Dad’s numbers are in reach for Chyzowski

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on September 21, 2019.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

Ryan Chyzowski is on pace to bring his family name to new heights this season.

The 19-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers centre entered the Western Hockey League season just 15 points shy of his brother Nick’s career point total of 134 and 25 back of his father Dave’s 144 – but given that his dad amassed 104 of those points in a single season with the Kamloops Blazers, Chyzowski says he isn’t reading too much the potential milestone.

“My dad had a little bit better of a start and wasn’t there long, so it’ll be tough to chirp him on that,” said Chyzowski, who had 53 goals and 66 assists through 195 WHL games entering this season. “They obviously had different paths.”

Dave played parts of three seasons with the Blazers, from 1987 to 1989, netting 33 points over 66 games in his rookie campaign in 1987-88 before exploding for 56 goals and 48 assists in 68 contests the following year. After going second overall to the New York Islanders, Dave played just four more games with Kamloops before getting called up to the NHL – ending his WHL career in 138 games.

Over the course of the next 18 years, Dave bounced around between the NHL, American Hockey League, International Hockey League, Deutsche Eishockey Liga and the Austrian league. He competed in more than 1,000 professional games in the span, including 126 NHL games with the Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks – where he collected 15 goals and 16 assists.

Dave has since taken to the operations side of hockey, returning to the Blazers in 2006 and later becoming director of sales and marketing. He was able to work with the team for all five years of Nick’s career with Kamloops, but now that both of his sons have left home, he’s taken on a handful of new roles with the Vancouver Giants and Delta Hockey Academy.

On top of being Delta’s director of sales, Dave will serve as head coach of the academy’s female prep team while also joining the Giants as a member of their coaching staff.

“I think it’s huge for him just to kind of experience that. He loves the hockey side of things and he’s always loved being with me and my brother throughout hockey,” said Chyzowski. “For us to all be gone now, you could kind of see it coming that he was going to be a little bit sad about it so it’s great for him to get back into that fully. I think he’s loving it so far. He loves going 100 per cent with both jobs right now, with the Giants and Delta.”

While he can’t match his father’s pace in the WHL, Chyzowski can pass his brother’s career total in significantly fewer games – but as Chyzowski said, Nick followed a different path as a two-way forward.

The 22-year-old centre moved on from major junior in 2018 after compiling 60 goals and 74 assists in a staggering 343 regular season games with his hometown Blazers. In fact, Nick played in all but 21 games over the course of five seasons in Kamloops, including 230 consecutive appearances to close out his WHL career.

Chyzowski says having a brother who’s been through it all before helped ease the pressure after going 18th overall to Medicine Hat in the 2015 bantam draft, as Nick allowed him to learn from all his setbacks and successes.

“I talked a lot about it with him and just the experiences he had. It helps a lot because I learn from him. I learn from his mistakes he makes, I learn from his goals that he achieved and all of his success. It’s huge that I can take that into my repertoire and go through that basically a second time and just kind of know what to do and know what to think throughout it.”

Nick now plays for the University of Waterloo Warriors in Ontario. Although he’s not able to keep as many tabs on his younger brother as he did when he played in the WHL, Chyzowski says the two still keep in regular contact, adding hockey will always be a big part of their relationship.

“He’s pretty busy with school but he still plays at university and I talk to him a lot about stuff. He still tries to get better and we talk about hockey lots,” said Chyzowski. “It’s still a fun part of our family that we all share. For him to still enjoy that and be passionate about it is kind of inspiring to me and to my whole family. We kind of push each other to be better.”

That push started with Friday’s 4-3 shootout win over the Hurricanes in Lethbridge, which featured a game-tying goal and the shootout winner from Chyzowski.

Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins says he expects a big season out of his returning alternate captain. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound lefty is coming off an impressive performance with the Winnipeg Jets at the Rookie Showcase earlier this month and Desjardins says other teams have taken notice of his raw skill and work ethic.

“I think he’s got lots of potential. I think a lot of teams in the league like him,” said Desjardins. “They like that he battles, that he’s got good skill. He can do a lot of different things but the biggest thing is how hard he competes. He’s a guy that loves to win and he’ll play hard in every situation.”

Chyzowski says he has been enjoying the transition from former head coach Shaun Clouston to Desjardins, adding his new bench boss gives them more opportunity to seize the moment on their own when the chance arises.

“I think it’s just a little bit more freedom for us,” said Chyzowski. “He gives us a little bit more freedom to kind of just enjoy the game and play like we want to. I think it’s a lot more fun.”

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