Sam on Sports: Owen Headrick
By Sam Laskaris
Owen Headrick is averaging slightly more than a point per game in his first full season of professional hockey.
Don’t you dare be surprised.
It’s been a well-known fact now for quite some time that Headrick, a member of Garden River First Nation, is a winner.
The kid – actually, let’s starting calling him a young man now since he is 25 – has been making elite teams better for well over a decade now.
Flashback to the 2013-14 season where a baby-faced Headrick cracked the lineup of the Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds, a Junior A squad that competes in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL).
The then 16-year-old had an immediate impact in the league, featuring players up to five years older, winning the NOJHL’s top rookie award.
Headrick was sidelined a good chunk of the following season with an injury; but he returned late in the season, picked up where he left off from his solid rookie campaign, and led the Thunderbirds to a league championship.
Despite still being one of the youngest players on the Sault squad, Headrick was named the NOJHL playoff MVP, after racking up 20 points, including 12 goals in 14 matches.
Not too shabby for a defenceman. But that’s what winners do.
Headrick then took his talents to the U.S. as he accepted an athletic scholarship offer from Michigan’s Lake Superior State University.
Despite once again being one of the youngest members of his university squad, Headrick fit right in and continued to produce. He played a season and a half at Lake Superior State before deciding midway through the 2016-17 campaign to head to the Pennsylvania-based Erie Otters, members of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).
Guess what? Headrick provided some depth to an already stacked Erie squad that went on to win the OHL championship that spring.
After spending the following season, his final one of junior eligibility, with the Otters, Headrick returned to the university ranks. He chose to have a Canadian East Coast life, setting in with the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) Panthers.
He continued to rack up accolades while at UPEI. During his second year at the school, he was named to the Atlantic conference first all-star team and was a second team all-Canadian.
To cap that season off, he was not only selected as the MVP of his Panthers’ hockey team but he was also dubbed as UPEI’s male athlete of the year.
Doesn’t that sound like a winner to you?
The COVID-19 pandemic, however, hindered Headrick’s abilities to keep excelling at the Canadian university. The team’s entire 2020-21 season was cancelled. And when an uptick in COVID-19 cases put the resumption of last year’s university season in doubt, Headrick opted to turn pro, joining the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch this past January.
He appeared in just three games with the Crunch before sustaining a season-ending injury.
Headrick is back and now starring for the East Coast Hockey League’s Idaho Steelheads in his first full year of pro hockey. He earned 28 points in his first 27 matches with the Steelheads.
The Steelheads also have the best over-all record in the 28-club league thus far. As a result, the Idaho squad has to be considered a contender to capture the league title in a few months.
Don’t be surprised if that happens though and if Headrick plays a pivotal role in the team’s success.
About the Author
Sam Laskaris is a veteran Toronto-based writer. His articles have appeared in more than 200 North American publications. His new column on Anishinabek athletes and sports events, titled Sam on Sports, will be published in Anishinabek News.