Stalemate hampers Severson
In the town where he matured as an amateur hockey player and met his future wife, Cam Severson hangs out on the fringe of a group of hockey players who are all at least five years his junior. He’s present, but his thoughts are elsewhere.
As the Spokane Chiefs coaching staff stresses the finer points of major-junior hockey during a recent practice at Eagles Ice-A-Rena, Severson listens with one ear. But he dreams of getting a phone call — the call that says there will be a National Hockey League season.
In that regard, Severson is no different from all NHL fans. He wants the league’s owners and players to figure out a solution in their ongoing labor dispute; one that could ensure a timely start to the upcoming season. Veteran training camps are scheduled to start in mid-October, but both sides in the conflict are pessimistic.
Caught smack in the middle of the labor issue are players like Severson, the former Spokane Chief and Anaheim Mighty Duck who signed this summer with the Nashville Predators.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty frustrating,” said Severson after a recent Chiefs practice. “I’m at a point in my career; it took me five seasons to finally crack the NHL. Last year, I could honestly say that I stuck up there and lasted. I’m at a point now where I think I’ve got a real good shot of making the club. I’m real positive about that.”
It is that hope that keeps Severson skating daily with the current Chiefs, to keep in game condition for a time when (and if) there is an NHL training camp. He’s heard many scenarios about saving the NHL season; most involve a last-minute deal.
Tortuously, he’s been told by Nashville that he is in their plans — this year — as they rebuild into a grind-it-out team in the vein of the Calgary Flames. Severson, a tough, hard-working forward, would seem to be a perfect fit for that kind of team.
“So, with the current situation it’s bad timing, but … what do you do?” said Severson. “You’ve got to stay positive and make the best of everything. It’s something that I can’t control at all. I’m a big believer in worrying about the things that I can control — and one of the things that I can control is keeping myself ready: staying in shape and being mentally and physically ready for whatever could happen, because I just honestly don’t know.”
Severson, 26, broke into the Western Hockey League at age 15, with Kamloops, and played for Swift Current, Lethbridge and Prince Albert before being acquired by Spokane in 1998. He last played for the Chiefs in 1999 but has made the town his home since. It is here that he met Kim Ferraro, a former Ice-A-Rena skating coach, whom he married this summer.
They have been together for all the alphabet-soup stops along the way in Severson’s pro career. It has taken him to the Central Hockey League (CHL), the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), the United Hockey League (UHL), and finally the American Hockey League (AHL).
It was in the AHL that he was reunited with his former Chiefs coach, Mike Babcock. Babcock was hired as the coach of the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, a move that was seen at the time as a prelude to him becoming coach of the parent club in Anaheim, which occurred in 2002. One of the rookies Babcock invited to camp was Severson.
Severson, now 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, stuck with the team and played in two games for Anaheim in 2002-03 and led Cincinnati in penalty minutes. He was along for the Ducks’ surprising run to the Stanley Cup Finals. Last year, he again split time between Anaheim and Cincinnati and scored his first NHL goal while playing in 31 games. Leaving Anaheim as a free agent wasn’t easy on a personal level, but made sense in other ways.
“It was a tough decision, but I talked to Mike (Babcock) before I signed my new contract with Nashville, kind of as a friend,” said Severson. “We’ve been together for a long time and just to keep the relationship open, kind of tell him you’ve got to take care of number one, first of all, and he’s understanding.
“He’s a real professional guy and it’s nothing that should be taken personal by anybody. And that’s just something that everyone in hockey knows about. It’s a business…”
Ironically, it is the economic aspect of the game that has created Severson’s current hockey limbo. But Severson will survive. He has a good business head on his shoulders, as evidenced by the fact that he successfully launched Sever’s Summer Hockey School at Planet Ice in the Spokane Valley this summer and shamelessly plugs his personal Website, camseverson.com.
He also made sure he got a clause inserted into his Nashville contract that allows him to play in the AHL if there is no NHL season. Of course, as a NHL hockey player and a fan, he is still hoping otherwise.
“There’s a lot of common sense that has to come into it all,” said Severson. “It’s the best game on earth and I think that’s got to weigh on each side’s mind in making this decision. There’s a lot of people to be affected by it. The fans, I think, are number one.
“I have a lot of friends around this town and that’s the number one thing I hear is, ‘What am I going to do next winter if there’s no hockey?’ It’s a huge issue. We should be able to figure something out to give the fans the game that they want. But there’s a lot more complicated issues than that. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to be pretty patient and see what’s going to happen.”