Wilson: Gaudreau was the impossible star who will never be forgotten

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I was fortunate enough to attend the 2011 NHL Draft in Minnesota. I remember it clearly because it was the first draft I covered professionally.

And because the Calgary Flames picked Johnny Gaudreau.

On the second day of the draft, I left my seat in the rink to wander around the concourse, looking for something to eat. The Flames had already made three selections in the first and second rounds, and they only had a couple of picks left (both in the hundreds). At the time, it seemed unlikely that anything of note would happen through the rest of the day.

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I heard the Calgary pick announced over the speakers, so I found somewhere to sit and quickly look the player up on my laptop. John Good-row or something? I wasn’t familiar with the player, so I brought up his profile on hockeydb.

A point-per-game winger in the USHL and …140 pounds. He wasn’t only the smallest player I had ever seen the Flames pick, he was the smallest player I’d ever seen drafted, period.

It seemed impossible that he would even make the NHL.

But we soon realized that Gaudreau was an impossible kind of player.

When Jarome Iginla was traded at the deadline in 2013, it marked the end of an era for the Flames. The franchise had been defined by Iginla for more than a decade, and his departure left a sudden hole on the roster but also in the hearts of the fans. We could not have known at the time that his heir apparent had already been drafted.

Although his college hockey resume boasted a wide range of accolades — from a World Junior Championship gold medal to the Hobey Baker award as the top NCAA player — many still doubted that Gaudeau could make it against bigger and stronger competition, let alone become a difference-maker. Highlight-reel goals against other teenagers and junior-age kids are easy to dismiss when a guy stands only shoulder height to others.

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Made his linemates better

But it was Gaudreau’s talent that loomed large. He made the NHL full-time in the 2013-14 season, just three short years after being drafted and with the fanbase still questioning the future of the team in Iginla’s wake.

His arrival changed everything.

The unlikely trio of Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler led the Flames to a Cinderella playoff berth in 2014-15, a season in which Gaudreau also paced the team in scoring with 78 points. Calgary fell to the Anaheim Ducks in the second round, but the 22-year-old collected some of his most memorable highlights in that series despite his rebuilding club being clearly overmatched.

That’s how his star was born.

No other skater led the Flames in points during his tenure here. Gaudreau’s 115-point season in 2021-22 is the second-highest in franchise history, behind only Kent Nilsson’s 131 in 1981. On more than one occasion, whatever line Gaudreau skated on was considered one of the best in hockey. He was a nuclear weapon-grade offensive talent, and he made any teammate on the ice with him more dangerous.

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Listing his achievements and stat lines don’t fully capture the player that Gaudreau was, though. Swift, agile, deft, uncanny, Gaudreau made opposing veterans and superstars look ridiculous, often. If you want to watch a collection of his highlights with the Flames, it will take hours. If you ask Flames fans for their favourite moment, you will get dozens.

There were nights when Gaudreau was simply unstoppable, evading checks and hooks, slipping between the cracks of the defence. His mind was a hockey supercomputer, rapidly calculating options and angles far faster than almost anyone else on the ice.

During his time in Calgary, Gaudreau was the biggest reason to watch Flames hockey. He minted an entirely new generation of fans, and he inspired every young player who has ever been told they are too small to dream big. Watching Gaudreau slice through opposing defensive schemes showed it was possible to survive and thrive in this game, even if you aren’t more than six feet tall or 200 pounds.

They say that big players have to prove they can’t play hockey, while small players have to prove they can.

Well, Johnny did that. And more. A towering talent, the impossible superstar.

We will never forget him.

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