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30 for 30: A Day In the Life The Beaver Beaverton story On this episode of 30 for 30, we will take a look at the young but promising career of Beaver Beaverton, a hopeful prospect out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Recently drafted into the VHLM by the Bratislava Watchmen, we will dive into rollercoaster ride of his upbringing and how he was able to overcome many hurdles onto his path towards stardom. Where it all began Beaver Beaverton, born on October 22nd 1998, had a less than optimal upbringing where he faced many obstacles. When he was just two years old, his immediate family moved from his birthplace of Sudbury, Ontario to Winnipeg, where they were forced to move because of his dads’ job relocation. Although Beaver didn’t have many memories of his time in Sudbury, the Beavertons did leave behind their extended family, which would eventually prove to become very troublesome. In a new city where they didn’t know many people, the Beavertons rallied together and supported each other on a path to their new journey. Growing up in a very fluent bilingual family, Beaver was immediately attracted to his parents’ favorite hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens. “I remember watching the Habs every Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada religiously. I would sit on the couch with my Mom and Dad to cheer on le bleu, blanc et rouge every week, no questions asked” said Beaver. In his early days, after each Montreal game, Beaver and his Mom would play this silly hand hockey game that he invented in his living room, where he imitated his favorite players: Jose Theodore, Saku Koivu and Richard Zednick to name a few. He had grown a profound love for the game of hockey. The struggles For the first few years, the Beavertons were taking the change in scenery quite well. They were a tight nit family who did everything together, such as going to their local amusement park, watch the latest movies at the cinemas together and even took a few road trips out to western Canada. Fast forward four years to when Beaver was but 6 years old, his family had just received the news that grandpa Beaverton had passed away. No one took this tragic news harder than Beavers father, Castor. In fact, Castor had such a hard time with the passing of his father, that he turned to alcohol and gambling to numb the pain. Having blown thousands of dollars, Castor was in deep financial trouble and had a hard time making payments, let alone buying his son hockey equipment or registering him into a league. At school, Beaver would always hear his friends, who were fortunate enough to play on hockey teams’, talk about how great their team was and that proved to be hard on him. Beaver had eventually gotten his hands on a pair of hand me down skates that were a couple sizes too big for him and a broken hockey stick that he had found at his local outdoor rink. While his friends were attending their practices and hockey games after school, Beaver would find himself at his local community center learning how to skate by himself. Overcoming adversity At the ripe age of eleven, Beaver had had enough and decided to get himself a paper route in hopes of earning enough money to play hockey with his friends next hockey season. He had worked hard all summer making 20$ a week, and soon enough, he had saved up enough money to buy second hand hockey equipment. Excited by his accomplishment, Beaver had worked even harder during the school year and ended up with a second paper route. By the time hockey season had rolled around, Beaver could afford to register himself into a hockey league with his friends. Watching his son hop onto the ice with his friends brought a new spark into Castors’ life, a spark that had been extinguished for many years. Attending his sons’ hockey games was his form of self-therapy, in which helped steer clear of the demons that were haunting him. On the path to stardom Most people would think that missing five or six years of development would have hindered Beavers play compared to the rest of the players, but that was not the case. In fact, Beaver was a very visual person where he had learned the ins and outs of the game of hockey by simply watching his favorite hockey team on television. All those years of skating, stickhandling and shooting in solitude had actually proven to be very beneficial. He had taught himself a very creative and fast passed style of game which had earned him an award for being the top scorer in his peewee league in his first season of organized hockey. Beaver had turned a lot of coach’s heads in his rookie season, as a matter of fact, the next year he had made his local AA and he kept climbing the ranks year after year. Fast-forward five years where Beaver finds himself to be the captain of his provincial AAA hockey team, the Winnipeg Warriors. With junior scouts at every single one of his games, Beaver ended the season with an impressive total of 89 points in 38 games where he had accumulated an astonishing 50 goals. With many junior offers on the table, Beaver ended up taking the unusual choice of choosing to play his junior career with the Penticton Vees out of the BCHL. He had struggled his first year, according to his standards, accumulating just 46 points in a very limited role. He then proceeded to explode the next year and turned the corner, becoming a bonafide junior prospect. Playing on a line with a solidified drafted player, Tyson Jost, Beaver had earned an “A” on his jersey and finished the season with an incredible 102 points. Draft day And now here we are, Wednesday, November 23rd 2016 at the VHLM dispersal draft, where Beaver Beaverton had seen his name drop past the first and second round. This had Beaver questioning himself whether he had made the right decision on committing to the BCHL instead of the traditional route. Finally at pick number 20, his moment had finally arrived… “The Bratislava Watchmen are very proud to select out of the BCHLs Penticton Vees, Beaver Beaverton”. Beaver, accompanied by his mother and father had jumped out of their seats in joy. “I’m so proud of you son” whispered his father into his ear before he walked up on stage to put on the Watchmen’s hat and jersey. P.S. I am in no way making fun of alcohol or gambling addiction.

