Shane Collins.............Saskatchewan D-Man is very Fit
Prince George had 6 OAs in their Camp
Ted Clarke / Prince George Citizen
September 14, 2017 10:48 PM
For the past two years, defenceman Shane Collins has proven himself the most fit Prince George Cougar player in training camp.
Guess that has something to do with the fact Collins grew up as the only son on the family farm near Rosetown, Sask. When he hasn't been playing hockey or going to school he's spent a good chunk of his 20 years trying to keep on top of the chores that come with working 4,000 acres of land to help feed the country.
And when it came to sports, Collins was a natural. Combine that athleticism and farmboy work ethic with three years of seasoning in the Western Hockey League and it's easy to see why he has become such a valuable commodity for the Cougars.
So why is he a man on the bubble, not sure if he's going to finish his junior career in Prince George? As one of six remaining 20-year-olds on a team that's allowed to keep just three for the season, barring a trade, Collins won't likely know for sure until the Oct. 15 overager deadline if he will stick with the team that picked him in the third round of the 2012 WHL bantam draft.
Todd Harkins has been spending a lot of time on his phone talking to other WHL general managers about potential trades and Collins's name comes up often in those conversations.
"Everyone wants Shane Collins, a smart kid who plays hard and makes a great first pass - those type of defencemen are hard to find," said Harkins. "He would be an asset for us or for any team."
Collins is a weight room animal and loves to set the example for his teammates during dryland workouts after practice. He knows being fit is an asset when it comes time to trying to keep up to the fastest forwards invading his turf on the ice.
"I'm really good at power movements, the clean-and-jerk Olympic lifts, I seem to have explosive hips and my jumps are pretty good," said Collins. "I think it helps my stride a lot - I have a very powerful stride, it's the best part of my skating, I think. It's tough to really build strength in the year, you have to put in a good summer and try to maintain it through the year so that come February you're still strong."
Picked by the Vancouver Canucks in the seventh round in 2015, Olson focused more on his defensive game last season and his production dropped from 47 points in 2015-16 to 24 last season. He attended two Canuck camps but went unsigned and is now a free agent. Like Collins, he has three seasons of WHL experience and it would be tough for the Cougars to part with him.
Cougars coaches Richard Matvichuk and Shawn Chambers are former Stanley Cup-winning NHL defencemen, both entering their second season with the Cougars, and Olson wants to be around them again.
"I think I'm more composed on the ice, not as erratic and I don't get out of position as much, and I think that's one of the biggest things (he's learned from the Cougar coaches), staying closer to home and not being way too crazy out on the ice - being better defensively is definitely stressed," said Olson.
"(The NHL camps) showed me what everyone's doing at the next level and it makes you want to be one of them, obviously. It just comes down to how much you want to do it. There's 30 other teams out there and (getting dropped by the Canucks) is not the end of the world."
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/sports/collins-a-cougar-in-waiting-1.22725784