s Western-based scouts, said.
“I watched him a ton in junior and Gordie (Thibodeau) was always promoting him. He always could shoot. Goalies had a tough time between centre and the blueline when he was shooting the puck in Fort McMurray. And he really developed at Alaska Fairbanks.”
Hitchcock knows it’s a major learning curve for young defencemen. “The thing we like most about Colton is he’s getting better,” Hitchcock said. “He’s figuring things out and not letting it get to his head. He moves on quickly from the good and bad stuff.”