Flames will miss Hamonic’s heart

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This article was published 26/07/2020 (1571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON — Travis Hamonic is as heart-and-soul as they come, a beloved team member who has repeatedly shown a willingness to sacrifice any part of his body for the greater good. A broken bone here, a missing tooth there — the guy never met a puck, stick or fist he’s not prepared to eat if it helps his club win.

“He’s a guy, speaking as a forward, who makes it hard on you out there,” Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler said Monday.

Fortunately for Wheeler and his teammates, they won’t have to worry about Hamonic when their best-of-five qualifying round series begins with the Calgary Flames on Saturday. The veteran 29-year-old defenceman made the decision to opt-out of the Stanley Cup playoffs due to ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not for himself, of course, but for his family. Specifically, Hamonic’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who was rushed to Alberta Children’s Hospital in early 2019 while battling a respiratory illness.

“He’s a big part of our team, he’s a big part of our dressing room. So it’s a loss. We support his decision 100 per cent. He’s a real good family man. He knows what the risks where when he weighed it with his wife, and he just decided to go the way that he did.” Flames coach Geoff Ward told the Free Press on Monday prior to his team’s practice.

“We’re going to miss him obviously. Now some other guys in our lineup have the opportunity to step in and play more of a role than maybe they would have if Travis had been with us.”

Hamonic is in his third year in Calgary after being traded by the New York Islanders, the team that drafted him 53rd overall in 2008. The pride of St. Malo had three goals and nine assists in 50 regular-season games.

He’s a pending unrestricted free agent, and there’s been plenty of chatter that the Jets might be a team that takes a run at him once this season is over. After all, Winnipeg still has some holes to fill on its blue-line following the departure of fixtures like Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers and Ben Chiarot, and Hamonic is the type of player they could dearly use if the price was right.

“There’s a certain style to his game. He’s a very, very competitive man. Heavy into the shot blocking and does a nice job of killing penalties for them. That component (is impacted),” said Jets coach Paul Maurice.

On Monday, Hamonic was named Calgary’s representative for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which is presented to the player “ who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”

“Like every parent, everything we do is to provide and protect our kids and try to take away any suffering they may endure,” Hamonic wrote this month in a statement explaining his decision.

“Last year, we spent the longest, scariest and hardest week of our lives by our daughter’s hospital bedside. We were unsure of what would come next or where this would lead, but with God’s strength our little girl fought her respiratory virus and recovered. During that long week, we were helpless and couldn’t do anything to help her except hold her little hands, kiss her head and pray. We saw what a respiratory virus can do to our healthy little girl and it’s something no parent wants or should go through. Now blessed with our second child, a baby boy at home, the risk of today’s COVID-19 pandemic is a very difficult one to weigh as parents.”

Five other NHL players decided to skip the playoffs, including Edmonton’s Mike Green, Vancouver’s Sven Baertschi, Montreal’s Karl Alzner, Boston’s Steven Kampfer and Dallas’ Roman Polak.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg