High Picks Share High Expectations Chiefs’ Terrific Trio Out To Make Big Statement

Brad Ference hasn’t lost the hard edge.

The Western Hockey League West Division rookie of the year last year, Ference proved his toughness over the course of 67 games.

His 324 penalty minutes also stamped him as something of a loose cannon.

But four games into this season, the 18-year-old has lived up to the goals he set this summer after the Vancouver Canucks made him the 10th pick of the NHL entry draft.

The 6-3, 190-pound defenseman from Calgary is off to a quick start with the 3-1 Spokane Chiefs, scoring often and playing with discipline.

The soft-spoken, hard-hitting Ference seems this year to respect the line that separates tough from stupid, and divides the simply tough from the tough leader who plays with intelligence.

“I always want to be a sound defensive guy who’s in the plus column,” said Ference, who returns to work tonight in the Arena when the Chiefs take on the Kelowna Rockets. “This year I want to chip in with a lot more points than last year.”

With six points in four games, including a goal on the Chiefs’ power play, Ference is starting to generate superstar numbers. He’s on an early pace to score more than 100 points.

That’s a difficult pace to maintain for a defenseman, since Greg Leeb led the Chiefs last year with 86 points in 72 games. But the numbers demonstrate how effective Ference has been in the offensive zone.

His evolution as a special teams player is important to a club that’ll compete for the Memorial Cup next May as the host.

Important, too, is making a statement well in advance, Ference said.

“Our playoff run last season was disappointing,” he said. “If you want to win the Memorial Cup you want to win your league first, to show you’re the best going in. That’s our goal this year.”

It’s a notion shared by the Chiefs’ two other high-end draft picks, Ty Jones and Derek Schutz. All have elevated their games.

At 6-3 and 215 pounds, Jones came back from the Chicago Blackhawks camp in the best shape of his life. It shows in the way he goes to the net and plants himself just about anywhere he wants.

Jones has rolled an impressive run of fours so far - four games, four goals, four assists and four points on the power play.

Ference and Jones represent a first. Never have the Chiefs had two first-round picks on the same club. Jones went to the Hawks as the 16th pick of the draft.

The Chiefs might have had another first-rounder if center Derek Schutz, a third-round selection by Calgary, hadn’t been tormented last year by shoulder miseries.

Together they give Chiefs coach Mike Babcock a solid three of a kind.

Jones, for one, found it tough to be cool at the Chicago’s training camp.

“When I got drafted it was one of the greatest moments of my life,” said Jones, a U.S.-bred player from Eagle River, Alaska. “Growing up idolizing (Chris) Chelios and (Bob) Probert and those guys, then suddenly sitting in the same room talking to them, was an unreal experience.

“I didn’t want to ask for autographs, but on the last day I finally asked Proby and Chelios for a couple. I got a stick from them, too.”

A high draft pick can go two ways once back with his junior team. He can button it up, content with who and where he is, or continue to stretch.

So far, the three Chiefs are still reaching. If their lofty status in the draft cursed them with high expectations it also blessed them with added confidence.

“You want to produce,” Jones said. “You don’t want to hear, ‘What the hell did they pick that guy for?’ At pro camp you start to realize that you can play with anybody.”

Although all three expect the Chiefs to use the trade route to shore up weaknesses, the club is “better right now than I expected it would be,” Jones said.

“Our new guys (rookies Brandin Cote and Cole Fischer to name two) are playing well, as are the new boys from Minnesota, Bill Bellmore and Ben Johnson,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll see as many trades as I thought.”

Not if Jones realizes a request from Babcock.

“Babs wants me to score 50 goals,” Jones said. “Who knows if that’s likely? I’d like to think it is. Maybe 100 points is more realistic. I’d like to stay out of the box - I know that. I know I haven’t done that lately. I also want to play bigger and stronger and start dominating the game.”

Schutz’s development comes as no surprise. From the day he showed up here he’s been looked upon as the club’s captain-in-waiting.

The shoulder that was dislocated is “not as strong as it used to be but it’s almost back to normal,” he said. “I’m still working on it and it’ll get better.”

Schutz’s stint in Calgary’s camp was time well-spent.

“They (the Flames) are bigger and stronger and they do work hard,” he said. “The high-end guys like (Theoren) Fleury are really good - unreal players - but when you get to the borderline NHL players they’re not as good as I thought they’d be.”

Maybe it’s not them. Maybe Schutz - 5 pounds heavier and obviously stronger than last season - is better than he guessed.

Either way, “It makes me feel better about going back to camp next year,” Schutz said. “It showed me I’m not that far away.”

It’s easy to get swept up in the heated talk of the Memorial Cup, just as it’s essential to pay attention to the months of preparation for it.

“As the host team we do have the advantage of a safety net at the end of the year,” Schutz said. “We can come through in the end if we have to.

“But we’re not playing for the end of the year. We’re playing for the whole year.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 Color photos