Local prospects savor experience of a lifetime
David Gust worked his way up a bucket list that would be the envy of any Chicago-area amateur hockey player.
The Orland Park native rooted for the Chicago Blackhawks during their Stanley Cup wins while playing youth and college hockey, landed on the Chicago Wolves and helped them win a Calder Cup and now finds himself among his former idols as an invitee to Hawks camp.
Said Gust: “I got a few of Kane’s (items) from when I was a kid,” some of it signed. “He was my favorite player growing up.”
But the forward has chosen to keep his professional distance and not share his past fandom with him.
“No, no, not that he was my favorite. I can’t give him that,” Gust, 28, said with a laugh.
Seamus Malone, a Naperville native and forward with ECHL affiliate Indy Fuel, can relate.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Malone, 26, said. “I mean, watching the Stanley Cup runs back when I was back in high school and middle school. But being here now I’ve just got to believe I belong. And it’s been a great experience so far.”
As two locals at Hawks camp, Malone and Gust tried to make an impression on coaches and management while savoring experiences that friends and relatives only could dream about.
“They’re pumped a lot,” Malone said of his family. “We grew up watching the Hawks, and it’s just a cool experience and they’re happy for me. I just need to prove myself.”
Added Gust: “I went to all the playoff games during those dynasty years and it was cool. … Just walking into camp Day 1, it was a butterflies-in-your-stomach type of feel.”
Gust made his father, also named Dave, a hockey convert.
“He had a football background, so he didn’t really know too much about hockey,” the younger Gust said. “And then when I was about 4 or 5, (he) kind of fell in love with the game. … So hockey wasn’t in our family, but then we made it a part of it.”
Dad bought a hockey rink — what is now Orland Park’s Arctic Ice Arena — and Gust and his sister, former Ohio State defenseman Kara Gust, grew up playing there.
Malone said of Gust: “We played against each other growing up and we always skated around the same rinks.”
Gust said they reconnected this summer once they learned they were invited to their first NHL training camp, each catching the Hawks organization’s eye in his own way.
Malone, a first-time alternate for the Fuel, finished third on the team in scoring with 21 goals and 27 assists.
“I work hard. I’m a playmaker,” he said. “But I like to have a good stick defensively and try to disrupt plays that way and just try to show my skills offensively.”
Gust, a former Buckeye like his sister, helped the Wolves win their fifth Calder Cup in June, scoring a goal in Game 5. He had 16 goals and 20 assists during the regular season and AHL career highs of five goals and seven assists in the playoffs.
“(The Wolves are) in the same conference as Rockford, who we played ... like (15) times throughout the year, so they got to see a number of games of me out there playing and then just the talks (with the IceHogs) all fell together,” Gust said.
Gust played in the second preseason game against the Red Wings in Detroit, getting 14 minutes of ice time on a line with Reese Johnson and Samuel Savoie and taking three shots.
Hawks coach Luke Richardson noted each local’s progress. Gust reminds him of preseason standout Cole Guttman.
“He’s quick, he’s a right-handed skill set,” Richardson said of Gust. “Malone’s been great, he looks like a worker. He’s very intelligent when you talk to him and explain things to him and tries to implement himself with that information into the drills right away.
“(Defenseman Alex) Vlasic is local as well,” Richardson said of the Wilmette product. “It’s great to have a local theme with the team and the organization because hockey’s growing here.”
For Malone, his run at camp came to an end Friday. He was one of eight players released from their professional tryout.
Gust holds a roster spot for at least another day.
But they’ll be reunited once more in Rockford this fall: They each signed one-year contracts with the IceHogs before camp.
“Eyes on you is never a bad thing,” Gust said. “So just do your best and then see where the chips fall.”
Meanwhile, Malone has history with IceHogs coach Anders Sorensen.
“Yeah, he was actually my youth coach for the Chicago Mission for a year back when I was 12 or 13,” Malone said, “so it’s pretty crazy that he might be my head coach again.”
Malone said he and Sorensen recently laughed about their upcoming reunion but he doesn’t think their shared past gives him an advantage.
If anything, “I think it’s going to be harder,” Malone said.