Emanuel Sequeira/Penticton Western News

Stukel secures career point 150 with Gennaro by his side

With the bicentennial year of Canada slowly winding down, Calgary Hitmen left winger Jakob Stukel celebrated in his own way by notching his 150th career point in the Western Hockey League.

The milestone marker came Nov. 14 on the road against the Brandon Wheat Kings, in typical Stukel fashion.

For the 149th point, he crashed the net and whacked in a third rebound opportunity for his Hitmen.

The Surrey product then reached the milestone 3:53 into the third period, when he and his partner in crime Matteo Gennaro raced down the ice. Gennaro feathered a pass across the ice to Stukel with enough heat on it so that Stukel only needed to extend his stick to the puck, as the sheer physics of the pass lofted it up and over Wheat Kings netminder Logan Thompson.

“I honestly didn’t even know that it was my 150th. I found out later that night on Twitter or something, I saw that the team mentioned it,” said Stukel, who only needed 218 games to accomplish the feat. “I didn’t get the puck or anything. Normally Gennaro is the guy that knows about milestones and that but I guess he was unaware, too.”

Looking back at Stukel’s start to his WHL career, it would be hard for anyone to assume that he would one day eclipse the 150-point plateau.

His career got off to a great start shortly after his hometown team selected him in the 2012 Bantam Draft. The Vancouver Giants were impressed by his ridiculous 2011-12 season that saw him bag 25 goals and 37 assists in 20 games for the Cloverdale Colts Bantam A1-T1 program and nabbed him with the 37th overall pick.

As a 15-year-old, he appeared in just six games with the Giants, scoring a pair of goals and assists. Playing the majority of the year with his local triple-A club, the Valley West Hawks of the B.C. Major Midget League, he scored 30 goals and added 13 assists in 38 games.

That summer, things took a turn for the worse, as he inured his knee, which eventually forced him to miss his entire 16-year-old season.

“I missed a full year and it was tough on me. It was tough being in the gym, watching your team skate and compete without you. Thankfully I had the great support from my family. They really helped me get through it and was key to my return,” said Stukel.

Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the end of his injury concerns, as early in his 17-year-old season he landed back on the injury report list.

“The second game into that season I broke my thumb and I was out another two months. I felt like I couldn’t catch a break,” said Stukel.

Unable to find a groove, Stukel only registered five goals and 11 assists in 49 games upon returning for the Giants.

Looking to make an impact in his 18-year-old season, Stukel struggled out of the gates, only notching four points in his first 12 games.

The Hitmen were looking to make a change around that time. They had just lost five of their last seven games and were also in a funk to start the season.

The then-General Manager Mike Moore orchestrated a five-player deal with the Giants.

Heading west were a pair of 19-year-olds, Chase Lang and blue liner Ben Thomas, in exchange for goaltender Cody Porter (18), Jackson Houck (20) and Stukel.

“We gave up two pretty good players, but we got some important pieces in return. (Stukel) had been banged up and wasn’t producing. Kelly Kisio actually identified him from his bantam years and recognized he wasn’t producing because of a couple injuries. He knew there was a knack to score and he was able to find that knack once he got here.

“I think the trade worked out great for everyone involved,” said Moore, who now serves as the vice president and alternate governor for the Hitmen.

“It was definitely a big shock to get traded. I was living 30 minutes from my home, I got to see my parents a few times a week and they came to all my home games,” said Stukel. “I was lucky enough to get a nice billet family, great teammates and coaching staff. It was weird at first, but now I love it here,” said Stukel.

Stukel’s play improved immensely and immediately once he stepped foot onto the ice at the Scotiabank Saddledome. In the remaining 57 games that season, Stukel caught fire and cranked out 34 goals and 22 assists.

In his previous 67 games on the coast, he only managed to compile 24 points.

“After the trade, I started to pick things up a bit and got more confidence with the puck and began to be a big contributor to the team,” said Stukel.

Playing with a free mind and a clean slate in Calgary, Stukel experienced his best season to date, which translated into having his dream come true when the Vancouver Canucks selected him in the sixth round, 154th overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.

Stukel isn’t in a Canucks jersey yet, despite participating in a couple of training camps. Still in the Hitmen uniform for now, when the winger is going right, he is flying up and down the ice like a player would when the cheat code for the infinite turbo was unlocked in a video game. His next-level speed gets him to areas on the ice before the other team knows what hit them.

He is also a dynamo on the power play and has racked up 44 points on the man advantage, accounting for 33.4 per cent of his total offence since the trade.

“For him, it will come down to consistency. He’s always had game-breaking speed, but I think he’s learning to use it more often now and we would like to see even more of it out of him,” said Moore. “If he figures that out, he has a chance at the next level.”

Last year in his first full year with the club, he played in the most games of his career (70) and finished with more assists (30) than goals (23) for this first time as well.

It wasn’t as strong of a showing as the year prior, but the same could be said for everyone on the club. In 2015-16, the Hitmen finished 42-26-2-2 with 88 points and placed seventh in goals for (243). Last season, the team fell off a bit, finishing 30-32-8-2, with 70 points and their 32 fewer goals for dropped them down to 17th.

“There are always areas offensively and defensively I can improve in and help the team out more,” said Stukel. “But for me, since coming here, it has been about driving hard to the net, being a team-first guy, seeing my teammates on the ice and trying to make them better as well.”

One of his teammates that he has grown with over the years is his captain Gennaro. Like Stukel, Gennaro was acquired via trade as the Hitmen brought him in from the Prince Albert Raiders on deadline day back in 2016.

Like Stukel, Gennaro experienced his most productive season with a Hitmen jersey on. It should come as no shocker, as they two have been line mates for two years now.

“He’s definitely a guy that likes to utilize his speed on the outside and drive to the net. For me as his centre, I try to give him the puck in the neutral zone once he gets going and watch him hit the holes,” said Gennaro.

Gennaro knows a thing or two about milestones. He breached the 150-benchmark last season and now has the 200-point threshold in his sights.

He has had the best seat in the house for Stukel’s best work in the league and is proud of his teammate.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Gennaro, about reaching the 150-point mark. “It’s something you accomplish over a long career, a milestone. It’s a testament to playing a lot of games in this league and now it’s something he can look back one day and be proud of his accomplishment.”

The two have formed quite the duo with a solid give-and-take game over the past two-plus seasons. Miraculously, they have tied each other, each scoring 12 goals while being set up by the other line mate, for a combined 48 points.

It’s impossible to know what Stukel’s point total could have been if it weren’t for his lost 16-year-old season, but he isn’t distracted in what could have been. He’s focused more on what lies ahead for himself and his team.

“It was really nice to get the milestone in my last year, but I am more focused on getting this team back on track and hopefully into the playoffs again,” said Stukel.

When you play the way the 6-foot, 190-pounder does, goals come in spurts. With exactly two-thirds of his season remaining, Stukel is going to have to kick it into overdrive — bringing his 0.78 points-per- game total with the Hitmen up to something over 1.10 — if he wants to crack the 200-point club.

Gennaro had a front row seat and assisted on Stukel’s 150th. It shouldn’t take long for Stukel to return the favour, as Gennaro currently sits six points shy of 200 in his career.

“(Gennaro) is definitely responsible for a lot of my points, he’s great to play with,” said Stukel. “I’d love to be on the ice for his 200th.”