John LeClair II - Junior Review

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JOHN LECLAIR II - JUNIOR REVIEW

 

 

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - Growing up the son of a famous American hockey player with the same exact name wasn't easy. From day one, John went out on the ice with a target on his back. A spitting image of his father, LeClair II was a tall lanky teenager who stood out on the ice in multiple ways. Never afraid to use his body and with a booming slap shot, John looked like a spitting image of his father. This sounds good and dandy, but expectations were placed on John from a young age. These expectations weren't from his family, but from his coaches and teammates. John was always the player who was responsible for putting the team on his back. As a member of the Little Flyers, LeClair helped his team win the local title, but it came at a cost. Leading up to the championship game, LeClair was receiving so much feedback (both positive and negative) on twitter that he made a decision that he thought would change his life - he was going to "retire" from hockey after the championship game, regardless of the score. The Little Flyers won, and then he dropped the bombshell on his family.

 

After the shock wore off, John LeClair senior was entirely supportive of his son's decision. As a well known NHL player and member of Team USA, LeClair senior was well aware of the media attention being a hockey player could bring, and all of the technological and societal changes since he played only made it worse. The only condition his father had was that John LeClair II had to take up something else to occupy his time. After mulling it over, the teenager decided he wanted to play football instead. Having never played before, LeClair II tried out for his high school's team and was put at tight end. He played, and he was OK, but he wasn't as good at football as he was at hockey, and it bothered him more than he thought it would. He was used to being the star player and didn't like being just a regular Joe Schmo.

 

It was at this point the Victory Hockey League expanded into Philadelphia with a minor league team called the Philadelphia Reapers. LeClair II had always heard of the VHL before, but all he really knew is they had a bunch of Canadian teams and other teams from all over the world in different weird cities. Knowing that this league was a good league but not quite as popular as the NHL, LeClair II decided to declare for the VHL S74 Entry Draft and was subsequently picked up on waivers by the San Diego Marlins of the VHLM.