[calgaryblood]

Posted this in the other thread but thought it was worth posting here. A little bit of a wet blanket for Weitz and his fellow Oiler buddies.

http://edmontonjournal.com/sports/ho...drake-caggiula

Drake Caggiula is a player whom my colleague Bruce McCurdy at The Cult of Hockey describes as “a small, shifty skater,” among other things. I agree. And Caggiula is getting a “push,” from the Oilers, centering a line with Kris Versteeg and Patrick Maroon tonight in Vancouver, after playing pivot for Milan Lucic and Jordan Eberle on Monday. If there is a “3C” position available this Fall, Caggiula os most definitely in the running for it.

In the fall of 1991, I was covering the Calgary Flames. It was a sunny September day, much like this one in Edmonton, and I witting on a hard wooden bench in the old Max Bell Arena, alongside legendary play-by-play man Peter Maher (an absolute prince of a man, by the way). As we watched the ensuing scrimmage, one player immediately stood out. To all of us.

No, it was not Theoren Fleury, who was at the top of his game at the time. It wasn’t Sergei Makarov (he was “near the end”, by then, but still had marvelous moments), or even Paul Ranheim (who was just a wonderful skater, but had hands of cement). No, it was 5’8” center Shawn Heaphy.

Who?

Exactly. You’ve likely never heard of him.

shawn-heaphy

Shawn Heaphy was a super star at Michigan State University in the ’80s. He absolutely shot the lights out during his four years there (39-30-19-49, in his senior year). The Flames picked him up in the 1989 NHL Supplemental Draft. Heaphy came to camp with a pedigree remarkably similar to Drake Caggiula’s. Heaphy was a star U.S. college player who could skate, see the ice like a damn, and put the puck into the net. Those of us in the stands that day immediately started to imagine who this firecracker would line up with, that season, for the Flames. He was such a tantalizing talent. We were more than a little excited.