Cleve Dheensaw / Times Colonist
PHOTO CREDIT: Kyle Robinson Photography
OCTOBER 6, 2016 10:34 PM
Like all junior hockey players, Jake Stevens is juggling personal ambitions with team goals. In an ideal season, they come together seamlessly for both great individual and team results.
So far, so good for Stevens and the Victoria Grizzlies.
The talented sophomore blue-liner not only gets his first of five allowed U.S. NCAA collegiate recruiting visits early next week, but his only once-beaten-in-regulation-time Grizzlies are atop the Island Division of the B.C. Hockey League at 5-1-2-2 for 14 points after missing the playoffs last season.
The Island second-place Cowichan Valley Capitals (6-2-1-0 for 13 points) hold a game in hand, however, and will continue to after the clubs meet tonight at The Q Centre.
“This season is the polar opposite experience than we had as a team last year,” said Stevens.
“We are better now because we have more experience. And experience is a bigger factor in junior than I realized. We have that this season, with a year under our belts, after being fairly inexperienced last season.”
This Grizzlies team is built from the back out.
“It helps that I believe we have the best goaltending and the best defensive corps in the league,” said the six-foot-two, 205-pound Stevens. “If we score, we can play with anybody.”
Stevens, a mobile blue-liner, can help even there on offence. The native of Naperville, Illinois, has two goals and seven assists and his nine points are tied for the team lead among defencemen, with captain Cody Van Lierop, and also tied for fourth overall on the team. And with fellow defenceman Brett Stirling still out with injury, Stevens and captain Van Lierop have had to play increased minutes. And Stevens has taken full advantage as he heads into tonight’s game on a four-game point streak.
“I’m a two-way defenceman who can jump up into the play offensively, but still play tough defence, and the points are coming for me this season,” said Stevens, who will turn 20 in December.
Despite his size, he has wheels.
“I’m a good skater and hope I’m exciting to watch.”
That he appears to be. Stevens says his teammates good-naturedly rib him as aspiring to be the Grizzlies’ Bobby Orr. He even wears No. 4.
Hey, just take it. That’s one heck of a compliment.
“I started out as a goalie as a kid, but that made my mom too nervous, so I’ve always played defence since,” said Stevens, who grew up cheering for the Blackhawks in metro Chicago.
Stevens doesn’t want to get ahead of himself and so won’t divulge which NCAA teams he has talked to, or which campus he is flying down to visit next week. He will study exercise science, kinesiology or nutrition . . . “anything to do with the body.” But the ultimate goal remains firm: “I want to get a degree and pursue a pro hockey career, if I can. I have NHL aspirations.”
His dad, Mark Stevens, became a part-owner of the Grizzlies last season. Any uncomfortableness about that has been negated by the fact the younger Stevens is here on his ability alone.
“My dad did what was necessary [in helping out the club financially]. I told my teammates right away last year and dealt with it. My dad is a businessman and stays out of the hockey side,” said Jake Stevens.
“I think I’ve proven myself.”
So do NCAA hockey recruiters.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old midget forward Tanner Hopps of Delta Hockey Academy Prep has been called up by the Grizzlies for this weekend. The five-foot-10, 160-pounder has a goal and four points in three games this season and scored 22 goals with 62 points in 35 bantam games last season.
In other news, 19-year-old forward Haydn Hopkins of Victoria was traded by the Grizzlies to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the BCHL for future considerations. Hopkins played last season in major-junior for the Erie Otters of the OHL and was obtained by the Grizzlies after he asked for his release from the Otters after just two games this season.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
