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Simon Chen’s excellent adventure nearly ended before it got a competitive start.

In the early portion of a Vancouver Canucks development camp scrimmage at UBC last Wednesday, the diminutive defenceman had to be helped off the ice, unable to put any weight on his left leg, then limped away for further evaluation.

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It looked like a curious camp invite for the Beijing-born blueliner, who played for the Cowichan Valley Capitals of the B.C. Hockey League last season, was going to be a short story of brief exposure to a higher brand of hockey to help fuel his dream of representing China in the 2022 Olympics.

However, Chen bounced back that day, and also participated in the Summer Showdown on Thursday at Rogers Arena.

“I went into the corner and banged knees with a guy,” Chen said of his UBC collision.

“I’m OK.”

Photo by NICK PROCAYLO / PNG

Chen, 20, will be much more than just OK if China can do what South Korea did in the lead-up to the 2018 Olympics. By successfully lobbying the International Ice Hockey Federation to be in the 12-team men’s hockey tournament — the host country simply wasn’t good enough to qualify outright — then Chen could be the author of an even better and much longer story if China follows suit.