John Blanchette: Spokane turned the corner with Cowen
In the yawning wait for the beginning of the Memorial Cup tournament, a Spokane Chiefs parlor game might pass the time. Maybe something along the lines of roster Jenga – trying to guess whether the removal of one piece or another might have toppled the whole stack somewhere along the way.
If the midseason trades hadn’t been made…
If the captain hadn’t captained so marvelously…
If the goaltender sweepstakes had come out differently…
If the low drafts and listed add-ons had played like it…
Of course, parsing value is a spoilsport’s exercise, and a fruitless one. The Chiefs are where they are – beautiful downtown Kitchener, awaiting their Saturday opener – because of who they are, a team in the truest sense. There is no real last piece of the puzzle.
But if there was, it would be Jared Cowen.
There are any number of reasons to suggest as much, not the least of which being the effort the Chiefs organization invested landing the rangy defenseman two years ago. And with any revival of a team or franchise in the throes of underachievement, there must inevitably be a sign of change, a new face that turns hope into actual momentum.
This was and is Cowen, even as he dismisses the notion now.
“I was a first draft pick,” he acknowledged. “Now I’m just a player.”
Well, no, not just. He’s a prodigy – not necessarily the best Chief on the ice and not even close to being as good as he’s going to be, but remarkable and special. By junior hockey’s calendar, Cowen is just 16 years old – he actually turned 17 in January – and the youngest player among the 20 Chiefs who dress nightly. But eyes instinctively follow him during his shifts, not just because he’s 6-foot-5 and not always in anticipation of something spectacular happening, but generally something good – and with a big-picture perspective of what’s in store for him beyond Spokane.
“His development has been exceptional,” said Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz, “but not unexpected.”
If you follow Spokane hockey at all, you’ll remember the drama that attended Cowen’s becoming a Chief. He was, by acclaim, the head-and-shoulders No. 1 pick of the spring 2006 Western Hockey League bantam draft from the Saskatchewan prairie town of Allan, outside of Saskatoon. Spokane owned the No. 1 pick. And the Cowen family’s No. 1 priority was seeing him play in a WHL town closer to home, and went public with that preference.
Speltz courageously took him anyway, believing that the very foundation of the draft obligated him to do so – to say nothing of the Chiefs’ woebegone state at the time. He was also convinced the Cowens could be won over once they got a sense of the organization’s level of caring and credibility.
And now?
“I can’t imagine playing anywhere else,” Cowen said.
Being a big shot at 15 is no reserved seat on a rocket to stardom. The WHL draft began in 1990, and exactly one of the first five overall No. 1 picks would go on to play in the National Hockey League. The batting average has been better of late – five of the No. 1s between 1996 and 2002 becoming WHL all-stars.
The upshot – that there’s work to be done – is not lost on Cowen.
“He’s here to get better,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters. “Early in the season when we still had 40 guys around, he’s in the weight room and one guy was sitting on a piece of equipment he wanted to use. Jared asks him, ‘Are you done there?’ The guy says, ‘Yeah, I’m just resting.’ And Jared says, ‘Could you move so I could get my set in?’ His approach is mature and steady.”
Even so, it’s a little startling to ask Cowen what he appreciates most about the organization and hear a teenager explain that, “It’s all business.
“There are nice people here and I like that, but when it comes to the game it’s all about getting the job done the best you can and that’s a good mindset to have. I’m very happy with that.”
Cowen came to the Chiefs thinking the defensive side of his game needed the most work and learned that others felt the opposite. Still, he feels his biggest strides have come in defensive situations and decision making – “making the for-sure play instead of the hope play.” And he’s been an obvious component in Spokane’s defensive excellence.
For Speltz, the bonus has been that “his compete level is better than we expected.
“That’s something you never know, because at lower levels the game came so much easier for him. Now he’s playing guys three and four years older. But what we’ve seen that you’re not going to beat him once, you’re going to have to beat him again and again – and you just won’t. That’s going to set him apart.”
Fact is, it already has.