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Edmonton Oilers centre Drake Caggiula is eight games into his NHL career but he’s still a gee-whiz kid at heart, pinching himself when he sees his heroes across the ice.

Like going against fellow U of North Dakota alum Jonathan Toews when the Chicago Blackhawks were at Rogers Place about two weeks ago.

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It was a surreal moment for Caggiula

“I got a Jonathan Toews signed picture for Christmas from one of my aunts after my first year at North Dakota,” said the Edmonton Oilers’ rookie Forward, tickled that his aunt pulled some strings to get the Blackhawks captain’s photo and an inscribed message.

“He signed it and said ‘best of luck on the season.’ I wore the number 9 at school and he said ‘P.S. I liked that number too.’”

Caggiula didn’t remind Toews of the photo when he took a draw against him. That would have been bad form in a game situation, but he had a big smile about it later.

“That was a real wow moment. If I’d have reminded him (photo), I’m sure he’d have said ‘yeah, whatever,’” said Caggiula, who has been around Toews several times at Grand Forks. “In the summer months, a lot of the old-time players came back to skate and work out … Toews, (T.J.) Oshie, (Zach) Parise. It’s pretty cool.”