Flames’ Tanev reflects on unique road to NHL, Masterton Trophy nomination

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He’s known now as a guy who will play through almost any sort of pain.

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This was different.

As a high-school student, still waiting on a growth spurt and separated from some of his closest pals and longtime teammates, Chris Tanev’s parents wanted to protect their son from any further hockey heartache. At that point, an extended career on a big-league blue-line — the latest addition to Tanev’s stellar resume came Monday, when the 32-year-old was revealed as the Calgary Flames’ nominee for the Masterton Trophy — seemed like a pipe-dream, or whatever is a little more far-fetched than that.

“In Grade 10 and 11, I was really small. I was about 5 feet tall,” Tanev said, reminiscing about his unique road to the NHL. “I was cut from tons of teams so it just wasn’t fun for me. I mean, when you play from when you’re six or seven until 14 with sort of the same people and then, all of a sudden, your friends are making that next step and you’re not able to play anymore or not able to make a team, it’s not fun and it sucks.

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“So my parents — mom and dad, but dad especially — just said to take a step away. I played a lot of baseball. Played roller hockey, which was fun. And then when I grew again, my dad did a good job of pushing me to go play junior. So I went from not playing for two years basically to going to play Junior A.”

The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is an annual nod to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to their craft.

The leaguewide slate of nominees — one from each club — was announced Monday. Tanev was selected by the Calgary chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), including Postmedia’s beat reporters.

“Obviously anytime you get named for something like that, it’s pretty cool and an honour,” he said. “But there’s a lot of guys that fall under that category on our team.”

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They’d all tell you that Tanev is a terrific choice.

He’s a fearless shot-blocker, a quiet but respected voice in the locker-room and the Flames’ most dependable defenceman. It’s a bonus that he’s also enjoying a career-best offensive campaign, with 28 points so far. He piled up three assists in Saturday’s victory over the Vancouver Canucks, his original employer.

While Tanev had some tough luck with injuries during a decade-long stint on the West Coast, he’s proven durable in his two campaigns in Cowtown. In fact, he’s yet to miss a game. He squirms when asked about playing through pain, crediting the doctors for diagnosing any issues, the athletic therapists for top-notch treatment and the equipment staff for proving extra padding around any sore spots. He insists “a lot of guys play though a lot of stuff.”

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“In terms of dedication, I think his game kind of speaks for itself,” said Tanev’s younger brother Brandon, who quickly established himself as a fan favourite with the expansion Seattle Kraken but is currently recovering from knee surgery. “I mean, I’m his brother but I think you ask any of his teammates over the course of his career thus far and they’ll tell you that his dedication to the team and a team role and the team winning is above and beyond. I think night after night, he kind of puts his himself and puts his body on the line for the team and the result of getting two points and winning.

“At the end of the day, I think he appreciates and values the team success more than he does individual success. So whether it’s blocking a shot, doing the little things that the team needs to get two points, playing through injuries … Chris is somebody who isn’t going to complain or isn’t going to tell you if things with his body are not in the greatest shape or greatest place. I think he’s one who is just going to show up to the rink and work hard for his teammates.

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“I think that’s his mindset, that’s his motto, is team-first and always go out there and compete in the situation and understand that everything you do is for the betterment of the team.”

It’s crazy now to think that for two winters as a teen, the Toronto-raised rearguard wasn’t even part of a competitive-level team.

He stayed busy with schoolwork, with other sports and with a pair of part-time jobs — building pies at Pizza Pizza and working in the meat department at a grocery store — and filled any spare hours by hanging out with friends.

He only laced up his skates for high-school hockey. The scouts don’t bother tracking that level.

When Chris finally sprouted at 17, his father Mike encouraged him to return to his puck pursuits.

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And if he hadn’t?

“I maybe just would have went to U of T and studied business,” Chris shrugged. “But he did a really good job of pushing me to get back in the game. Him and my mom (Sophie Meredith) were obviously my two biggest fans. A lot of people, I think, throughout the years said he was crazy because he’d go around the rinks and tell everyone how good I was. But at the end of the day, he helped me a lot and pushed the right buttons to get to where I needed to be.”

Mike was right. Chris, although never drafted, was a heck of a hockey player. Still is.

His defence partners rave about his consistency and his calming presence. He serves as an alternate captain for the Flames, is their most important penalty-killer and leads this playoff-bound bunch in blocked shots.

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“His journey to get to where he is today, obviously it’s a little different path than most guys that have reached the NHL and have had great careers,” said Brandon, 30, who also made the rare rise from Toronto-area high-school hockey to The Show. “I think that’s an aspect a lot of people may not know about Chris — to take away a couple of years in his prime development years, as you could call it, that’s not an easy task to do. And to continue, to come back and play junior hockey, to get a scholarship at Rochester Institute of Technology, make it to the Frozen Four and then go on and sign with Vancouver … I think that speaks volumes of the person and the character that Chris has, to be able to deal with adversity and kind of take the punches as you go.”

Now a Masterton Trophy nominee, Chris looks back on that hockey hiatus as a good thing.

“At some point, everyone faces some kind of adversity,” he said. “My brother and I, he’s almost the same story as me, and we faced it maybe a bit earlier than other people have. But at some point, everyone sort of has to deal with that kind of adversity and pushing through something.

“I think it was a really good life lesson for me and something that pushes me to work every day.”

wgilbertson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/WesGilbertson