When the Prince George Cougars hired Todd Harkins as their new general manager and signed him to a four-year contract, the wheels of the moving van were set in motion.
After 12 years of living in North Vancouver, Harkins and his wife Kirsten are now pulling up their family roots and house-hunting in Prince George.
News that mom and dad are coming to Cougarville was welcome relief for 17-year-old Jansen Harkins. For one thing, it means he won't have to find new billets. As a WHL rookie, Jansen lived last year with Mike and Faye Kelly but had been on the hunt for a new winter home for his second season as a Cougar forward now that the Kellys have retired and moved to Oliver.
"It was really nice to see how Jansen reacted to the news, he told Todd he was really proud of him," said Kirsten. "He lives with Todd and knows his commitment and his passion and knows he'll do everything he can to make this successful and of course that's beneficial to Jansen in a hockey sense."
Todd's promotion from interim GM and director of player personnel means his oldest son, 19-year-old Nicklas, the Cougars' dressing room assistant, can retain the comforts of the family home, where he's better able to treat the effects of muccopolysaccharide disease (MPS). The rare genetic disorder is caused by the lack of an enzyme critical for development of the joints and first appeared when he was five. Nicklas has helped pioneer advances in enzyme replacement therapy, which he now receives at home after years of treatments at B.C. Children's Hospital. This fall, Nicklas plans to attend either UNBC or CNC.
Before they found out two weeks ago about the Cougars' choice to hire Todd as GM, Kirsten had already served notice she was stepping down after 10 years as executive director of the Canadian MPS Society. In August, before she hands over the reins, she and Nicklas will attend an MPS conference in Brazil.
It's been a lot tougher for 13-year-old Jonas Harkins to accept the fact he'll have a Prince George address this winter. He's lived at Deep Cove all his life and the idea of leaving his friends behind is not sitting too well with the young defenceman, considered a legitimate bantam prospect for next year's WHL draft.
Kirsten, a native of Lake Cowichan, met Todd when they both were attending Miami University in Ohio. At the time, he was playing college hockey on the verge of beginning a pro career as a forward, drafted in the second round, 42nd overall by the Calgary Flames. Kirsten grew up as a figure skater on Vancouver Island and performed ice shows with Disney On Ice while she was studying communications at college. She's from a small logging community and is looking forward to the move to a winter city about to host the Canada Winter Games, where she can pursue her love of the outdoors, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
As hockey parents, Todd and Kirsten like the Cougars' new ownership group and its efforts to usher in a more professional approach, creating new positions for full-time employees and hiring more sessional staff. The so-called New Ice Age has resulted in radical changes in public perception and an infusion of positive energy around the Cougars. Power skating coach Karen Kos will work with the players on an ongoing basis during the season, as will sports psychologist Saul Miller, and the team is considering hiring a another coach to work with Mark Holick and his assistant Michael Hengen.
For young teenaged boys away from home for the first time, having that support network is crucial to their development and when it's not there they can suffer the consequences, like Jansen Harkins did at times last season. As a highly-touted 16-year-old rookie, picked second overall in the 2012 WHL draft, he went from the high of leading the Cats in scoring in the preseason to the depths of a scoring slump which left him with just three goals and six points in the first 24 games. Kirsten and Todd, on the other end of his troubling phone calls from Prince George, felt helpless at times trying to pull him out of his funk.
Now with the Cougars having access to Miller, who has proven success working with players in pro hockey, baseball, football and Olympic athletes, players like Jansen should be better equipped to deal with the pressures they face at the rink or at school.
"At the end of October and the beginning of November he called me every day at 9 at night and after the seventh day he finally spilled his guts about how difficult it was to be away from home in a different city to play in this league," said Todd. "Going through that with my own child I know every 16- and 17-year-old kid will go through that same thing and that's why we've hired Saul Miller, to be able to relate to those kids and get them through those tough times."
Other than the fact they will get to see each other a lot more often this season, Todd says there won't be any preferential treatment forthcoming to Jansen.
"All these kids who enter this dressing room will be my kids and I want to treat them like my own and make sure they are given every opportunity to follow their dreams," Todd said. "My own kid is my own kid and I'm probably his biggest fan but I'm also his biggest critic. I'll make sure I'm not too hard on him, that's Mark's job to coach him and teach him. I just want to be his dad to support him and love him when he needs that."
Harkins, 45, played parts of three NHL seasons with the Flames and Hartford Whalers in his 11-season career as a pro, which included four seasons in Germany. He's been inspired by NHL GMs Ken Holland in Detroit and Doug Wilson in San Jose, and stays in contact with Philadelphia Flyers president Paul Holmgren, his former GM in Hartford. Those NHL tentacles also extend to Tampa Bay and Vancouver, where Cougar part-owners Eric Brewer and Dan Hamhuis play defence.
"I'm going to lean on the people who have helped me in my career," said Harkins. "Not only can it help you with building your team, but it's also important in placing your players and giving them opportunities in the NHL. If we do that we're going to have a winning product on the ice and we're going to have lots of kids who want to end up in Prince George."
