Junior Review: Jaron Plotkin

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Jaron Plotkin was born on November 4, 2002 and is currently 17 years old. He grew up in Dawson City, Yukon which is situated right next to the America-Canada border. His fond love for hockey started when he was a little boy at around 2 or 3 years old. His father wanted nothing more than for him to play in the VHL. So almost everyday after Jaron's dad came home from work he would help Jaron practice his skills on the ice, they would practice skating, shooting, even fighting some days. During the weekends he would play at the local rink but soon he found out that his skill level was much higher than that of the boys his age so when he was 11 he was already playing with the 15 year best people. Even after he moved up to playing with the 15 year olds he was still scoring a lot of points, 50 GP 73 G 104 A 177 P, over three a game to be exact. 

When he was 13 he started to play for a junior team coming out of Dawson City. Apart from Jaron the average age of the players was 16 years old. Even in this league he racked up 46 points in 34 games played. The next season he started to get recognized by the scouts and already was projected to be a first round selection in the VHL draft. However, disaster struck when he took a heavy spill and broke his fibula.

The first thing he asked the doctor was, “Will I be able to play hockey again?”. And the doctor who looked very disappointed said “I don’t think so, but there is a 2% chance that you can play hockey. And even if you can you most likely won’t be able to play professionally.” These words that just escaped the doctors mouth was used as his fuel to play professional hockey. He wanted to prove everyone wrong. 

He went to physical therapy for over two years until he was 15 years old by then he was fully healed and started playing hockey again, but he would only go for light skates. Nothing too serious. One day when his dad came home from work he asked Jaron if he wanted to practice his skating. Even though Jaron had a big project due the next day he agreed. When he got out onto the ice his father told him that if he really put his mind and body to it he would let Jaron practice hockey as much as he could with a professional trainer/coach to get his dream of playing professionally a reality. Jaron thought about it for a while, he agreed.

He worked hard for two years and through the blood, sweat and tears he made a junior roster however, almost immediately after he started to get offers from the VHLM because they heard the story of the phenom kid who got injured and came back better than ever and thought that he could be a real talent in the big leagues. After a long time of debating with himself over which team he should join, Jaron Plotkin officially joined the Ottawa Lynx and that is where he is today.

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(Jaron as a kid practicing by himself)