Woooow that's unreal! Thank you so much for your work, it's truly appreciated! And how did you know the habs were my favorite team?

Beaver Beaverton – Rookie Profile Full Name: Beaver Beaverton Position: RW Age: 18 Birthplace: Winnipeg, MB, Canada Junior team: Penticton Vees Last season stats: 56GP 53G 49A 102PTS (BCHL) Year Team League Stats (G-A-PTS) 2013-2014 Winnipeg Warriors WBAAA 50G 39A 89PTS 2014-2015 Penticton Vees BCHL 24G 22A 46PTS 2015-2016 Penticton Vees BCHL 53G 49A 102PTS Beaver Beaverton, a Penticton Vees prospect out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, comes into the draft as a highly touted offensive dynamo. After registering a 102 point campaign in what many scouts predict will be his last season in the BCHL, he is exhilarated to take the next step in his career. Many scouts that I have talked to proclaim that this guy will be a hard-nosed sniper who is a threat to score on every shift once he reaches his full potential. “[He] is a player that embodies the worn out cliché, ‘good Canadian boy’ on and off the ice.” -Former teammate – Tyson Jost Serving as an assistant captain in the 2015-2016 season, Beaver Beaverton cemented himself as a key player in the Penticton Vees journey towards a league championship. Along with being a main contributor in the teams’ leadership core, scouts were very pleased to see a jump in production in his second year in the league. This jump in production saw Beaver accumulate 56 more points than his rookie campaign, where this year 57.8% (59pts) of his points came at ES. “His qualities that stick out the most are his sneaky quick release that he can fire off the rush and his ability to find open space, he’s going to be a good one.” -Anonymous VHL scout Strengths Scoring: Whether he’s finding a dead spot in coverage on the powerplay, crashing and banging for those garbage goals or sniping one past the goalies ear on the rush, Beaver just finds a way to put the puck in the back of the net. This multi-dimensional right winger is not afraid to put the pucks on net, in fact, he amassed 224 shots in 56 games during the 2015-2016 season with the Vees. If he were to fire the puck at that rate during an 82 game season, he would have racked up 328 shots, fantasy hockey players rejoice. Passing: Although at first glance he may seem like a shoot-first kind of player, Beaver definitely has some underrated passing abilities. While many teams overplay his shot on the powerplay, he uses it to his advantage and is able to find those open seams that get created because of this. He thrives off of the cycle game to find an open man in the opponents’ zone, but he is also great at finding his uncovered teammates off the rush. Leadership: “I remember one game early on in the year where I was skating into the corner to retrieve and puck and got hit pretty hard from behind. After collecting myself, I looked up and Beaver already has his gloves off going after the guy that hit me. That’s all you need to know about his leadership abilities.” – Tyson Jost Weaknesses Strength: Standing at 6 feet 2 inches and 210 lbs, Beaverton will have to fill out his frame a bit more to withstand the hits he’ll be facing in the big leagues. Although his game doesn’t rely on him delivering the big blows, he will have to put on more strength if he wants to continue driving the net like he did in juniors. Skating: I wouldn’t say skating is one of his biggest flaws, in fact he has above average top end speed, but Beaver will have to work on his first couple of steps if he wants to activate on the rush at the pro level. His lateral movement will have to be refined as well which will benefit his overall defensive game. Defense: Although he has exceptional work ethic in his own zone, he does sometimes get lost in his coverage. Whichever team drafts Beaver will have to sit him down and run through some game footage to show him some areas he can improve on. The good thing is, you can teach defensive coverage but you can’t teach heart or the god given talent to put the puck in the back of the net like this guy. Shoutout to Tyson Jost for the kind words.