Dan Falloon
Memo to opponents of the Thunder Bay Bantam Kings: don’t let Jordan Larson feel at home.
Not many teams figured out that wisdom as the 14-year-old Fort Frances product busted out for 125 points in 64 games with the Kings this season.
Things were a little different early in the season, however.
In his first year away from home, Larson admitted getting off to a relatively slow start, with just two goals and four points in his first six games of the season.
“It was a little different being away from home,” he acknowledged.
“The guys I was with helped me out a lot, like, on my line [Dylan Mascarin and Mikko Keski-Pukkila].”
In Larson’s seventh game of the season, he notched two goals and an assist and never looked back—only failing to hit the scoresheet in nine of the remaining 59 games.
“It took a while,” he remarked. “The first month, I wasn’t that high in points.
“Then I just got used to playing with my linemates.”
Kings’ coach Bruno Corbin praised Larson for his consistent effort in practice, which he felt showed up in game action.
“He may be talented, but he worked hard every practice. It was consistent,” Corbin said.
“I think that most kids that do excel have the same work ethic,” he reasoned. “They keep working hard because that’s the only way to go forward.
“You look at a kid that’s as talented as he is and look at his improvement.
“It’s so much more difficult to see because he starts off with so much talent, but he’s going forward.”
Still, toning down the intensity a notch was what Larson needed to do to overcome the early-season hiccups, Corbin noted.
“I think the adjustment was maybe just that he had high expectations, which there should be, but he just started relaxing a little more,” he observed.
“They want to perform so well that sometimes they overcompensate, and end up working too hard for less in return.
“Once he started pulling back and playing his smart game that he plays, things just started to fall in place,” Corbin remarked.
Larson also started to get comfortable with life in the Lakehead, and credited Corbin with helping him to adjust. Larson stayed with the Corbin family, including Kings’ goalie, Jamie, throughout the season.
“It was hard at first being away from all my friends and family, but I started getting new friends there and my billets just treated me like family, so it got easier,” Larson recalled.
But Corbin stressed Larson slid in seamlessly to the family’s routine.
“It didn’t change our family dynamic at all,” he maintained. “He fit in quite well and we enjoyed having him here, and I think he enjoyed staying here.
“I think they [Jordan and Jamie] were like brothers, and they got along really well.
“It was really good for them as a starting point, starting off Grade 9 [at Hammarskjold High School]. It worked out really well,” Corbin concluded.
On the ice, Larson, Mascarin, and Keski-Pukkila ended up leading the Kings’ charge as the team’s top three scorers, although Larson’s 75 goals were nearly one-third of the team’s output—dwarfing his nearest teammate by 49 tallies.
“Obviously, I like to score goals, that’s what I do,” said Larson. “Scoring a goal every game was good.”
He models his game after Philadelphia Flyers’ captain and Kenora native Mike Richards, a rugged NHL player and Canadian Olympian.
“I like to play defence, too. I don’t just focus on my offensive game,” Larson stressed. “All my coaches taught me how to play defence, and from playing in Fort, it’s always been defence first.
“I just think of playing defence and then goals will come after that,” he reasoned.
Corbin agreed that for as much of a contribution Larson made offensively, he was just as reliable trying to keep pucks out of the Kings’ net.
“[He’s] as good as any of our top defensive forwards,” Corbin said. “We told the kids at the beginning of the year that you earn your time in those special-teams situations.
“The expectation when you’re on the PK [penalty kill] is blocking shots, being in the right position, those types of things are very important.”
As well, Corbin said Larson’s ability to control the game without the puck was notable.
“Playing without the puck is one aspect,” he explained. “Scouts will always say, ‘He can play with the puck, but can he play without the puck?’ and I’ll say he’s a step ahead of the majority of the kids his age.”
But when the goals come, Larson noted they don’t tend to be just tip-ins and tap-ins.
“They’re usually nice ones, shots like [Washington Capitals’ superstar Alexander] Ovechkin,” he chuckled.
Larson contributed 12 points (five goals and seven assists) to help the Kings to a 4-3-1 record at the Ontario Bantam playdowns March 22-27 in Ottawa, which made Corbin particularly proud.
“When you compete with the best in the province and you perform, that’s certainly an indication that you’ve gone in the right direction,” he enthused.
However, to make that tournament, Larson had to endure some tough competition from a team comprised of some former teammates, including David Ross, Nolan Ross, Ian Kitt, Judd Gardiman, Colton Spicer, and Scott Parsons.
“I’ve always been on those guys’ team,” Larson said of the Team Northwestern All-Stars, whom the Kings defeated twice to advance to the provincials.
“I like to play against them but I didn’t really rub it in, though, because they’re all my good friends,” he stressed.
“I knew they were all good players, and I knew how to deal with them and stuff, so I think that made it easier on me, knowing all of them.”
Larson hopes to make it to the NHL one day, but will spend one more year with the Kings next season before his name can be called at the Ontario Hockey League draft.
“My goal is to be drafted first round for OHL,” he remarked. “I’ve heard a couple names [of teams scouting], and a couple of agents have been looking at me and talking to me.”
Corbin anticipates Larson will receive significant attention in the coming year with the Minor Midget Kings.
“I expect that he’ll be looked at very seriously for the OHL draft,” he predicted. “He’s got a lot of skill, but it’s the intangibles, the game sense, that he has that really is noticeable.
“It’s something that’s either hard to teach, or impossible, and he just has it,” Corbin added.
“It’s a special asset that’s hard to find, and I think that’s why he’ll be sought after by OHL teams.”
