Happy landing: New Chief gets playoff chance
The past week has been a bittersweet one for Justin McCrae. He left his home for the past four years, and all of his close friends that he played with for the Saskatoon Blades – a team all but out of playoff contention – to come to Spokane and finish his Western Hockey League career with the Chiefs, a team that looks poised for a deep playoff run.
The 19-year-old forward didn’t have a choice. That’s the nature of the beast in the WHL. As the trade deadline approaches, teams that are in Saskatoon’s position are often looking to sell veteran talent, write off the current season and prepare for the future.
In the case of McCrae, a Carolina Hurricanes prospect who was the Blades’ team captain this season, there is a happy ending.
He joins a suddenly revived Spokane club that is 30-8-1-2, tied with the defending Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants at 63 points atop the Western Conference standings – a team with a league-high .786 winning percentage.
“I knew the team (Saskatoon) wasn’t doing well so I had a feeling something might happen with the older guys but didn’t know it was going to be me,” said McCrae before his first official practice with the Chiefs on Thursday. “At first I was a little surprised and sad to leave all my teammates behind, but I was pretty happy to come to a winning team that is playoff bound.”
McCrae, the 14th overall pick in the 2003 bantam draft, played 241 regular-season games as a Blade in which he registered 133 points, 52 of them goals. The Cochrane, Alberta, native is one of five former first-round bantam picks on the Chiefs’ roster, which includes defenseman Trevor Glass, acquired from Medicine Hat just before the trading deadline, rookie defenseman Jared Cowen, and forwards Mitch Wahl and Drayson Bowman.
McCrae joined the Chiefs on Wednesday after two long days of travel. He received the news of his new assignment on Monday night when Blades coach and general manager Lorne Molleken asked him to come to the rink.
He drove to Calgary on Tuesday, spent the night, and flew out at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday. He arrived in Spokane in time for the Chiefs’ game at the Arena against the Kamloops Blazers and was thrown right into the mix.
McCrae scored two goals in his debut, and while Chiefs’ captain Chris Bruton served the first game of his three-game suspension that night, McCrae played on Spokane’s top line alongside Wahl and fellow Carolina prospect Bowman.
“I grew to know (Drayson) a little bit in the time we were down (in Carolina),” said McCrae, who was picked up by the Hurricanes in the fourth round of last year’s NHL draft.
“It was good coming here and knowing him,” he added of Bowman.
Bowman wasn’t the only person with whom McCrae was familiar. He also played for Chiefs coach Bill Peters and Team Pacific at the 2005 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, the same tournament Cowen just returned from after helping Team West to a bronze medal.
Peters, McCrae and Team Pacific won a silver medal together.
“I really liked him as a coach during that tournament,” said McCrae. “Definitely knowing the coach kind of helped me know what it was going to be like out here and how the team would play. I knew it was going to be a hard-working bunch, so I was excited.”
For McCrae, the silver lining is being a part of the most exciting hockey season in Spokane in years.
“I’m definitely happy to be here,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for me and I’m ready to learn the new systems and try and make a difference for a team that’s done really well so far.”