Maksym Jankowski Path to the VHL

[Max12 20]

 

        Maksym Jankowski was born in rural Poland to two hard working farmers. In Poland nobody was into hockey and some people did not even know the sport existed. One day Maksym went into town to run some errands when he came across an old pair of skates and a hockey stick. Maksym became intrigued by the sport of hockey and practiced his skills everyday shooting pucks and skating in the winter. Soon he found out that there was a league in neighboring Slovakia that he could play in. He begged his parents everyday if they could move to pursue his dream, but they said it was too expensive. For the next year Maksym worked multiple jobs to gather some money to move, he worked day and night shifts and barely had any time to practice hockey. Maksym had just enough after that year and moved to Slovakia.

 

        He was in luck as the local Slovakian junior teams’ season was about to start and were holding tryouts. The tryouts were more difficult than Maksym had imagined but he still made the team as a fourth line winger. The start of the season Maksym proved to his coach that he was no joke and soon became a first line winger and team leader in scoring. Due to Maksym and his team’s success they were invited to the biggest junior hockey tournament in Slovakia where there would be tons of scouts. The team had a very good tournament and just fell short of the championship, but it did not matter to Maksym as he would be noticed by a Canadian scout who offered Maksym to play in Yukon. Maksym obviously accepted the offer and moved to Canada to improve on his skills and have better chance at being drafted to the VHL.

 

     Yukon Rush signed Maksym for one year as he had joined late in the season and only played 48 games. He struggled a lot adjusting to the North American style of play and had no points when he finished the season. His poor performance had affected his draft ranking and fell to the 85^th spot. Maksym was selected by the Chicago Phoenix in the VHL and was drafted 87^th to the Minnesota Storm in the VHLM. Because of Maksym’s short experience in the VLHM he did not make the Chicago roster and would start his sophomore season with Minnesota. He improved greatly over the offseason and so far, has had a superb season with Minnesota. He has played 36 games and has 54 points, 25 of those points being goals. Maksym said during the offseason he wanted to be more physical and he sure has proved that with 115 hits in 36 games. As of right now Maksym Jankowski hopes he can crack the Phoenix roster next season and make his dream become a reality.

 

 

 

 

 

[animal74 1,610]

Nice review! Good luck with Jankowski!