Bond of Brothers: Stars’ Jamie Benn Lives NHL Dream; Jordie Benn Now in Allen Seeking Same

Jamie Benn

By coincidence, the hockey playing Benn brothers from Victoria, B.C., both came into this season aiming to play for the Dallas Stars’ new American Hockey League affiliate down in Cedar Park near Austin. Jamie, a 20-year-old wing, instead earned a roster spot in Dallas, continuing his meteoric rise since being drafted in the fifth round only two years ago. Jordie, a 22-year-old defenseman, didn’t make the AHL Texas Stars’ roster and has been assigned to the new Central Hockey League club in Allen, the Americans.

Half a continent from home but about 15 minutes from each other, one Benn is living his NHL dream ahead of schedule while the other is seeking his own.

Inseparable was the first word that Randy Benn used to describe his two sons. “Best friends,” he added. “When Jordie was four and would go shoot pucks in the driveway, Jamie would go shoot pucks in the driveway.”

Hockey was only half of the Benn boys’ athletic passion while growing up on the south end of Vancouver Island. They also played baseball well into high school. Randy was a top-notch softball player in his day, playing on Canada’s team in the 1976 world championships and the 1979 Pan Am Games.

“People down in the States think all of Canada freezes over in the winter,” Randy said, some distain in his voice. “That happens here a week at the most.” The Benn boys played a lot of roller hockey, often on a neighbor’s tennis court.

Jamie with Kelowna

In 2004-05, Jordie joined the junior A Victoria team in the British Columbia Hockey League while Jamie played for the local junior B club, the Peninsula Panthers. They spent one season together with the Victoria Grizzlies, 2006-07. Jamie’s 42 goals in 53 games there earned him a mid-draft selection by the Stars and a spot in major juniors with the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets up in the mountains of eastern B.C. He led Kelowna in goals in 2007-08 and ’08-09 and followed last season’s effort with a terrific post-season (13 goals in 19 games as Kelowna won the league title). He added four goals in six games on the Team Canada squad that successfully defended its world juniors crown in Ottawa. Along the way, he grew from 5-7 while in junior B to 6-2, 207 pounds.

After that 2006-07 season when the brothers played together, Jordie remained with the Grizzlies for another season and was named the team’s most valuable player. He then signed with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, which assigned him to the Victoria Salmon Kings of the East Coast Hockey League. (Yes, the ECHL goes all the way to the West Coast.)

After the Manitoba contract expired, Jordie told his agent that he’d played in Victoria long enough and wanted a change of scenery. It was the agent, he said, who suggested the Texas Stars.

New Dallas Stars coach Marc Crawford had little to go on regarding Jamie when he was signed to replace Dave Tippett last summer. There were excellent “calling cards” on prospects that were put together by Les Jackson referring to the qualities that each should focus on. And Crawford watched Benn three times at the world juniors. “I did notice his quick hands and that he has a real good mind,” he said.

Injuries to Jere Lehtinen provided Jamie, a left-handed shot, additional exposure during the pre-season. In the game at St. Louis, he played on a line with Steve Ott and Tom Wandell and made a breakthrough in Crawford’s opinion.

“He seemed to springboard with his confidence,” Crawford said. “We kept putting him in positions that were conducive to allow his talents to come forward. A lot of time you put guys in positions like that, and not much happens. He led our team in scoring chances in the pre-season. He probably played the most. But you do that as a 20-year-old in the National Hockey League, that says a lot.”

Benn not only made the club, he was teamed with captain Brenden Morrow on Mike Ribeiro’s line beginning on opening night. On the recent three-game trip through western Canada, he picked up an assist in Edmonton, another in Calgary and his first NHL goal in Vancouver – in front of about 100 relatives and friends who took the ferry over from Victoria.

“I’m here now, and I’m loving it,” Jamie said.

Ribeiro noted that, at Benn’s age, he was just trying to keep his spot on the fourth line: “With his size and speed, he has everything to become a great player, and I think he’s been proving to us that he can help the team win right now. He will make the right play and the right decision. It’s surprising to see at that age he can do it.

“The only thing I told him last game was shoot the puck a little bit quicker. When you have a chance to shoot, shoot it. I’m not the biggest shooter. So if you have a chance to shoot, don’t pass.”

Jamie’s schooling in graduate-level hockey will continue on the job. Said Crawford: “We’ve been pretty good about recognizing that he hasn’t had to play away from the puck, which you get more so in the American Hockey League than in junior hockey. We do all the drills with him just on his coverage in the zone. We do a lot of puck protection, positioning drills, one-on-one so that he’s shading the right way. Those are things that any player will tell you they didn’t know a lot of when they first came into the league.”

Jamie is living with Wandell near the Stars’ Frisco headquarters. Jordie is living in Allen with teammate Liam Hucalek (HOOCH-a-lack). The brothers talk to each other just about every day and looked into the possibility of rooming together.

“We’re really close, but he needs to concentrate on his hockey and I need to concentrate on my hockey,” Jordie said. “Once he gets settled in and I get settled in and things get calmed down and into a routine, we’ll probably be able to see a lot of each other.”

Allen's Jordie Benn

Jordie – 6-0, 180 and also a left-handed shot – is one of six defensemen currently on the Americans’ roster and the youngest player on the team. The Americans will play at the new 6,100-seat Allen Event Center just off Highway 75 at Stacy Road. The Americans will open on Friday with the first of seven consecutive road games before hosting Corpus Christi on Nov. 7.

Randy and wife Heather are planning a mid-November trip to see the boys play. Jordie was able to attend Jamie’s NHL debut at home two weeks ago.

“We all knew he had a chance [to make the Stars this season],” Jordie said. “I’m sure my dad would be humble and say, ‘He has a chance, but he has to work hard.’ But in the back of our heads, we knew he was going to make it.

“My goal for the year is to play well here, get a lot of ice time, hopefully have a big role. Every guy’s dream is play in the National Hockey League. The way to do that is to work hard and just keep moving up.”

(The next in-game blog will be Friday night when Boston visits. On Friday morning, I’ll post an item looking back at the Bruins’ famous October visit in 1995 – the night of the Texas-OU game – when the Stars became the first NHL team to trail by two goals going into the last minute and win in regulation.)