Past and Present Players: Kyle Turris and Steve Yzerman

In the second installment of my Past and Present National Hockey League player comparisons, I'll take a look at two B.C. boys with the make-up and toolset that any coach in the right mind would want on their team.

New Westminster, British Columbia is about a nine and a half hour and 953.72 km drive to Cranbrook, British Columbia. It is a long and grueling ride in which you would pass many different cities on the way including Seattle and Spokane from below the 49th parallel. Cranbrook has been already put on the map by ten-time National Hockey League all-star Steve Yzerman. And if it hasn’t already, New Westminster will soon too be put on the map by a nineteen year-old NHL prospect who wears number nineteen in honor of Steve Yzerman, who is listed as his all-time favorite player.

This nineteen year-old I speak of is Kyle Turris, who currently plays for the University of Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA's Western Collegiate Hockey Association. After completely ripping up the British Columbia Junior “A” Hockey League with the Burnaby Express last season, Turris was drafted 3rd overall this past summer by Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes in the 2007 National Hockey League Amateur Entry Draft. Over the course of Turris’ fresh start to his career; he has drawn many rave comparisons to Steve Yzerman, and justifiably so.

The biggest similarity between Turris’ and Yzerman’s game is the character they play with on the ice, along with the natural leadership ability they have off of it. Yzerman retired as the longest-serving captain of any team in North American major league sports history, and in Detroit is often simply referred to as "The Captain." How’s that for leadership? Turris hasn’t been named captain on any prominent teams thus far, but that’s not because he’s not a commendable leader. The only explanation is that Turris has always been one of the youngest players on almost every team he’s played on because of his immense skill set, which is the case right now with the University of Wisconsin Badgers. Don’t be surprised if Turris will be donning the “C” on his jersey a couple years down the road with Wisconsin, well that’s if Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes haven’t snatched him up by then. And in that case, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Turris was named captain with the Phoenix Coyotes soon after his anticipated arrival with the big club.

Steve Yzerman was never the fastest skater at any level he played at, he was usually in the middle of the pack when it came to skating ability and the same can be said for Kyle Turris. However just like Turris, Yzerman always made up for his average foot speed with his innate hockey smarts. A great skater doesn’t always make a great hockey player, yet a player who possesses natural hockey sense will be a great player nine times out of ten. That was the case with Yzerman, and that is currently the case with Turris. Another feature that of Turris’ game that is comparable to that of Yzerman’s is his lethal snap shot. Yzerman never won the hardest shot competition and it’s very likely that Turris won’t either, however they both have shots that make opposing goaltenders cringe. It’s not necessarily the velocity of the shot as much it is the accuracy, the quick release, and the almost instant elevation of the puck. In today’s day and age, a quick and precise snap shot is usually more dangerous and effective than an enormous slap shot, simply because players rarely have the time for a big wind up anymore.

I’m not here to tell you that Turris will win three Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe trophy, a Lester B. Pearson Award, a Frank J. Selke Trophy, a Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy and a Lester Patrick Trophy like Yzerman did in his illustrious career, however if his pre-NHL performance is any indication, the sky is the limit on Turris’ untapped potential.