December 28, 2011
Obstacle course
South Glens Falls, N.Y., native Shawn Weller has overcome plenty, on and off the ice, to cement his status as an AHL regular with St. John’s
by Tim McManus/Correspondent
Shawn Weller (photo: Jeff Parsons/St. John's Ice Caps)
After a college hockey game at Clarkson his freshman year, Shawn Weller’s mom, Kathy, met him outside the locker room. Weller was locked in the worst scoring drought of his career and she had a helpful suggestion.
“Maybe you should get your eyes checked?” she asked, completely serious.
Welller, who has better than 20/20 vision, declined the exam. But he did start a tradition he carries on, inking a pair of eyes onto every new stick he gets.
Overcoming every obstacle since hasn’t been that easy. But four years after making his professional debut, the South Glens Falls, N.Y., native is finally playing his best hockey in the AHL with the St. John’s Ice Caps.
Weller had 10 points in St. John’s first 15 games as the Ice Caps put up the league’s best record. After getting just one point in his first six games, Weller had nine over his next nine to solidify his spot in the lineup, and recently has even earned power-play time.
“I aways said if I got a good opportunity I could produce in the AHL,” Weller said. “Now, I’m showing I can.”
Weller, 25, has been waiting for that chance since beginning his career with Binghamton after three solid seasons at Clarkson that culminated in him leading his team in scoring and leading them to the NCAA tournament in 2007.
But he never seemed to fit in the organization – Ottawa’s -- that once thought highly enough of him to draft him in the third round in 2004.
Weller had just 25 points in 134 disappointing games with the B-Sens, while often being sent to Elmira in the ECHL.
“My first couple years I wasn't getting much opportunity, maybe four minutes a game sometimes,” Weller said. “Looking at the stats … it doesn’t look like I did very well, but I didn’t get much ice time.”
Before the 2009 season, the Senators gave up on Weller, trading him to the Anaheim organization for an ECHL player who is no longer in the league. The Ducks didn’t have an AHL team, so they assigned him to Bakersfield in the ECHL, putting his future as an AHL player in doubt.
Weller responded with an All-Star season -- 46 points in 42 games -- and earned a loan to the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat.
"I wasn't happy, but you have to make the best of that opportunity," Weller said. “We pretty much had an AHL team there.”
Since the call-up, Weller has remained in the AHL. He signed with the Winnipeg organization and, after a year with their AHL affiliate in Manitoba, moved to St. John’s with the team.
Weller’s 45 points in 113 games since leaving Bakersfield may not be overwhelming, but for a 6-foot-3 guy who can hit, fight and play solid defensively, he’s found a role.
“It’s going really good,” Weller said. “We’ve been seeming to find ways to win. It’s a lot of guys from last year. Everyone is pretty familiar.”
Weller is no stranger to taking the hard route. His plan from a young age was to play Division 1 hockey -- and that was no given.
No one from his family had ever gone to college. And the greater Glens Falls area has never been a hotbed for future professional talent.
Weller’s high school, South Glens Falls High, annually struggles to field a team and compete in the Capital District High School Hockey League. Staying there beyond his freshman year wasn’t an option if he really wanted to play college hockey.
Weller showed up unknown and uninvited for a skating camp with the Capital District Selects, a junior hockey team coached by Jim Salfi that plays out of RPI’s Houston Field House in Troy.
A few days after the eye-opening camp, Salfi was at the Weller’s kitchen table trying to convince the family not to send him to Loomis-Chafee prep school in Connecticut.
The pitch worked.
A year later, after a game when Shawn ripped a goal from beyond the blue line, a coach from a Canadian junior team chased Salfi around the rink at a tournament, offering him $5,000, and later $9,000, to buy Weller’s rights. Salfi wouldn’t consider it.
Soon after, Weller landed the coveted scholarship from Clarkson and was drafted in the third round by the Senators in 2004.
But the college dream almost derailed before it began when Weller was initially judged to be ineligible.
The question was a few math credits from high school. The NCAA required three, so Weller took three years of math. But unknown to him, a couple of the classes were below level and the NCAA recognized him for only 2.75 credits.
While his teammates practiced and opened the season, Weller skated alone and stewed in his dorm room as Clarkson appealed. Two weeks into the season, a few hours before a home game, he got a knock on his door from then-assistant coach Greg Drechsel.
"You want to play tonight?" Drechsel asked. The NCAA had granted the appeal.
Did he ever. Weller ran down the hallway, celebrating with the guys who’d been bringing "Free Weller" signs to games.
Then he called his dad. The elder Weller, also named Shawn, got the call on a front loader, working out on Warren Street in Glens Falls.
"I swung the loader right around in the middle of the road and I went back to my crew, dropped the bucket down, and said: ‘I’m leaving. He’s playing,’” his father said.
He picked up Kathy and they got there just in time to see their son score on his first shot on net. Then again on his second.
The moment was as thrilling for its parents as for him. The family raised him on modest means in a house about a mile and a half from the Glens Falls Civic Center, where he’d play floor hockey while the Adirondack Red Wings were winning Calder Cup titles.
His parents befriended the players, bringing them to the family home for dinner, a move that probably sealed the young Weller’’s fate as a hockey player. The family sacrificed much to make that happen.
His mother took a second job working the breakfast shift at McDonald's. They never got any new furniture. A new car was a pipe dream.
Those sacrifices were something Weller remembered when he signed his first professional contract.
"They go to work every day and they're not excited to get up at 5 in the morning," Weller said. "It’s not about the money, it’s about the opportunity. It’s about the opportunity to wake up and do what I love."
Tim McManus can be reached at feedback@nyhockeyjournal.com.
AROUND THE AHL
After starting the season as one of the league’s most potent offensive teams, the Adirondack Phantoms had just three even-strength goals in their last six games through Nov. 18. ... After opening the season 1-5, the Albany Devils had points in nine of their next 10 games (seven wins) to climb back into contention in the Norteast Division. ... The Binghamton Senators’ win on Nov. 19 was their first in nine games. ... After losing to Syracuse 5-2 on Nov. 5, the Rochester Ameicans won their next four games, including two over Syracuse. ... Through Nov. 18, the Syracuse Crunch had four forwards playing at a point-per-game pace or better.
-- TIM McMANUS
