Game On Magazine 2017 Nov Game On low res | Page 40

“Coaches have talked to me a lot about what it’s going to take for me to stick at the AHL level and it’s also about getting the right opportunity with the right organization at the right time in order to fit somewhere. A lot of little things have to come into play and I have to take the opportunity that’s given to me and make the most of the opportunity when I’m given that chance.” But is it fun? Hamonic is 23 now and he’s still trying to make it at the AHL level. Not the NHL level, but the AHL level. Shouldn’t he be selling insurance and playing beer league hockey at the Iceplex? “Oh, it’s still fun,” he said with a wide smile. “I’m still playing hockey. Put it in perspective, I could be doing this or I could be sitting in an office from 9-5. If you think of it that way, it’s pretty simple. I’ll continue with this. When I Think about it that way... it sure makes the bus rides a little bit better.” This year, he started the season in the camp of the AHL’s San Diego Gulls and played pretty well, setting up a goal in the preseason opener against Ontario. But then the Anaheim Ducks started releasing players and Hamonic returned to Wichita where he joined Shaq Merasty from Thompson and Travis Brown, a fellow Winnipegger. Despite the disappointment, he has no problem with where he is at this moment. “I’ve thought about Europe a little bit and it’s intriguing,” he said. “I haven’t pursued it that seriously yet, but depending on the way the next few seasons go, I’ll definitely be looking to go over there sometime in 4 0 | G AM E ON | N OVEM BER 2017 “ I DON’T WANT TO WORK AT A REAL JOB IN MY LIFE I WANT TO PLAY HOCKEY AS LONG AS I CAN the next couple of years. “I have no desire to put this game in my rear view mirror. I tell my friends and my parents and everybody I see, ‘I don’t want to work at a real job in my life.’ I want to play hockey as long as I can, I want to make as much as I can from this game for as long as I possibly can. I just love to play. I love to compete, I love being in the room and I just don’t see myself doing anything else.” Hamonic is a South Winnipeg guy who spent a lot of his developing years with Fort Richmond and Fort Garry. “I can’t remember when I first played,” he said. “I ” was four or five when I started skating. I grew up in South Winnipeg, just inside the South Perimeter by St. Norbert. I played for the South Winnipeg Storm and Fort Richmond Kings. I’d alternate every year. “Then I moved on and played Twins, Monarchs and Wild growing up. It was the typical South Winnipeg-Fort Garry hockey childhood. I remember when I played for South Winnipeg and Fort Richmond, we weren’t very good. We would celebrate ties. Then we combined with the Fort Garry kids at the Twins level and I thought, ‘This will be great, we might start winning some games.’ That was fun.” He was about 16 when he realized he could become a hockey player. “There was a moment when I was 16 and I was at (WHL) Tri-City for camp,” he recalled. “I didn’t expect to stay. I was kind of there doing my best, kind of went in blind and was going through main camp and the GM came over and talked to my mom and I. He said, ‘You should start looking at school stuff, because I think you have the ability to stay here.’ “It turned out that I went home and then went back at 17, but that was the first moment that I felt, ‘OK, I can play in the Western League.’ And then, when I was 20-years-old and I had a pretty good year in the WHL and I got invited to the (Colorado) Avalanche development camp. So I got there and thought, ‘OK, maybe I can go pro.’ I didn’t realize I could play early in my career. It came a little later. It was kind of like, ‘Oh, Wow! I can do this.’ After that, I just worked my way into it.” Hamonic and his girlfriend, Jenna, who plans to live with him in Wichita, have no kids and no real responsibilities. That’s why they sort of work as a team to see how far Justin can take his young career. “That’s why I want to try to make this work right now,” he said. “I’m still just 23 with no real responsibilities other than playing my best hockey. That’s why I want to go for this now and see where I can take it. I’m healthy and I’ll regret it later, not trying as hard as I can now to do this. I want to grab this opportunity at this stage of my life and see where it takes me. Like I said, I just love to play.” ❍