The Island’s contribution to the 2014-15 NHL season includes two captains — Olympic gold-medallist Jamie Benn of Central Saanich with the Dallas Stars and two-time Stanley Cup champion Willie Mitchell of Port McNeill with the Florida Panthers.
But perhaps the most intriguing Island NHL players are a trio of blue-liners with a lower profile — Matt Irwin, Tyson Barrie and Jamie’s brother, Jordie Benn — who continue to emerge and put their stamps on their big-league careers.
“Going into my third season, I expect to be here now,” said Brentwood Bay’s Irwin, who will be with Jason Demers as the San Jose Sharks’ third defensive pairing.
It isn’t a novelty anymore.
Nor for Jordie Benn, entering his third season for Dallas on the blue-line. Jordie Benn and Irwin came out of the Peninsula Minor Hockey Association and the BCHL — Benn with the Victoria Grizzlies and Irwin with the Nanaimo Clippers — undrafted and unheralded, and worked their way up, respectively, through the minor pros with the Victoria Salmon Kings and Worcester Sharks.
“I have to keep it simple and be consistent,” said Irwin, of the keys to staying in the big league.
Incentive won’t be hard to find tonight in the opener. Not after the Sharks blew a 3-0 series lead in the first round and were eliminated in seven games by the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Los Angeles Kings.
“We have a chip on our shoulders,” said Irwin, by phone from California.
“And there’s no better way to start the season [than against the Kings tonight on banner-raising night at Staples Center] because we feel we have unfinished business.”
The Benn brothers open at home Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks with Mitchell and the Panthers at Tampa Bay.
Meanwhile, Victoria’s Barrie and his Colorado Avalanche will be in Minnesota to face the Wild on Thursday. The Juan de Fuca product goes in with a new two-year contract extension following a breakout 2013-14 season in which his 13 goals were the most for an Avalanche defenceman since John-Michael Liles’ 14 in 2006-07. Five of Barrie’s goals were game-winners, which was third best among NHL defencemen last season and the most for a Colorado blue-liner since Derek Morris’s seven game winners in 2002-03.
Adding to his uncanny sense of timing, three of Barrie’s goals were scored in overtime, the most for an NHL defenceman since Dustin Byfuglien’s three in 2010-11.
He’s not a secret anymore, which comes with greater fan and media expectation this season.
“There is no external pressure, only the pressure I put on myself,” said Barrie, by phone from Denver.
“I can’t wait to get started Thursday,” added the puck-moving Islander, whose 25 assists and 38 points were second-best among Avs defencemen last season.
“I want to pick up where I left off and continue to develop.”
Actually, where Barrie left off was on the hobble after being knocked out of the playoffs last spring by a highly questionable knee-on-knee hit by Minnesota’s Matt Cooke, which netted Cooke a seven-game suspension and Barrie a torn medial collateral ligament.
“I’m fully healthy with no ill effects,” said Barrie.
Barrie will be paired this season on the Avs blue-line with Nick Holden, the lone WHL Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals franchise alumnus in the NHL.
“[Holden] is a smart player with a nose for the net,” said Barrie.
While the Bruins/Royals only have one franchise alumnus currently in The Show, the BCHL Nanaimo Clippers haven’t done too badly with the likes of Irwin, Jason Garrison of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tanner Glass of the New York Rangers and Colin Greening of the Ottawa Senators. The BCHL Grizzlies have the Benn brothers, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top centre, Tyler Bozak, and Panthers-signed Greg Zanon.
And what are they putting in the water in Port McNeill? Yet another NHL veteran blue-liner from that tiny Island logging and fishing community, Clayton Stoner, skates this season for the Anaheim Ducks after four seasons with Minnesota.
Meanwhile, Juan de Fuca product and former Saanich Braves Junior B forward Adam Cracknell was picked up on waivers Tuesday by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
