COLUMBUS — Bo Horvat never actually met Ian Jenkins, but every time he pulls on his No. 53 jersey he honours the player who was to be his teammate with the London Knights.

Horvat and Jenkins were both selected by the Knights in the Ontario Hockey League draft in May of 2011. A few days later, Jenkins, then 15, died when he fell out of a pickup truck being driven by a friend near his Michigan home.

Jenkins, a goalie, wore No. 35. Horvat decided he would flip those numbers around and wear No. 53 to honour Jenkins.

“We were going to be teammates and I was probably going to meet him a couple of days after it happened at a camp we were supposed to attend,” Horvat said Friday before the Canucks met the Columbus Blue Jackets. “I didn’t know him personally. I just remember playing against him in a couple of tournaments. He was a great goaltender and I know a bunch of guys who did know him and he was a great kid.”

Horvat and his father travelled to Michigan for Jenkins’ service and it was on the way home they talked about paying tribute to Jenkins. As 35 was a number generally reserved for goalies, they decided on No. 53. Horvat has worn it ever since.

“He had been drafted by the Knights and we were going to be teammates,” Horvat said. “I thought it would be cool to do that for him.”

Horvat later met Jenkins’ family, who were deeply touched by his gesture. Jenkins had a favourite phrase — Have A Purpose — that he modelled his life after. Before Horvat travelled to the 2013 NHL draft in New Jersey, Jenkins’ father Joel gave Horvat a pin with the initials HAP that Horvat wore when he was selected ninth overall by the Canucks.

“Ian has been with me everywhere so far,” Horvat said.

STRESS TEST: Kevin Connauton called it the most stressful 24 hours of his life.

The former Canuck prospect and Vancouver Giant was placed on waivers Nov. 17 by the Dallas Stars. For the next 24 hours Connauton wondered what was going to happen.

“You get put on waivers and then you don’t hear a word,” Connauton said. “You can’t go to the rink, you just sit there and wait and when the clock strikes the next day then all the info floods in and you find out what’s happening. I found out at exactly 11 Central time. That’s when my phone rang.”

It was the Stars calling to tell him that the Blue Jackets had claimed him. Connauton views it as a good opportunity.

“It seems like a pretty motivated group,” he said. “I just want to come and in and try to contribute as much as I can.”

Connauton, who was Vancouver’s third-round pick in the 2009 draft, played the last three games for the Blue Jackets but was a healthy scratch on Friday.

GIRAFFE GROWS UP: Canuck defenceman Luca Sbisa was a teammate and a roommate of Port Moody’s Ryan Johansen during part of the 2009-10 season with the Portland Winterhawks.

Sbisa knew Johansen would emerge as an NHL star with the Blue Jackets, but didn’t think it would happen so quickly.

“I didn’t think he was going to be this good this soon because he was like a baby giraffe,” Sbisa said Friday. “He is 220 pounds now but was 190 then and had no control over his limbs. But you could tell back then he was a special player.”

bziemer@vancouversun.com

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