Who is this guy? Tanev called up ahead of NHL vets Parent, Baumgartner
January 17, 2011. 4:14 pm
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Probably only the Incredible Hulk has ever grown faster than Chris Tanev.
Consider: At the Canucks weigh-in and testing for prospects, the 20-year-old measured 6-foot-2 and 187 pounds.
Contrast that to the short waif he was when Grade 11 ended: 5-foot-3, 105 pounds.
“Yeah, I hit puberty a little late” Tanev said after a fine outing with the Canucks prospects at the Young Stars Tournament. “I started growing going into Grade 12.”
Always a gifted player who had speed, puck-handling skill and hockey sense, his size always worked against him.
It didn’t help that he played defence (like Duncan Keith, another runt when young who wasn’t drafted out of bantam) — even Phil Housley was at least 5-10.
It didn’t help that his birthday is Dec. 20, meaning that not only were all the other kids bigger, but a good portion of the ones born the same year as he was were almost a year older anyway.
“Once I stopped playing Triple A after bantam, I was just playing high school hockey, just having fun with the guys and hanging out with my friends a lot,” Tanev said.
So when he grew almost a half a foot in Grade 12, then another half foot the following year, suddenly folks started taking notice.
Somehow able to skip the clumsies that affect most teens during a growth spurt, let alone growth explosion, Tanev was playing for the Jr. A Markham Waxies of the OJHL when he was recruited by the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers, a team that had joined Div. 1 hockey only in 2005-06.
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His son Sam, now an Oiler, and Tanev grew up playing against each other and the peres Gagner and Tanev coached the boys together in in-line hockey.
It was Gagner’s association with the Canucks, director of player development, that swayed Tanev’s decision not only to leave school but to choose the Canucks among the several NHL clubs courting him.
“He was able to play at the highest level of Triple A [bantam] at that size because he has good hockey sense.” Gagner said.
“But nobody was interested in him in the OHL draft and when he was eligible for the NHL draft he was only 5-foot-9.
“He’s quiet and humble, but with self-confidence. He’s very easy to play with and very coachable.”
Tanev’s pretty sure he’s quit growing now, except for filling out his frame.
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