Many Happy Returns Whitfield’s Been Unstoppable Since Leading Team Canada

The Spokane Chiefs need Trent Whitfield, pure and simple.

When he’s right, they’re right.

So the decision to hold him out for a couple of games in December while a bothersome ankle healed prior to the World Junior Tournament was a point of some debate.

Struggling with injuries and distractions, the Chiefs in December were resigned to losing Whitfield, captain Hugh Hamilton and coach Mike Babcock for a month to the Canadian national junior program.

But why forfeit Whitfield’s services any longer than necessary? Questions were raised. What’s the issue here - a player’s individual development, the welfare of the national team or the fate of the junior team when a player of Whitfield’s stature is away?

The answer is all of the above.

Whitfield demonstrated that there are those rare occasions when you can have it all.

In his first nine games back from the World Junior Tournament, the 19-year-old center from Alameda, Saskatchewan, was dominant.

Nine games, nine goals, nine assists.

The WHL Whitfield returned to seemed just a little slower than the league he’d left. His anticipation was clearly better. So was his execution.

“You come back with that little extra edge,” Whitfield said as the Chiefs spent this week coming down from a rugged stretch of four games in five nights. “You see the ice a little bit better, you play with more confidence, you’re better able to take advantage of mistakes.”

And whatever frustrations may have accumulated in November and December with the defending West Division-champion Chiefs were released in a dazzling performance at the WJT that contributed to Team Canada’s bagging the gold.

Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz has consistently defended the wisdom of courting international experience for his players. Whitfield is the latest to prove him right.

“You lose a good player in December but get back a better player in January,” Speltz reasons.

Whitfield couldn’t agree more, having lived the dream of winning an international event and basking in the aftermath.

On a nasty early January night in Alameda, some 300 people showed up to honor him at a banquet at the Alameda Community Rink, where Whitfield played minor hockey through his 11th year, before moving on in nearby Estevan.

They raised a banner: Home of Trent Whitfield, World Junior Hockey champion. Kids crowded in for autographs and a close-up of his gold medal.

Whitfield was a folk hero for a week.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “There had to be 100 kids there that night. It was amazing to see that many people (practically the whole town) come out.

“I hope some of the kids realize that with hard work and dedication they can do anything they want. That’s what I told them in the speech I had to make. If they want it bad enough, go get it. I hope one day some of them can have the experience I had.”

The new year has been a roller-coaster ride for the Chiefs. Whitfield on Jan. 22 starred for the winning West squad in the WHL All-Star Game at the sold-out Spokane Arena, only three nights after the team bus slid off the road and crashed on the way home from Calgary.

“You’re in shock when something like that happens,” Whitfield said. “Before I knew what was happening it was over and I was sitting on the roof of the bus. I didn’t have time to think or react. I just went wherever it threw me, flying around, hoping to stay in the bus.

“I ended up without a scrape.”

The Chiefs hoped by the following Friday, on Jan. 24, that they’d put all that behind them when they jumped back on the bus for a game at Tri-City. The sting of a 10-4 loss that night proved otherwise.

It was wiped out by a 9-3 win over Tri-City just 24 hours later at home - a 12-goal swing typical of the inconsistency that has dogged the Chiefs this season.

Whitfield says there’s still time to build momentum, starting on the road Saturday night back at Tri-City.

He’s been around long enough to know that the trust and unity that filled the locker room last season came out of winning. Winning bridges a multitude of personality differences.

“Bottom line is we have to work for it,” Whitfield said. “We have to pull together and want to do it for each other instead of for ourselves.”

He saw it come together early last year when the Chiefs won 50 and took the WHL West Division by storm. He felt it in Geneva at the WJT.

If anything close to that chemistry is to develop in Spokane, Whitfield as a veteran and alternate captain knows he has a delicate role to play in the room and on the ice to help make it happen.

He prefers to lead by example but knowing that others need the prodding of vocal leadership, he’s had to open up.

Aware now of the demands of leadership, Whitfield says that the player he misses as much as anyone is Sean Gillam, last year’s captain.

“There’s not just one guy but Gillam - that strong presence on the blue line - is the kind of guy who’s tough to replace,” Whitfield said. “He was a leader who worked hard and was steady back there every single night.

“We have a lot of young talent this year. Brad Ference (at 17) is going to be an all-star defenseman, no question.”

Still, consistency and momentum aren’t built on 17-year-olds.

By the time a player finds out what it takes to reach his potential, he’s usually on his way to bigger things. Talk is building that the Boston Bruins will find a place for Whitfield next season.

“I still have to go in (to training camp next summer) and prove myself up there,” said the 5-foot-10, 175-pounder, a fourth-round draft pick who has yet to sign with the Bruins. “From here on in a lot of it is what Boston thinks is best for me. Boston is the place I want to play and hopefully they’ll give me a chance.”

But one lesson he learned long before the World Juniors is how much he’s developed in Spokane, and what he could do as a 20-year-old on a Memorial Cup team. Spokane will play in major junior hockey’s championship event as the host team in May of 1998.

“If Boston wants to keep me up there, that’s where I’ll stay,” he said. “But if they want to send me down to the East Coast League or something, I’m coming back to Spokane.

“This organization has been great to me.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TRENT WHITFIELD AS A SPOKANE CHIEF Year Games Goals Assists Points PM 1993-94 5 1 1 2 0 1994-95 48 8 17 25 26 1995-96 72 33 51 84 75 1996-97 40 26 34 60 51 Totals 165 68 103 171 152 Playoff statistics 1993-97 29 15 16 31 15