The Brampton Battalion chose 275 players over the course of
15 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selections. Jay Harrison was the first.
Harrison, the first overall pick in 1998, was the first of
32 players the Troops tabbed over 28 rounds in its inaugural Priority
Selection. The defenceman from Whitby,
Ont., went on to be a key figure on the Battalion blue line for four seasons.
“We knew that first season would be tough,” Harrison said
recently via telephone while on the road with the Carolina Hurricanes of the
National Hockey League. “We had one of the youngest teams ever assembled in the
history of the OHL. We had only one overager, a boatload of 17- and 18-year-olds,
two underagers in myself and Tyler Hanchuck, and Jason Spezza as an under-underager.
We knew there’d be a pretty steep learning curve, but it was a great season
despite the wins and losses.”
The Troops managed just eight wins and three ties in 68
games, and Harrison, who contributed 15 points, including one goal, in 63
games, credited Stan Butler, director of hockey operations and head coach, with
keeping the team motivated to play every game.
“Stan instilled in us that you can’t always base or judge
your performance strictly on the result. All you can do is go out with the
intention to compete and do everything you can to give yourself a chance to
win.”
Four wins that first season came in six games against the
Battalion’s Peel Region rivals, the Mississauga IceDogs, a 1998-99 expansion
twin.
“We gave it to them pretty good in that first season,” said
Harrison, who was named to the OHL’s All-Rookie team. “Our competitiveness was
a reflection of the preparation of the coaches, scouts and management who put
the team together. It’s tough to put expansion teams together and hope to be
competitive in a league where some teams have been building for three or four
years for that time. I remember playing teams like London, Plymouth and Sarnia
that were like fine-tuned machines, and we were still trying to find our footing.”
The addition of defenceman Rostislav Klesla in the Canadian
Hockey League’s 1999 Import Draft and prospects Jay McClement, Chris Rowan and
Paul Flache helped the Battalion build from its first season. The Troops won 11
of their first 14 games in 1999-00 and went on to earn their first playoff
berth.
“We had some big things going for us coming into that
season,” said Harrison. “Raffi Torres was coming into his own, and Klesla was
huge as well. As our ability to compete increased, we became a better, more
consistent team. We were really moving in the right direction that season.”
The Battalion met the Erie Otters in a Western Conference
quarterfinal, the first of two bitter postseason battles in as many years
against the Midwest Division rival, but was ousted in six games.
“I always seemed to play my best when there was an edge to
the game,” said Harrison, who had memorable run-ins over his junior career with
Erie antagonists Jason Baird, Brad Yeo, Brandon Cullen, Adam Berti and Michael
Rupp. “The battles with Erie seemed to
bring that out in all of us, Stan included. They had a pretty good team then,
and it was unfortunate we had to run into them at that time. They were an
extremely well-rounded team.”
Butler made a major deal at the trade deadline the following
season, sending Hanchuck, Matt Grennier and goaltender David Chant to the
Barrie Colts for netminder Brian Finley. The Troops won 18 of their 28 games
following the trade before sweeping the Guelph Storm in a conference
quarterfinal. The Battalion faced the Otters in the second round and was
eliminated in five games in another hotly contested series.
“You could see what Erie was building there, and we ran into
them again,” said Harrison, who won a bronze medal in the first of two
appearances for Canada at the World Junior Championship. “For Stan to make that
trade to make us even more competitive is a true reflection of how far we had
come in three years. It was great to have a chance to win every night, and it
was great to sweep Guelph in the first round. We were a really strong team that
just came up a bit short.
“The time frame for success in junior hockey is shorter than
it is in other sports. When you’re dealing with talented young players who can
be taken away from you to the professional ranks, you have to seize the moment
and seize the opportunity. It was a great chance for us to do that.”
Harrison, who was chosen by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third
round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, enjoyed the finest offensive season of his
OHL career in 2001-02, scoring 12 goals and adding 31 assists for 43 points in
61 games. He won a silver medal with the Canadian junior squad, coached by
Butler.
Late-season injuries to 11 players, including overagers Kurt
MacSweyn and Aaron van Leusen, and inconsistent goaltending conspired to keep
the Battalion out of the playoffs. The Troops haven’t missed the postseason
since.
“We took a bit of a step back if you just look at the
results, but I don’t look at it as an unsuccessful season,” said Harrison. “It might
have been the closest team that I was a part of there. We had some real
character guys, like Sebastian Savage and Ryan Bowness, and guys like McClement
coming into their own.”
Harrison, who plays with brothers Eric and Jordan Staal with
Carolina, got to play junior hockey with his younger brother, Tyler, who was a
rookie that season.
“That season was an opportunity for me to play with my brother,
and I look back on that with some fond memories, and that’s really special,”
said the elder Harrison.
Tyler Harrison contributed six points, including two goals,
in 45 games in his first season. He scored 62 goals and added 51 assists for
113 points over the next three seasons before going on to a fine career at York
University.
“I’m proud of what he was able to do there,” said Jay. “He’s
a late bloomer physically. He’s always been the gifted player in our family. He
sees the ice well and has the ability to make the players around him better.
I’ve always admired him for that. He’s my best friend, and among the fondest
memories I have of my teenage years was getting the chance to play with him.”
The elder Harrison was off to the professional ranks within
days of the end of that season, skating in one game with the Memphis
RiverKings, a Maple Leafs affiliate in the Central Hockey League. He then
played seven playoff games for the St. John’s Maple Leafs, Toronto’s American
Hockey League affiliate.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind to tie up my junior career. I
didn’t have much time to reflect on it or celebrate it, and I quickly signed a
contract and was thrown into the pro ranks very quickly. I didn’t have a lot of
time to think about it, but that was a great opportunity as a 19-year-old.
“I look back at my junior days fondly. One of the great
things for me was the chance to play for Stan, and a lot of things he spoke
about and stressed and tried to teach us are still relevant as you get older. I
was always grateful for that. It was great to be close to home. I met my wife
in Brampton and I still have ties to the city.
“Pro hockey is a job. You have to perform or you’re gone.
It’s more of an employee-employer relationship. Junior hockey is a little more
innocent, and you miss that.”
Now 30 and with three young daughters, Harrison traveled a
long road to become an NHL regular. He played three seasons with St. John’s and
three more for the Toronto Marlies when the Maple Leafs relocated their
affiliate. Harrison, who got into 20 NHL games with the Maple Leafs over three
seasons, played 41 games with Zug of the Swiss League in 2008-09. He signed
with Carolina as a free agent in 2009, played 38 games for the club that season
and has been a fulltime NHLer ever since.
“There’s no doubt that any player who rides the buses in the
minors for any extended period of time wonders what he’s doing,” said Harrison,
who has been paired on occasion this season with Bobby Sanguinetti, who manned
the Battalion blue line five seasons after Harrison left.
“You wonder if you can keep doing it and, if so, for how
much longer. Eventually, that comes when you have other lives that are
dependent on you and it’s not just about yourself any more. I had a wife and
child at 25, and there are people counting on you in the long term. You start
to think about what it’s going to take to provide for them. I realized to
endure what I endured in the minors that I must really love the game.
“To go through what I went through, being passed over and
injured and the ups and downs of a minor league career, you have to really love
it. I decided I owed it to myself to stick with it and, sure enough, I got a
break with Carolina. That’s all I can ask for. All I wanted was a chance to
succeed. Unfortunately, it took me a long time to get that, but I learned a lot
about myself as a player and a person and wouldn’t be who I am without those
experiences.”
