Stars forward Beckman focusing on the now, not worried about future

“I’m just trying to play hockey and enjoy that,” he said after practice on Tuesday. “I like it that way.”

Beckman is currently billeting in the Battlefords along with two teammates – Dayton Buchanan and Austin King-Cunningham.

While Buchanan and King-Cunningham are further along in their growth spurts, Buchanan at 5’11” and King-Cunningham at an intimidating 6’2”, Beckman is just 5’9”, and that’s after a growth spurt this summer.

Beckman said getting accustomed to playing against bigger players in midget AAA was the biggest adjustment for him.

“As a young guy in the league, there are a lot of guys that are a lot bigger,” he said. “You’re 15-years-old playing against people that are men so that’s probably the biggest adjustment I had to make coming into the league. You can’t get away with doing toe drags and stuff.”

However, Beckman said he was never told he was “too small.”

There is certainly a new wave of smaller, skilled players making it pro in today’s game, and Beckman has taken notice.

“Hopefully I keep growing but I’ve never really been told I’m too small,” he said. “You see guys coming in playing in the [NHL] at like 5’6”, Tyler Ennis, or guys like Johnny Gaudreau – small players. I mean it’s developing to a point where I think smaller guys are better.”

Beckman’s biggest NHL role model is a player who’s neither small, nor large: Sidney Crosby.

It’s made him a huge Pittsburgh Penguins fan since he was little.

“The first [memory] I can go back to is when they won the Cup in ’09. I remember running around the street, so happy,” he recalled. “I would have been eight years old. That was when they kind of took flight.”

Those memories may be firmly ingrained, but his first shift in the league is a little bit fuzzy.

He remembers only part of it, and he took him a while to recall.

“I remember coming in and just chucking a shot from the blue-line,” he said. “That’s all I remember from my first shift.”

He would later score a goal, in his first career midget AAA game – something he has not forgotten – and teammate Donavon Beatty would go collect the puck and give it to Beckman to keep.

Stars head coach Jean Fauchon is thankful to have Beckman’s goal scoring touch in his lineup. But he also believes his enthusiasm is the biggest thing that stands out.

“He’s always a positive guy on the bench. He wants to get everybody going,” Fauchon said. “He’s got some offensive talent, he can be creative, and he loves to score. You can see it even in practice – he’s always cheering when he’s scoring and everything. He just brings a lot of energy to the team and it helps pick the team up.”

And at just 15, there’s clearly lots for Beckman to learn.

Any coach will tell you one of the most important things for young players is their eagerness to learn and soak in new information.

Fauchon said with Beckman, it’s no different.

“When you tell him something, he goes out and he does what you ask of him,” Fauchon said. “He’s going to be a great player. He’s already a really good player, but he’s going to be a great player once he gets a few more years of experience.”

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Stars forward Beckman focusing on the now, not worried about future

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