Thread by @adam_la2karis

Story time. When I was four, my first experience with high-level hockey was the OHL’s Mississauga IceDogs. While we lived in Toronto, my dad covered the team for the local Mississauga News. During the 1999-00 season, the team was abysmal, but a 16-year old star was my favourite.

The kid was incredible. He scored 61 points in 52 games, was named to the world junior team at 16, (the first time I watched that, too), and was nice enough to sign an autograph when I was lucky enough to tag along.
That player’s name: Jason Spezza, as you might have guessed.

Around five years later, Spezza had moved onto the NHL, in about the worst possible destination in Ottawa, where I wanted personal success for him but I knew I’d never cheer for his team.
I’d quickly realized myself I wasn’t destined to play much else besides house league level.

I signed up for a couple spring/ summer tournaments, where it was mostly a mishmash of players of assorted skill levels at that age. At one point, our team was so low on players that took on a kid who was two years younger and a foot shorter than everyone.

After a game or two, it was clear he was easily our best player. I can’t recall any specific stat lines and I know we didn’t win the tournament, but I’m sure he was putting up a few points per game.

That player? None other than Mitch Marner, an easy name to remember.

Two years after that, it was another 16-year-old phenom catching my attention. Allowed into the OHL a year earlier than everyone else, he followed Spezza’s footsteps in making it to the World Junior team, which had become a staple of the calendar for me.

At age 11, I was lucky enough to interview this player who was still older than me, (but only by five years) for the Toronto Star’s now-defunct Brand New Planet children’s section.

He was quiet, shy, but easy to talk to. It was clear he was ready to be the next big thing.

Of course, that’s John Tavares we’re talking about. A few months later, I was able to meet Tavares again at a charity dinner and gave him a copy of the article. He thanked me and said he remembered the interview, which is something I’ve held onto for uhhhh 12 years?

But like my previous favourite player in Spezza, Tavares too went in the NHL draft to a team I couldn’t really support myself. I picked up a few shirts and things over the years, but it was hard to replicate what it felt like seeing him compete for Canada at the World Juniors.

Moving on to 2013, my junior hockey fandom was now quite different. It was hard to be a fan of players the way I had in the past.

I’d just completed a co-op course the year prior with the OJHL’s St. Michael’s Buzzers, who were gunning for the league championship.

My dad and I travelled out to a number of their playoff games, and they moved onto the final. Their secret weapon? A 15-year old Mitch Marner, who scored twice in the 3-1 Game 7 win. (Fun fact: Travis Dermott suited up on the other side of the ice).

Marner, still about 5’7” and maybe 130 pounds, had obvious concerns about his size, but no concerns about his skill level. I’d made it a bit of a personal mission to follow his career.

He ended up in London, absolutely destroyed the league, and finally, got drafted by the Leafs.

During his draft year, I wrote a bit online about my own journey with Marner, and why his size wasn’t much to worry about when looking at other NHL players at a similar age. By this time, Marner had grown to about 5’10 or so, anyway, but he still carried that stigma.

His family was nice enough to reach out and invite me out to a Knights game in Kingston while I was at school out there. After the game, they re-introduced me to Mitch, who I hadn’t had any real contact with in a decade, but he really couldn’t have been nicer.

A year later, at this point a Leafs pick, and after Marnermania was in full swing while he was enroute to winning every award you can in junior hockey, we met up again when he came back to Kingston. Big ups to the Marner family on that one. It was clear: this was my guy.

You probably don’t need much of an explainer on Marner’s first two Leafs seasons. 61 and 69 points respectively. But on July 1, 2018, one of my original hockey heroes came home. And somewhat unbelievably, a year later, an even MORE original hero came home.

July 1, 2019? Spezza came home, too.

So fast forward to last night. At the Leafs game with my dad. Leafs win 5-4.
Final statlines:
Tavares 2 G, 1 A
Spezza 1G (huge snipe)
Marner 3 A
On the power play, the Leafs sent out four forwards in overtime. Matthews, Tavares, Marner, and Spezza.

There’s not really a great conclusion to this story, but it’s incredibly cool and I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to have met and watched three different age groups of hockey heroes for myself all playing together on the Leafs. Can’t wait until they break my heart next lmao