Henry shines in ECHL

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

The East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) has been referred to as the “every cent helps league” at times.
The lights aren’t as bright as the NHL; players endure long road trips, play in arenas a lot less lively than the Scotiabank Saddledome and don’t bring home a king’s ransom every two weeks.
But one former UFA Bison has turned a lengthy hockey career into his lifestyle and is thriving with the Brampton Beast.
Jordan Henry, 31, lives in Burlington, Ont. and is gearing up for his third season with the Beast, as training camp opens in October.
“It was always a goal to turn pro and have a good, long career,” said Henry. “Careers certainly aren’t as long as they used to be nowadays and you need a little bit of luck health-wise to last, too. I’m grateful to be doing this for this long.”
What feels like a lifetime ago, and 16 different hockey uniforms ago, Henry played two seasons with the then-UFA Bisons.
He appeared in two games as a called-up player during the 2001-2002 season, before suiting up for 30 games the following year, including a lengthy run into the second round.
Drafted by the Moose Jaw Warriors in the ninth round during the 2001 bantam draft, Henry played in the Western Hockey League for four seasons: two and a half with the Warriors and one and a half with the Red Deer Rebels.
As a defenceman, he racked up 12 goals and 73 points in 270 WHL games.
From there, Henry got his shot at the NHL, when he played in exhibition games from 2007 to the fall of 2010 with the Florida Panthers. But he never cracked the regular season roster. He would later be added to the Calgary Flames exhibition roster for the 2011-2012 season, but never made it any further than that.
“That was a huge thrill and (it’s) the ultimate goal for every player. To be that close and to be around guys you grew up watching was a huge thrill,” said Henry, recalling the days when he sat beside Jarome Iginla in the locker room, and sharing the ice with Bryan McCabe and Jay Bouwmeester down in Florida.
The next seven years of Henry’s career were a whirlwind, playing in the American Hockey League, ECHL, Kontinental Hockey League, the Allsvenskan league (Sweden) and Erste Liga (Finland).
The 2012-2013 season saw him play with four different teams in three different countries.
Trying to keep up with all those games, leagues and broadcast feeds were his parents, Sandy and Marleese.
If the name Sandy Henry sounds familiar, it’s because he just finished up a three-year stint behind the bench of the Bisons, leading them to the Telus Cup in 2015.
“It’s been quite the ride for us. I think the (most fun) years for us were his years in Red Deer, but it has been great travelling to watch him play in other parts of the world that we would never have visited if it wasn’t for him,” said Sandy, who currently coaches a bantam program and is the player personnel director for the Rink Hockey Academy in Winnipeg. “We try to watch as many games on the Internet as we can. Sometimes, when he was over in Europe, we would watch with the volume turned off because we didn’t understand anything.”
With Jordan’s father being a defensive-minded hockey instructor and his coach at different times in his life, eventually there came a day when Sandy had to take his coaching hat off and put on his parenting hat.
“I think once I became pro, he realized that I had made it further than he did, he came to grips that our knowledge might be on par at that point,” said the 6-foot-2 Jordan. “But at the same time, he’s the only person who has watched me play all my life. So if something isn’t going right, I have no problem going to him first for advice and he usually has something good to say.”
“It’s different now; before, it was me telling him to do something a certain way,” said Sandy. “Now it’s more of a conversation about the game.”
These days, the broadcasts are much easier to comprehend, as Jordan is enjoying his most productive season as a pro. Last year, he set a career high with 17 goals and 38 points in 69 games, to go with a plus-24 rating with the Montreal Canadiens affiliate franchise.
“It’s hard to find guys who are great players and are good in the community, but Jordan is definitely one of those guys,” said Beast president and general manager Cary Kaplan. “Last year, we were supposed to have a couple other defencemen lead the team, but they got injured and some went overseas, so we needed Jordan to step up. He played in every situation for us, logged 30 minutes a night most nights and was a real leader on the team.”
Entering his seventh season in the ECHL, Jordan knows the dream of the NHL might be gone. With that knowledge, he has taken on a new role in the locker room.
“I could probably still play up at the AHL level, but as a vet, I have accepted the fact that this is who I am going to be,” said Jordan. “The last four years, the ECHL has turned into a really good developmental league, so I have tried to become the best leader I can and help develop some of the younger guys and get them ready for the next level.”
Taking on hockey’s role of Crash Davis, Jordan is completely healthy and should be named as an alternate captain for the third year when the Beast drop the puck on their season when they take on the Adirondack Thunder Oct. 14 on the road.