That
Brandon Saad's journey to the NHL began with ball hockey games in the
cul-de-sac in front of his childhood home in Gibsonia, Pa., is telling.
Family
is entwined through the fabric of Saad's progression from natural
athlete growing up in the community about 25 miles north of Pittsburgh
to Blackhawks left wing with a future as bright as any young player in
the NHL.
At 22, he has already earned the faith of coach Joel
Quenneville, having played a huge role in the Hawks' run to the 2013
Stanley Cup and is an integral part of the current group locked in a
battle with the Ducks in the Western Conference finals. Once the
playoffs end, Saad will become a restricted free agent, one who could
tempt other teams to tender him an offer sheet. But general manager Stan
Bowman leaves little room for doubt about Saad's future.
"He's
emerged as a guy coaches trust, so I would think he's going to play an
even bigger role next year," Bowman told the Tribune. "He's ready for
that. He'll be 23 and he'll have a couple of years of solid NHL
experience under his belt. He's ready for taking that next step to being
a featured guy.
"We'll get him signed."
Saad's odyssey to reach this point has ties that run from Syria to Pennsylvania to Chicago.
It
is a tale that includes a grandfather who was an NFL official who
worked two Super Bowls, a father who moved to the United States from
Syria at 18 and continues to work to bring every relative still in the
war-torn country to safety in the United States, a stay-at-home mother
who introduced her two sons to hockey and a brother who was a standout
player and mentor before injuries derailed his career.
They
helped Saad develop from a boy who collected hundreds of hockey pucks
that he kept under his bed and at one point told teachers he didn't need
to study "because I'm going to be a hockey player someday" to the top
line of the Hawks.
"We were always close growing up, whether it
was my parents or brother doing sports together and my parents working
to provide for us and taking care of us," Saad said. "They are the
reason I'm here today."
It was those countless hockey games on
roller blades in Gibsonia against friends and brother George Saad Jr.
that kicked things off.
"In the street, we always played against
each other," Brandon said of his older brother. "Being a couple of years
older, he was always a little bigger, a little stronger and faster, and
that helped me with trying to compete with the big boys. It helped me
elevate my game."
First, though, mother Sandra had to step in and make an adjustment.
"Brandon
always wanted to be a goalie," she said. "I said, 'Son, you can't be
there, you have too much speed, so don't even think about it.' "
Saad's speed, natural ability and drive became apparent early on.
"He
never liked to lose," George Jr. said. "Being brothers we always
battled it out and pushed each other. He always was very driven. If he
did lose, he always wanted to keep playing until he won. He always gave
his best to be the best he could be."
Hockey wasn't always the family sport.
"I grew up with football," Sandra said.
Her
father, Gil Mace, was an NFL official, who worked Super Bowl XVIII in
1984 as a back judge and Super Bowl XXI in 1987 as a side judge.
Brandon
and his brother played hockey and football in high school but
eventually had to make a decision, and hockey won out. They played
together in junior hockey before George Jr. headed off to Penn State.
"I
played a lot of sports growing up, just trying to be a well-rounded
athlete and then when I got to high school I just focused on hockey,"
Brandon said. "I've always seemed to have success at it and always had
more fun playing it. I love the speed of the game."
Saad
eventually landed in the U.S. National Team Development Program, where
he caught Bowman's eye as a non-draft-eligible underage player.
"When
I went to watch the U.S. program, they said the best forwards on this
team are the underages and this kid here, Saad, is going to be a great
player next year," Bowman said. "The next year he went to Saginaw (of
the Ontario Hockey League) and I remember seeing him play early in the
year. He was skilled, but he wasn't like Patrick Kane. He wasn't
dazzling, he just was effective. He did the right things all the time.
He's strong and he just knew how to play the game. That's sort of how it
came to be that we drafted him."
The
Hawks did so in the second round of the 2011 NHL draft, and two years
later he was skating on the top line with Jonathan Toews and Marian
Hossa, helping lead the Hawks to their second Stanley Cup in four years.
"(Saad)
is a powerful guy," Bowman said. "When you play with two elite players
like Toews and Hossa, those guys are superstars, so for a young kid to
come in and be able to read off them and be able to complement them to
the point where they enjoy playing with him? That says something. They
enjoyed playing with him from the first time that line came together.
It's his recognition, his ability to instinctively know how they're
going to play."
Said Toews: (Saad) is a smart player. I said this
when he was in his first year in the league, he was scoring, he was
making big plays (and) making a difference in games. A young player
sometimes may have a couple good games and they get excited and may sit
back and rest on their laurels, (but) he wasn't satisfied. He kept
building off the good games. He continues to do that."
Saad
took a big step this season, during which he set career highs with 23
goals — including six game-winners — 29 assists and 52 points. He has
played a big role in the Hawks' run to the Western Conference finals
against the Ducks with four goals — including a key short-handed score
during the first period of the Hawks' 5-4 victory against the Ducks in
Game 4 on Saturday night.
"He's going to be a big part of our team
going forward," Bowman said. "Looking at the landscape, we've got Toews
and Kane, and Saad and (Teuvo) Teravainen are sort of going to be the
next tandem that's going to be significant players for us for years to
come."
One potential hurdle is another team submitting an offer
sheer for Saad that the Hawks would have to match. A big offer could
further deepen the Hawks' salary-cap woes, but Bowman said he isn't
concerned.
"I don't worry about that," Bowman said. "He's a big part of this and he's going to continue to be."
Saad said he is fine with that.
"I want to end up in Chicago for sure," he said. "They've treated me nothing but great here."
Whatever
his future holds, Saad's family will continue to be by his side. His
biggest fans are his parents, led by his hockey-crazed father, George
Sr., who grew up in Syria, not exactly a hockey hotbed.
"I had
absolutely zero exposure to hockey," George Sr. said. "Now, I am
actually as fanatic as you're going to get. The whole family follows
him: cousins, aunts, uncles — they're hooked."
Among those are the
family members the land developer has brought to the U.S. from Syria,
which is in the throes of a violent civil war.
Brandon Saad has followed the developments even while focusing on hockey.
"I
know we're getting most of them to come over here and live near us and
become American citizens and work," he said. "It's been great hearing
stories about that. Any day with stuff going on there anything can
happen, but for the majority they're all safe and it feels good."
That is important to Saad, who credits his upbringing and continued closeness with his family for his success.
"That's
a huge part of it to have that support," he said. "All of us want to be
here, but to have that drive and have that support behind you is always
huge. For me, personally, it's why I'm here."
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