'Here's Johnny': South Jersey native making name for himself in NHL

For the first time in a long time, John Gaudreau had a home-cooked meal in South Jersey Sunday night.

The Carneys Point native was looking forward to his grandmother's homemade cheese ravioli and staying in his old bedroom.

The sensational rookie for the Calgary Flames was given a pass by coach Bob Hartley to stay at home with his parents instead of at the team hotel.

"Definitely a little different from the last time I was home," said Gaudreau, who hasn't been in the area since last April when his Boston College Eagles were in the Frozen Four. "A lot of people are really happy for me. A lot of texts and calls. People are really, really happy I'm doing so well. It's good to see them all."

Since the last time he was back, when he won the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's best collegiate player and signed his pro contract, Gaudreau played in the Flames' season finale last year and scored a goal, made the roster this year out of training camp, was selected to the NHL All-Star Game and is a surefire finalist for the Calder Trophy as the league's best rookie.

"It was a pretty quick transition from being here in Philadelphia last year playing in the Frozen Four and then playing my first game and now being back here," said Gaudreau, who has 15 goals and 44 points in 61 games this season. "It's been a fun season so far. I've been fortunate."

Like most young hockey fans in the area, Gaudreau grew up a Flyers fan, idolizing John LeClair and Keith Primeau. He learned to skate from his father Guy. As the popular story goes, Guy would lay Skittles out on the ice and John would follow him and pick them up.

As the hockey director at Hollydell Ice Arena in Washington Twp., Guy was the guide up until when John was 17 and moved away from home, winning a Clark Cup with the Dubuque Fighting Saints in Iowa. He coached John growing up and even in high school, where Gloucester Catholic retired Gaudreau's No. 3 Monday.

"Here he is," Guy said. "He's gonna be playing against the Flyers. Who could figure that out?"

At 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds, Gaudreau was always told he was too small for hockey, but he's quickly becoming one of the most marketable faces in the NHL.

"He's certainly making a name for himself," said John Colman, principal of Gloucester Catholic. "He's a perfect face for his team. He's a good-looking young guy, very humble, very polite. He comes from a great family. He's really marketable, I think. If he keeps being successful like this, he's gonna do pretty well."

When Gaudreau takes the ice for the Flames Tuesday night, he can't even count the amount of local friends and family there to see him play. Hollydell will close around 3 or 4 p.m., Guy estimates, because no one wants the ice. They all want to see Gaudreau.

Everyone from Hollydell general manager Jim McVey to Dennis Sullivan, the eighth bishop of Camden, will be in attendance.

The legend of 'Johnny Hockey'

Gaudreau's nameplate that travels with the Flames and gets posted above his locker everywhere on the road doesn't have his birthname.

It reads "Johnny Gaudreau." Thank Boston College for that.

Fans of the B.C. Eagles are the ones that deemed Gaudreau "Johnny Hockey" during his sophomore season, the nickname that followed him across the continent to Calgary.

"We don't even call him Johnny. We call him John," Guy said. "To us he's John here in South Jersey. Jim and everybody here we call him John because he grew up as John to us. Boston College is the one that started with the Johnny Hockey stuff. It didn't go away."

Guy and Jane Gaudreau still can't believe it when they have their TV on late at night and see this No. 13 kid zipping all over the ice for the Calgary Flames.

"As a parent you look at it and it's hard to believe that's my son," Guy said. "We raised him to play hockey, have hockey, enjoy hockey and I know how hard it is to get to that level. People don't realize how hard it is. You have to have breaks. You have to have coaches that like you."

This span of two weeks has been the payoff to all of Gaudreau's hard work. The Flames' roadtrip up and down the East Coast brings Gaudreau back to Philadelphia Tuesday and to Boston Thursday.

"It's definitely been a circus, up and down the East Coast seeing friends and family," said Gaudreau, who figures he'll have even more buddies in Boston than in Philly. "The most exciting thing for me is getting to come back here and play in Philly. I know I have a lot of people here that are gonna be watching."

If the trip wasn't expensive enough for the 21-year-old winger, he had to pay for the Flames' rookie dinner Saturday night.

'A confident young man'

One day last July in the York City Ice Arena in York, Pa., Hartley got his first glimpse of who Johnny Gaudreau really is.

The Calgary coach had one of his most promising young players in town to help out with his summer camp. Gaudreau, who had played only in the season finale last season, wanted to send a message.

"I'm coming to Calgary to make the team," Gaudreau told his coach. At the time, there was some thought that the pint-sized forward may start his pro career in the American Hockey League.

He didn't.

"In this business you have to be confident," Hartley said. "I didn't see a cocky kid. I saw a confident young man. He came to our camp in unbelievable shape and he was on a mission and every day he's been growing in our organization."

Life is nothing but hockey for Gaudreau, who has been a rink rat since even before he was with the Gloucester Catholic Rams. He just wants to play. In fact, he wasn't even aware of the $212,000 bonus he got for making the All-Star Game.

"He's given up a lot," Guy said. "It's amazing that he's there. It really is. My wife and I are watching on TV and it's so hard for us to believe that's our son there until we actually talk to him after the game. Then we realize it's John because it is just John."

It's also hard to believe that the player taking the game, and certainly South Jersey, by storm is only a rookie. By the end of this East Coast swing with a ton of attention and media interviews, he might seem more like a seasoned veteran.

"He's been great," Hartley said. "He's really learning to be a great pro. It's just the process he needs to go through, but he's been going through with flying colors."

Reach Dave Isaac at disaac@courierpostonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @davegisaac.​



