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Wade-ing In, All Guns Blazing

by Alan Clark
January 7, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)


As the holiday season begins to fade, spare a thought for Wade Brookbank - who in December 2003 starred in Hockey's equivalent of Dirty Santa.

The 26-year-old defenseman has experienced a tumultuous couple of weeks since being acquired by Vancouver for futures back on December 19th 2003. It's tough being traded, at any time, so imagine how the rugged blueliner must have been feeling as he pinballed between Ottawa (claimed on waivers, 12/19), Florida (traded for futures, 12/28) before being reclaimed off waivers by the Canucks on New Year's Eve. All this after being claimed by Nashville in the October waiver draft. Including the Binghamton Senators and Milwaukee Admirals, Brookbank has been on the roster of six different teams so far this season! (All a little reminiscent of Harold Druken's season last year.)

Coming off of a season-ending knee injury last year, Brookbank had no doubt hoped to be hanging around in Ottawa. Fate it seems had another plan for him...

After going undrafted, the 6'4 221 pound enforcer had been signed as a free agent by the Senators back in July 2001, so he was no stranger to them when they pinched him back from Vancouver via the waiver-wire. He'd consistently put up the PIM's in the juniors and minors, including 337 in his debut AHL season for the Grand-Rapids Griffins. So far he's seen time in just 10 career NHL games, but perhaps, this time he may be around for more than the NHL ‘cup of coffee'. His new employers seem intent on converting him to a winger in order to afford some of the star talent, like Captain Markus Naslund, the protection they deserve.

The Canucks have lacked an enforcer since Darren Langdon went over to the Habs, and arguably since Donald Brashear was shipped to the Flyers in the unsuccessful Jan Hlavac trade. Mike Brown, a former 1st rounder, who had coveted the enforcer role, was lost to Anaheim on waivers before the 2002 season started. Then, journeyman John Craighead was signed out of the training camp, but he never broke into the team prompting the Canucks to acquire Langdon from the ‘Canes in a deal that also brought top 4 defenseman Marek Malik. The deal ended the Vancouver tenures of Druken and Hlavac.

Since October, we've seen a variety of players (mainly defensemen) lending their skills to the role of enforcer, including Ed Jovanovski, Brent Sopel and more recently even Malik. Taking a key player like ‘Jovo' out of the game for 5 minutes at a time is surely not high on coach Marc Crawford's list of priorities. Enter Mr Brookbank....

So far, Brookbank has only had 14 seconds of ice time since arriving in British Columbia, but his three shifts have spawned two fights and 10 PIM's. His Debut was highlighted by dropping the Polish pugilist Krysztof Oliwa, one of the leagues heavyweights, after just three seconds of his first shift. A lucky punch? Time will tell. The second bout was more like a wrestling match, but by then Brookbank had already announced his arrival. Who needs to chalk up 20 minutes a game when you're working that hard? The Canucks sailed to a 3-1 victory to maintain their dominance of the Flames this season. Some of the past encounters with Calgary have been bruising, to say the least, so perhaps the point was made.

To date, in his minor league career Brookbank has accumulated more than 1,000 penalty minutes (1,145) between the CHL, IHL and AHL. Whether Brookbank returns to the minors in Manitoba assumes he would clear waivers - hardly a safe bet given his recent rise in popularity - and Vancouver deciding the chase was more fun than the result. The Canuck's official website has even speculated as to what should happen next, inviting visitors to the site to vote on their suggestions in a couple of polls. Lost for ideas, or just garnering public opinion? For the record, as of today (1/5 @ 10am) only 8.8% had a negative opinion on his debut. It may be a little early to make final appraisals, but what's for sure is he certainly got people's attention.

So it remains to be seen what 2004 will bring for the Lanigan, Saskatoon native but if it's anything like the rollercoaster ride of 2003, life wont be boring!

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