The Shadows of Greatness

 How does one become the greatest? By hard work, or by extreme dedication, pure talent, or by database error? Whatever the answer may be, it is not easy to do and maybe with even a bit of luck, this 25 year old defenseman from Gloucester, Ontario may be the best hockey player to ever play the game…….. And he hasn’t even been given a chance on the pro team. Why? Maybe because his talent level is too strong for the big leagues or maybe his pure talent was built for the AHL. No one is sure why, but when we look back on the history books, one name will always be remembered, Grant Clitsome!

 Grant Clitsome was born on April 14^th, 1985, legends say he came out of the womb with skates on and was named first star in an Atom game a mere week after he was born.  Growing up in Gloucester, Ontario Grant would change the face of hockey in the Ottawa region. His undeniable talents didn’t go unnoticed, destroying every record possible, even the goaltending ones.  At the age of 14 he went to go see a 21 year old Wade Redden play for the Sens. Seeing him play was truly a spectacle for the young Clitsome, and it was at that moment he realized that he needed to bring back respect for all defenseman and settled that he would become the greatest defenseman the game had ever known.  In 2001, the city of Ottawa wanted to show that their area could produce a top tier talent, so they made Gloucester merge with Ottawa, making Clitsome the last great prodigal son of Gloucester.

 When the time came around for the OHL draft, Clitsome was pegged to be the 1^st overall, but seeing as his talents were too much and would be unfair to the other players and he was excluded from the league. Before heading there he was taken in the 9^th round by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2004 draft, which left everyone stunned. Many say that a member of the Blue Jackets front office removed Grant from the draft list and tried to sneak him by everyone. A shocked George McPhee had this to say at the draft. “Well Ovechkin is good, but if we had known Grant was eligible, well then it is a no brainer. His talent only comes around once in a millennium, so we are angry.” To punish the Jackets for this trickery, the league said they could not sign Grant for the next 4 years.

With no where else to go, Grant looked towards Clarkson University and knew that was where he was meant to be.  With his vast hockey skill, he found it hard to fit in without showing others up, so he held back his talents.  In his first two years he scored only a combined 4 goals, the coaches were stunned. Where had the talent gone, was it just a myth? The coaches had now looked towards benching the 20 year old D-man.  This caused a dilemma for Clitsome, did he have to show everyone up or did he risk the benching? Instead he found peace between the two worlds and scored 7 goals in his junior year, and while not raking in the points his senior year, his amazing play earned him a spot on the second all-American team.

 Once Clitsome turned pro, his coaches played him little and told him to keep his gift hidden as it would degrade the other players on the team and make them give up. So for the next two years, Grant went amongst his business, hiding his talents from the world. Until the Toronto Maple Leafs made a trade with Columbus, allowing Doug MacLean to work in Toronto and to stay away from Columbus, in return Toronto got Clitsome.

 Still the Leafs needed to keep Clitsome secret, and they desperately needed a coach for the farm team. So who better, than the best ever. With no coach to keep him tied down, Clitsome has gone to work this season. Tearing apart the league record books in one year has vaulted Clitsome back into the minds of millions, his pent up talent, not being able to show it for years, all released at one time. In this season for the record books, Clitsome has defied all sense of time and math. He has played an astonishing 13,400 games this year, with over 10,000 goals and 22,000 assists….yet only having 1,540 points have left many breathless.  With a shooting percentage at 50%, Grant still remains modest with no shorthanded goals and not even one game winning goal, giving the spotlight to his teammates.  Don’t let the stats fool you either, he is a complete work horse, first on and last off at practice and he doesn’t let up during the game either, as he played an unbelievable 592 Undecillion minutes this season. Yet he has still not warranted the call up, but why? “He is an unbelievable player, and the fact he hasn’t played in the pros is mind boggling…..even I played 13 years in the NHL, he defintily deserves his time now,” said Wade Redden, Grant’s teammate and inspiration to show that people can show competence at the position.

  When will we ever see Grant on the Leafs? That’s a question we can’t answer, it seems like it should have happened long ago, that this elite star player wastes his talents in the minors while the pro team needs a star. It’s been a mysterious look into Grant’s life but we can assure that it will not be the last time we do.

This is the Grant Clitsome story.