Target practice was, admittedly, not his preference.
At the ripe ol’ age of 11, TJ Brodie — captain of his peewee squad in Dresden, Ont., and one of the youngsters invited to join the stars for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ team skills competition in 2002 — figured his best bet to make an impression was by leaning into a slapper.
“I remember before it happened, when they told us what we were going to do in the skills competition, I was trying to trade a kid to do the hardest shot instead,” recalled Brodie, now in his fifth campaign as a full-timer for the Calgary Flames and one of the NHL’s most under-rated rearguards.