Dustin Penner has waited a long time to get to the NHL, so he's in no mood to see the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim's journey end tonight in Edmonton.
At 6-foot-4, 245 pounds and with soft hands enough to carry a 6-handicap in golf, you'd think that he would have had the size, speed and hands to make it to the NHL a long time ago. Not so fast. This Winkler, Manitoba, native was like the kid standing last in line when friends were picking sides. He couldn't even coax a tryout with one of the major U.S. colleges and had to settle for a stint at Minot State University-Bottineau in 2001.
But there are no more doubters now after Penner has scored a goal and six assists in his postseason debut.
"Believe it or not, I was just 5-8, 120 pounds when I started high school," he said, with a straight face. "All of the coaches, from bantams to midgets to juniors said I was too small. Then, I had a growth spurt of sorts ... went to 6-2 when I was ready for college. But I still didn't have anyone that believed in me.
"I almost quit when I was 17. I wanted to play hockey, but I had no place to play. ... Oh, I could've played in a beer league and gotten a job at the local plant in Winkler, but I wanted to give hockey one more chance."
Larry Wigge has covered the NHL since 1969. The longtime NHL columnist for The Sporting News, Wigge is now an NHL.com columnist and a frequent contributor to the website.
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That's when Dustin walked-on to the junior college campus at Minot in North Dakota, where he had 20 goals in 23 games. Then, he took a chance and went to a tryout camp in Saskatoon, where he was spotted by Grant Standbrook, assistant coach and recruiter for the University of Maine. Standbrook is usually credited with his work with goaltenders like Mike Dunham and Garth Snow. But Standbrook helped Penner with his skating stride and had some pretty good advice on how a little-guy-turned-big-guy could work on the coordination of a man-child who just grew eight inches in just over a year.
And the rest is history.
Small to large almost overnight. It's an awkward position to be in. Consider, if you will, the slow starts to the careers of power forwards like Kevin Stevens, Keith Primeau, Todd Bertuzzi and John LeClair. Each was a work in progress. And each became a hungry, move-your-feet and use-your-size-and-strength force in the NHL.
Penner has not been without his detractors. Plenty of them, in fact. But he continued to believe in himself, wondering, "Why not me?"
After scoring just 10 goals and 18 assists in 77 games with Cincinnati of the American Hockey League last season, Penner took just two weeks off ... and then right back to work.
"I contacted the trainer I had the summer before and I worked out and skated four times a week," Penner spelled out for us. "My speed has improved. My coordination. My confidence. We worked a lot with sprints on the ice, skating with a parachute behind me or bungee cords. Amazing."
When Penner arrived at the Mighty Ducks training camp last September, there were plenty of questions. But this time, they were good questions. Like why is it this prospect from out of nowhere looked as good as former first-round picks Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry? But after just one year at the University of Maine and one more in the AHL, it was clear that Dustin needed more experience at the minor-league level.
The decision was perfect for Penner, because he went back to the AHL and had a breakout season with 39 goals and 45 assists in just 57 games and was a plus-41 at Portland, in addition to the four goals and three assists he had in 19 games in Anaheim. And now he has one goal and five assists in the playoffs.
But this from-rags-to-riches-story didn't all of a sudden come to life across the NHL without a lot of hard work on Dustin's part. It's hard to keep the faith, when coaches keep telling you that you're either too small as Dustin was told as a kid, or too gawky as he was after his eight-inch growth spurt.
"I kept at it because I saw other players that I knew weren't better than me getting an opportunity," he said. "I think about it all the time. If Grant Standbrook hadn't found me that one summer, I'd probably be working at the gas station in Winkler right now. Looking back on it now, I think taking this route to the NHL probably made me work harder and learn more."
Penner credits former NHLers Kevin Dineen and Bruce Crowder, who are the coach and assistant coach at Portland, with pushing all the right buttons to help create the breakout season he's had.
Penner puts things in perspective:
"I kept at it because I saw other players that I knew weren't better than me getting an opportunity. I think about it all the time. If Grant Standbrook hadn't found me that one summer, I'd probably be working at the gas station in Winkler right now. Looking back on it now, I think taking this route to the NHL probably made me work harder and learn more."
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"They both worked on my skating with me and Kevin, who was an effort guy throughout his long NHL career, kept drilling into my head how hard I would have to work at the AHL to score against teams that put a checker on me -- and how it would be even more difficult in the NHL," Penner recalled.
And lessons have continued in Anaheim.
"I told Dustin that he's got a big body -- use it," Mighty Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said of a closed-door, one-on-one meeting he had before Anaheim played Colorado in the second round of the playoffs. "I told him, 'Don't get rid of the puck down low. Make them take it away from you.' When you're 6-3 or 6-4, however big he is, and can move like that, it's a great asset."
Goal-scoring comes at a premium in the playoffs. Most goals, in fact, can be traced back to a strong play along the boards or in front of the net. And Penner, playing on a line with Joffrey Lupul (four goals in Game 3 vs. Colorado) and veteran center Todd Marchant, has given the Mighty Ducks a presence down low.
And what a presence he's been.
Dustin Penner is one of those you've-got-to-be-kidding stories. The Pembina Valley Hawks cut him. The Manitoba Junior League's Winkler Flyers cut him three times.
"It kind of got monotonous after a while," Penner recalled. "The same old song and dance."
Dustin's dad, Terry, got a little ticked off at his son for initially failing to send in his application for that evaluation camp in Saskatoon in the summer of 2002. But a friend helped him get a spot nonetheless.
"My dad laid it on the line before we made the long drive from Winkler to Saskatoon," Penner said, kind of embarrassed to admit his wrongdoing. "He said, 'This was the last road trip we would make.' "
But Terry Penner has made several more long trips since that camp, to the Frozen Four, where Dustin hit the goal post for the Black Bears in a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Denver University in the NCAA championship game in 2004. He has also seen Dustin play more than once since he's arrived at the NHL level.
"I always tell people, 'Don't give up on your dreams without a fight,' " he said. "You can wait for what seems like a lifetime for your dream and then, all of a sudden, it happens in a split second."
Not so suddenly Penner went from this 5-6 teen-ager struggling to get picked to play anywhere to a 6-4 power forward, who, at 23, is scoring with regularity in the playoffs.
"I'm a person who likes challenges," Penner said. "I always thought the biggest challenge was to get somewhere with my hockey career. But now that I'm here in the NHL, the challenges are even greater to stay here and excel.
"But it's not hard to remind myself where I've been and where I am right now. For me, the keys are simple: Move the puck, move my feet and go to the net. Hey, I've done that in my dreams all of my life."
Pumping gas? That was never part of Dustin Penner's future. Playing in the NHL? It's been well worth the wait.
