Ontario Hockey League scouts weren’t flocking to see the junior
B Alexandria Glens play in 1997-98.
But two who did, Stan Butler, director of hockey operations
and head coach of the expansion Brampton Battalion, and area scout Brent Loney,
were rewarded by finding a player who would be an important contributor for the
club’s first four seasons.
Kurt MacSweyn, who hails from the community of Dalkeith,
Ont., a little more than 100 kilometers east of Ottawa, scored 26 goals and
added 37 assists for 63 points in 42 games for the Glens that season and would
be one of two Battalion picks in the fourth round of the 1998 OHL Priority
Selection.
“I saw Kurt play for the Glens,” said Butler, who spent
1997-98 scouring Ontario and elsewhere for talent. “It was on one of my crazy
road trips that year and I have never been back to that rink since. We took
Kurt in the fourth round and got four very good seasons out of him.”
At the time MacSweyn, then 16, figured he had a shot at
making it to the OHL.
“It was in the back of my mind,” he said via telephone from
the family farm in Dalkeith, where he returned after spending four seasons
playing professionally in Europe. “I went with the junior B team at home with
my friends and figured I would move up to junior A the next season with an eye
towards the OHL or a college scholarship.
“I had talked to some teams and Stan and Brent didn’t want
me to go in to a prospects tournament where I ended up putting up pretty good
numbers. There was a lot more interest in me after that so they probably ended
up taking me earlier than they might have wanted to.”
MacSweyn stepped right into the lineup in the Battalion’s
inaugural season and made history as his first career OHL goal proved the
winner in the club’s first victory, a 5-4 decision over the visiting Sudbury
Wolves on Oct. 18.
“Sudbury was a strong team as I recall. It is a vague,
distant memory now, but we were seven games in and it wasn’t like we had gone
though a horrible stretch. Some of those first games weren’t the closest, but
we finally got deep into a tight game and won and it was a huge boost to our
confidence.”
MacSweyn played left wing on a line with 18-year-old right
winger Scott Thompson and 15-year-old Jason Spezza who was playing as an
underage under an OHL rule at the time that allowed 15-year-olds to play one
season for their hometown team. Spezza led the Troops in scoring with 71 points
and has enjoyed a long National Hockey League career with the Ottawa Senators.
“He made the game easy,” MacSweyn said of Spezza. “Even as a 15-year-old he was so smart and
creative with the puck it made things simple. I went out and played my game and
worked hard and made sure I could get the puck to him. After that all I focused
on was creating screens or getting open so he could create his magic. It was a
good time and something I look back fondly on.”
MacSweyn played 60 games that season and contributed 16
goals and 13 assists for 29 points for a team that won only eight games.
“I didn’t think it would be a season where we’d only win eight
games, but we knew as an expansion team that we would be in tough with teams
loaded with 18 and 19-year-olds.
“We were all winners in minor hockey and all of a sudden we
were all placed in a situation where we had to do the little things to help us
win games. It was a learning curve for us. You even see that kind of philosophy
a little bit in the NHL with teams like the Edmonton Oilers who build through
the draft and take their lumps and learn together as a team. The next season we
came back a year older and stronger and we started off pretty well.”
The Battalion won 11 of its first 14 games the next season
and qualified for the playoffs for the first time, falling in six hard-fought
games to the Erie Otters in a Western Conference quarterfinal. MacSweyn was
limited to only 51 games after breaking a knuckle in a fight with Matt Coughlin
of the Mississauga IceDogs on Jan. 12, 2000, but he still recorded 33 points,
including 18 goals.
The Battalion enjoyed a terrific season in 2000-01, winning
33 games and capturing its first playoff series win by sweeping the Guelph
Storm in a first-round set, but was ousted in five games in the second round by
Erie.
“We had the team and the pieces to the puzzle that season,”
said MacSweyn, who had 17 goals and 24 assists for 41 points in 66 games. “I
thought we could match up with anyone in a series, but Erie was a team that seemed
to have our number and that’s how things went in the playoffs. They got some
bounces and knocked us off. I think if we had got by them we would have gone
pretty far.”
MacSweyn was named captain for his final season in 2001-02,
succeeding Jason Maleyko who had held the position for the first three seasons.
“It was a great honour,” said MacSweyn. “It is something
special to be looked upon as a leader. I tried to lead by example and work hard
and show the guys how to do the little things that fans might not always see.
It was nice to see I was appreciated.”
Said Butler: “He was a very underrated player. In a lot of
ways I felt he was more respected in the dressing room than he was outside of
it. He was a quiet leader who led by example.”
Despite losing stalwarts such as Maleyko to graduation and
major offensive contributors such as Raffi Torres, Rostislav Klesla and Jeff
Bateman to the professional ranks, the Battalion remained in contention for a
playoff spot deep into the 2001-02 season, but a 10-4 road loss to the Ottawa
67’s on Feb. 8, 2002 saw injuries to MacSweyn and rookies Tyler Harrison and
Mike Looby. Overage right winger Aaron van Leusen also battled injuries that season
as the Battalion missed the playoffs for the final time during its 15 seasons
in Brampton.
“We knew we were losing a lot of key pieces, but we still
had a good core and some good young players coming up,” said MacSweyn, who finished
third in team scoring with 23 goals and 25 assists for 48 points in 53 games.
“I blew my shoulder out and van Leusen got hurt just after I
did. We could have done something if we could have got into the playoffs, but
injuries are part of the game. It was difficult to end like that, especially
knowing we had such a strong team the season before.”
After graduating from the Battalion, MacSweyn spent three
years at Saint Mary’s University and played in the ECHL with the Idaho
Steelheads in 2005-06.
“I dealt with some injuries in the ECHL, I hurt my knee and
tore my groin. At that point I wanted to travel around Europe and play there if
the opportunity ever came up and figured it would be a good time to try that.”
MacSweyn spent three seasons playing for teams in Germany,
Austria and Italy.
“I loved it and had a great time. I was going over not just
to play hockey, but I wanted to get into different situations and experience
different places. I had a great time fitting into the culture and seeing different
things.”
MacSweyn, now 32, is in his first season with the Cornwall
River Kings, the only Ontario entry in a Quebec-based semi-pro league.
“A former coach of mine is the coach there and I know some guys
on the team and they convinced me to play the season for them. There are a lot
of guys who had pro experience and it’s pretty good hockey.”
MacSweyn finished his junior career with 74 goals and 77
assists for 151 points, good for 12th on the Battalion’s all-time
list. He is ninth all-time in goals, is tied for seventh with five career
shorthanded goals and his 11 game-winning goals are tied for ninth in club
history.
“It was a good time and I made so many good friends. It was
a big part of my life. I have a lot of fond memories of it and I’m happy I had
a chance to do that for four years.”
