BIDDEFORD — Brian Dumoulin could someday skate in front of 20,000 hostile hockey fans, and if the NHL scouts are correct in their assessment of him, someday he will.
Yet even the most frenzied crowds ”“ be they whipped up for the Rangers or Blackhawks or Habs ”“ are not likely to faze the former Biddeford High star defenseman.
He has, after all, played tougher rooms.
Sitting down.
That’s the reward for being numbered among the elite 18-year-old hockey prospects, the likes of whom will be taken in the NHL draft being held Friday and Saturday in Montreal.
Dumoulin, along with his parents Pete and Deb, plus a caravan of his Tiger chums, will head to “La Belle Province” for what figures to a most monumental weekend for him.
“I just want to have a good time,” he said. “That’s why we’re going. Just to enjoy the trip.”
Broad shouldered, puck moving defensemen might grow like trees, when they’re young.
But they don’t grow on them.
Which is why blue chip blue liners such as the 6-foot-3 Dumoulin are in such short supply and in such high demand by Nationa l Hockey League clubs.
He’ll find out just how high for himself, by Saturday afternoon at the latest.
The seven-round draft meet will start Friday night (7 p.m.) with Round 1, with the remaining rounds to take place Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.
Dumoulin, who played last season for the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs, was seen nearly every night by NHL scouts.
Some nights, those talent hunters came to Monarch’ games with just one name on their watch lists.
“Dumoulin.”
He was ranked by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau 61st among all North American skaters, and could hear his named called out from the big stage somewhere around the second or third round.
However, no matter where in the draft he’s chosen, or which of the NHL’s 30 clubs grabs him, Dumoulin said he’s not going to worry about it.
This, after all, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
And besides, no matter which club takes him Dumoulin is almost certain to put his professional career on hold for at least a couple years, while he grooms his game at Boston College, beginning this fall.
“A lot of people have said just to be humble,” Dumoulin said. “Don’t be focused on where you’re going to go. Just enjoy the trip, because it’s all in their hands. We did the best we could for the whole year. So don’t stress out over it.”
Dumoulin lost all the stress ”“ along with plenty of fluids ”“ during the two-day Scouting Combine, which was held at a hotel in Toronto in front of a very select, and critical audience.
The first day consisted of interviews with team personnel gurus whose questions were designed to catch the young phenoms on the wrong end of a 3-on-1 mental breakaway.
Dumoulin, however, proved to be as nimble as Elvis Stojko on his figurative skates.
Or at least as nimble as a young man can be after eight hours of non-stop grilling by 20 different teams of interrogators.
“The weirdest question was from Toronto,” he said. “They laid out three pictures. Barack Obama, Sean Avery, and Maria Sharapova. They asked ”˜from one to three’ which would I want to (most) spend the day with. I picked Obama first, then Avery, then Maria Sharapova. They asked why I picked her last and I couldn’t think of anything. Then I said, ”˜because she’s a blonde. Blondes can’t carry on conversations.’
“They just started laughing. They said they said they’d never heard that answer. I was pretty comfortable with them.”
Dumoulin’s stint as a stand up jokester proved to be just a one night stand.
The next morning he played the role of “lab rat” for the benefit of all of hockey’s big cheeses.
There was nothing comfortable about the battery of physical rigors he was subjected to.
“All the tests,” he said. “There were like 500 people from the Bruins, Calgary, all the GMs. There are cameras in your face the whole time. You’re just getting studied. They make you take your shirt off and take pictures. But the workout. Oh, my gosh. I thought I was going to die during the VO2 test.
“I was about halfway done, and you’re supposed to keep your RPMs up to 80. I looked down at the bike and it said I was at 40. I’m like ”˜I can’t feel my legs.’ You want to give up, but you can’t. They’re screaming at you and you feel like you’re getting harrassed. It was exciting, but it was tough. I’m glad it’s over, but I’m glad I did it.”
All that poking and badgering proved to be worth it.
He graded out first among all 104 prospects in body fat content. His 6 percent measurement (the average was 9 percent) standing as a testament to Deb Dumoulin’s skills as a professional nutritionist.
His 80-inch “wing span,” ideal for leveraging himself against a smaller puck-carrier, was also tops among all the hopefuls (tied with 6-6 1â„2 behemoth Taylor Doherty), while he ranked third in the anaerobic fitness measurement of mean power output.
All of that data has already been weighed carefully by each club, and cross checked against all the scouting reports in its file.
Yet no amount of spirometry can measure the hockey heart that beats in a young man’s chest.
“They want to see how bad you want to play in the NHL,” said Dumoulin.
He’s already shown them that much.
Now it’s just a matter of where he’ll play it.
That answer should come this weekend.
— Contact Dan Hickling at 282-1535 ext. 318 or dhickling@journaltribune.com.
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