Eye of the Hurricanes
Carolina Hurricanes fans are already high on Drayson Bowman – and why wouldn’t they be?
After Bowman’s first career hat trick and four-point night in the Spokane Chiefs’ 4-1 drubbing of Prince George on Tuesday, a fan on one of the more popular Carolina message boards said, “I didn’t check, but he probably assisted on the Prince George goal as well.”
That’s just one of many mentions of Bowman on the boards. Even without being able to watch him play, they are following what he is doing on the ice.
Bowman obviously didn’t aid the Cougars in scoring, and message boards – for the most part – don’t offer up credible critiquing, but ‘Canes fans are definitely onto something in keeping tabs on one of their top prospects.
Selected by Carolina in the third round of this year’s NHL entry draft, the Chiefs’ first-line winger is a driving force on top-ranked Spokane’s offense.
The confident, but admittedly shy, Bowman leads the team in scoring and is tied for fifth in the Western Hockey League with 30 points – 15 goals and 15 assists – through 21 games, helping linemates Chris Bruton and Mitch Wahl light the lamp almost as often as he does.
“Confidence is the biggest thing in the game,” said Bowman. “If you’re not confident in what you can do, it’s probably not going to happen the way you want it to.”
One thing that can shake the confidence of a player like Bowman: NHL camp, where he secured his position on the Hurricanes’ radar.
What did he feel like walking in?
“Not very confident,” Bowman confessed, laughing. “I was real nervous. It was weird being on the ice with all those guys. They were really good – so it took a little getting used to – but I think I handled it well.”
The Hurricanes, winners of the first professional major league sports title in the Carolinas with their Stanley Cup championship in 2006, were pleased with Bowman’s performance in late September at his first camp in Raleigh, N.C.
“I thought Drayson Bowman was good,” Carolina head coach Peter Laviolette said in a release in September. “He played in the first exhibition game with us, and he displayed a lot of skill and poise with the puck.”
While Bowman was at camp in the company of players such as former Spokane standout Ray Whitney, the Chiefs were back in Spokane preparing for their season-opening weekend in Prince George.
Bowman was released in the nick of time – though he would have preferred to stay longer – and made the Prince George trip after a 22-hour travel day. He finished the weekend with six points.
The biggest thing he took from camp was committing to hockey as his full-time job.
“You really have to be devoted 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make it up there,” said Bowman. “I try to bring that attitude back here and hopefully give myself the best shot down the road to play for the team.”
Even from a young age, Bowman had ice running through his veins.
Growing up outside the mile-high city in Littleton, Colo. – while kids his age were worshiping the pigskin, wishing they could be like Mike, or imagining the Rockies would one day make it to the World Series – Bowman found his calling on a sheet of frozen water.
“That’s how it was,” recalled Bowman. “Hockey wasn’t very big at all.”
That’s why his family, fresh off building a new house, picked up and moved when Bowman was 12 to Vancouver, B.C., where he and his younger brother Collin (a rookie defenseman with the Kelowna Rockets) would have proper exposure to the game.
“It’s just what I had to do to further my career in hockey,” said Bowman. “My family basically moved so I could play Bantam up there and get drafted here.
“They made a lot of sacrifices for sure.”
He spent his Bantam career in North Vancouver with the North Shore Winter Club before Spokane took him in the first round, eighth overall, in the 2004 Bantam Draft. As a 15-year-old, he spent a season in the KIJHL with Kimberley, before joining Spokane full time the following year.
Bowman was named the Chiefs Rookie of the Year at the season’s end, finishing with 17 goals and 34 points while appearing in all 72 games. He became the first 16-year-old to hit double digits in goals since Brandin Cote in 1997-98 and is the ninth in Spokane history to score more than 10 goals.
Last season, he played in 61 games, missing 11 with a broken wrist, and finished with 24 goals and 43 points. If he can avoid injuries and maintain the pace he’s on right now, Bowman could finish with 100-plus points this season.
Less than satisfied with his position in the draft and his output last year, Bowman – fully committed to becoming a professional hockey player – figures this is his season to prove himself.
“I thought I had the potential to go in the first or second round, so that was a little disappointing,” he admitted. “But you can always move up or down in this sport, so I would have had something to prove either way.”