Family savours ice dreams

Sam Gagner's voyage from backyard rink rat to junior star
by Dave Feschuk

It had steel nets and painted lines and floodlights. It had ads on the boards. And perhaps best of all, at a time when
outdoor rinks seem like exotic anachronisms, its ice was refrigerated, which meant that even this December's balmiest
days wouldn't have turned it to slush.

Such are the benefits of being the son of Dave Gagner, the one-time Maple Leaf who has made a post-NHL business
career of building such luxurious shrines to shinny. But in the same way that every rich kid with a backyard pool doesn't grow gills and go Olympian, in the same way that every suburban urchin with a driveway hoop doesn't threaten the
existence of Steve Nash, even the most luxurious of backyard rinks doesn't beget a rink rat.

For most of his 17 years, hockey has gnawed at Sam Gagner. And though he played in his backyard for hours – 25 or 30
a week by his dad's recollection – the bug has not stopped biting.

"The only time he'd get off the ice," says Dave Gagner, "was to go and play (organized) hockey."

Youthful persistence, indeed, is among the reasons Sam was headed for the hills north of Stockholm this week, the youngest member of the squad endeavouring to defend Canada's back-to-back titles at the world junior hockey championship in Mora and Leksand, Sweden. For Gagner, the playmaking centreman who is taking time off from the
Ontario Hockey League's London Knights to represent his country, this holiday season has marked a welcome and somewhat unexpected turn in a nascent career.

It was only this past summer that he was cut from Canada's under-18 team, a roster that included his old friend from Oakville, John Tavares. And though Tavares, the 16-year-old from the Oshawa Generals who co-leads the OHL in goals,
and Angelo Esposito, the 17-year-old whiz for the Quebec Remparts, were possessed of more pre-training-camp publicity,
it was Gagner who emerged with a spot on the under-20 roster.

Though Craig Hartsburg, Canada's coach, knew Gagner's statistics – his 63 points in 29 games are second in the OHL to linemate Patrick Kane – it was the youngster's tenacity that perhaps impressed the most.

"In one scrimmage he had a couple of physical run-ins with Luc Bourdon (the rugged defenceman), and he never backed
off a bit," said Hartsburg, recalling Gagner's two-goal, one-assist performance during a crucial intra-squad matchup near
the end of the Calgary selection camp earlier this month. "That proved to me that night that he was willing to pay a big
price to be on this team. ... To me that's a good sign when a player gets stronger as competition goes on."

Gagner has been seasoned by some less triumphant moments, and not only this past summer's. Last season he played
for the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League, forgoing a scholarship offer at the University of Wisconsin and, at some moments, regretting it. He was, his dad says, "extremely homesick," but he resisted the urge
to escape from Iowa.

"He went down as a child and came back as a young man," says the father. "He just grew up a lot in one year. In some ways it's kind of sad because he's always been our little kid. But he's matured quite a bit."

He has matured, at times, alongside Tavares. Their families lived a few minutes from each other in Oakville. And perhaps because no one they knew was interested in playing nearly as often as they were, Gagner and Tavares were frequently
left to play one-on-one. The stakes were bragging rights and the rules were modified. There was no equipment except
skates and sticks and gloves (and, if a parent happened to be watching, helmets). Since the nets were empty, the puck
had to be banked off a post and go in to be counted as a goal.

"A lot of times games that were supposed to be up to five ended up going to 20. Whoever lost wanted to keep the game going," said Sam. "I think that's helped toward our success. We both developed a lot being able to play in tight spaces (although, as backyard rinks go, the Gagner sheet, at 90 feet by 50 feet, wasn't exactly a postage stamp). And we really fuelled each other's passion for the game."

Remembers Dave: "Sam would get mad at John because John would shoot pucks right by his legs and he didn't have any shin pads on. John's so competitive. Sam would always just stand in the way thinking, `He's not going to shoot.' But John would shoot anyway.

"The rink gave them a lot of time to be a little more creative than a lot of kids are allowed to be. Sam knew he was lucky
to have what he had back there. But he utilized it quite a bit. ... He'd rather do that than go and sit and watch TV."

The younger Gagner, though his trip to Europe presumably gives him the present-day bragging rights on Tavares, seems
to understand that the road to the NHL, if that's going to be his destination (he's eligible for the draft in June), is a long
haul.

"One of the good things about having my dad in the NHL, I got to meet guys like Mike Modano and Jarome Iginla and see how down to earth they are," said Sam. "It keeps you humble to know that, with as much success as they have, they can still be nice people."

If he sounds a little more clued in than, say, you when you were 17, understand that Sam has listened well to the story
of his father, perhaps in part because his father – a partner in Custom Ice Rinks Inc., a company that will build you your
own mini-Maple Leaf Gardens starting at $25,000 – is also one of his coaches, an assistant to Knights bench boss Dale Hunter. And understand that Dave Gagner's is a compelling tale of professional survival. Though he was drafted 12th
overall in the 1983 NHL draft, he was sent down to the minor leagues exactly 10 times before he made inroads as a big-league regular. What followed were 11 NHL seasons, two of which saw him score 40 goals.

"He's been able to teach me so much about the game," said Sam.

"There's a long way for Sam to go. The work's just beginning," said Dave. "He's getting a lot of praise lately. But he
knows things can turn. There's not too much middle ground in hockey. You either played well or you didn't. That's
something you have to live with."

There is something Sam is living without these days: His family, mother Jo-Anne and younger sisters Jessica and Renee, recently moved to London and sold their Oakville home. The rink, of course, sold with it.

"The new owners have four kids," said Dave. "Maybe there'll be a few more hockey players coming out of there."

Said Sam, a tinge of sadness in his voice at a happy time: "A lot of memories remain back there."