Glass transparent about his NHL dreams

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This article was published 21/06/2017 (2493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHICAGO – Cody Glass jumped on just about every mode of transportation available Thursday to get to where he needed to go.

The day began with an early-morning cancelled flight from Winnipeg to the Windy City — due to a busted hydraulic-fluid hose — followed by a nearly five-hour wait for the next plane out. He then took a confusing train ride and a taxi through slow-moving traffic, just to get to a riverboat cruise with other top NHL draft prospects that got caught in a downpour.

But he got through it and has only good stuff to look forward to tonight.

“It’s been a wild experience so far,” said Glass, 18, a Winnipeg-born centre with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. “I wanted to get here one day, and now that it’s finally happening it’s just unbelievable and I’m just super excited to get it started.”

He’s referring, of course, to the 2017 NHL Draft. Once considered a likely mid-round selection, Glass, 6-2 and 180 pounds, now is projected to go long before that — possibly within the first five or six selections of the first round at United Center.

The meteoric rise did not come easily. In fact, Glass went through some real heartache prior to the start of the 2016-17 WHL campaign. Eventually, that motivated him to go from being a blip on the radar to a place among the elite of draft-eligible players.

Last summer, he was cut from Team Canada’s squad heading to the under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Days later, his grandmother, Judy Glass, who he and his family had lived with for several years in her West Kildonan home, died after a lengthy illness.

Glass, who was raised with older brother Matthew by their single father Jeff, said his resolve to see his stock rise was only strengthened.

“Right after that, I trained a lot harder going into the season and going into the year I wanted to prove people wrong. I had a lot of adversity going into the year and I think that gave me an extra boost of motivation and that’s something that helped me through the ride,” he said.

“I don’t think I was a real high prospect to start off the year but I just wanted to play the way I could and prove to people that I am a top player and that’s what I did throughout the year.”

Glass was seventh in league scoring with 94 points (32 goals, 62 assists) in 69 games with Portland this season, and he was named a Western Conference first-team all-star.

He hinted that two NHL teams have expressed keen interest in him but refused to name the organizations.

He also said he’s visited Vancouver and loves the city. The Canucks, it’s worth noting, pick fifth.

“Obviously, I play in Portland. Being pretty far away from Winnipeg is tough, but I think the West Coast is somewhere I’d like to be. It’s is a really nice place. Vancouver is a huge spot and has great fans.”

Glass said he has modelled his game after Patrice Bergeron, the Boston Bruins centre who just won his fourth Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward. He’s also studied the emergence of Winnipeg Jets alternate captain Mark Scheifele as a solid, two-way centre.

“He’s a very unselfish player and that’s something I really like about him and something I try emulating in my game,” he said. “That’s something I really improved on and something I take pride in.”

Glass will have many family members and friends in the crowd here tonight, waiting and watching as the draft unfolds.

“For me, I’m just really excited to get drafted and, obviously, who picks me I’m just gonna try and prove them right.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell