Odin Omdahl - Junior Review [2/2]

[zepheter 585]

Odin Omdahl

21 Years

6'2"

190 lbs.

Hillsborough, County Down, Northern Ireland

 

          Odin Omdahl began his unusual hockey career at the age of four, when his hockey fanatic parents gifted him a full sheet of synthetic ice for him to play on. While his parents have been watching hockey for years, they never had the opportunity to truly show their love for hockey until they had a child. Despite his parents' tremendous wealth, due to their work obligations, they could never move closer to an ice rink. So, the "ice" came to them. This story brought a lot of publicity to the town, and inspired many retired professional hockey players to volunteer at their synthetic ice rink to grow the sport in Ireland. Although Odin was receiving some group training at a young age, his parents wanted him to take it more seriously.

          As a seventh birthday present, his parents hired a personal trainer. He would work with his trainer five days a week for the next nine years. Only taking breaks for the occasional vacation as well as travel throughout Europe for camps and tournaments with club teams. His journeys through Europe have proven to be crucial to his development by giving him experience playing against skilled players at his age group, rather than beating up on the same kids back home. This also assisted in building his draft stock.

          Now that Omdahl was sixteen, he and his parents decided he should enter the CHL Import Draft that summer. After being selected by the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL, he said his goodbyes and left his home in Ireland to pursue his ultimate goal of turning pro. In his first season playing in North America, he didn't find too much success while playing on the third pairing, but showed enough promise near the end of the season up until they were eliminated in the QMJHL West Quarterfinal. Now that he had experience playing on a smaller sheet of ice, he was able to catch fire at the start of his second season. Five games in, he took the team lead in points and never slowed down. Omdahl finished the season with 9 goals and 64 assists for 73 points, which led all defensemen in the QMJHL. While Omdahl found success, the Huskies weren't as successful as their previous season, getting knocked out in the first round. He would go on to score 16 goals and 72 assists for 88 points in the next season, absolutely dominating every team he faced. The Huskies would find an easy path to the President's Cup Final, where they would oppose the Halifax Mooseheads and win in six games. Omdahl led his team with 28 points in 20 games heading into the Memorial Cup round robin, where they went 2-1 before moving on to the playoff round where they would face the Guelph Storm. In a high scoring game, Odin would score two goals in a 6-4 win, along with the game winner. The Huskies once again challenge the Memorial Cup hosting Halifax Mooseheads. In a close game, he would get off to a slow start, but would add an assist on the first goal of the night, and tying the game with less than a minute left to send the game to overtime. Although he was not on the ice for the game winning goal, Omdahl and the Rouyn Noranda Huskies finished the season as champions. After celebrating with his team, Odin would finally go home to Northern Ireland to spend time with his family and train for the upcoming VHLM draft.

Edited October 19, 2019 by zepheter

[zepheter 585]

Damn that was actually a boring read

[Ricer13 2,593]

Review: Pretty dry read but I actually enjoyed The fact that there was no struggle. Everyone has struggle and yet Odin is a rich kid who got everything he needed to be successful.

[Kekzkrieg 160]

Review: Pretty cool idea on the use of synthetic ice in helping Odin develop! From the way it sounds, it almost seems like his parents were pushing him to continue playing hockey throughout his childhood which is an interesting factor in his drive to be one of the best. The details in his story are great along with the statistics and good take on clarifying that he was not on the ice for the final goal in his last game. Hopefully that'll change soon enough!