Brick-hauling Craft built for weekend’s BCHL Showcase
Season gets underway with all teams convening in Chilliwack
If Langley Rivermen forward Nathan Craft tells you that he tried to build up his game this summer brick by brick, he’s not being metaphoric.
Craft, 19, went home to Kitimat in the off-season. He took a job as a labourer for a brick-laying company, meaning that he hauled around those blocks of clay, day by day. He was a construction Sherpa. “It made hockey seem a lot less difficult,” Craft said. “I wouldn’t want to do that job for too long. It was good money, but it was hard work and it was six days a week, 10 hours a day.”
Fittingly, Craft is a working man’s player. He’s at his best along the boards and in the corners. He’d like a college scholarship, but he’s not the type who’s going to put up the ridiculous offensive numbers that will attract NCAA coaches all on their own.
He’s one of the guys that this weekend’s BCHL Showcase at Prospera Centre in Chilliwack is built for. This is the second year that the Junior A league has started off its season with all its teams on two sheets of ice in one building over three days, all in a bid to make it easier for scouts to watch.
According to the league, 200 talent evaluators from the college and pro ranks came out last year.
“Everyone is there watching,” said Craft. “You have to come prepared. You have to be ready.”
The 6-foot, 195-pound Craft did put up decent numbers in Major Midget, producing 27 goals and 21 assists, to go along with 103 penalty minutes, in 35 games with Prince George’s Cariboo Cougars in 201112. He expects to greatly improve his statistics from his rookie BCHL campaign last year, when he counted eight goals and 13 assists, to go along with 70 penalty minutes, in 54 games split between the Rivermen and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. He was traded in late November for future considerations.
“I still want to play my physical game, though,” Craft interjected. “I want to keep that mentality.
“And I want to make sure that I lead by example. We’ve got quite a few rookies on the team this year.”
Langley coach Bobby Henderson says that Craft is “extremely well respected” in the Rivermen dressing room, in large part because of that work ethic.
“Crafty is a bit of a throwback,” Henderson said. “He plays the game with an extremely high compete level.
“He isn’t the biggest guy on the ice, but he keeps other teams honest. And although he’s very much an energy type of player, he does have a nice skill package. I do think he’ll chip in even more offensively.”