Ashton Sautner still cherishes all those winter nights of his childhood spent cheering on the Flin Flon
Bombers.
“Just to be around that atmosphere all the time at the Whitney Forum was something that was definitely
exciting and sparked some passion to eventually play in the NHL,” recalls Sautner.
Now a strapping young man of 20, Sautner is a big step closer to realizing that dream.
He recently signed an entry-level contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Though it’s no guarantee he will crack the roster, breaking through barriers is the baritone-voiced blueliner’s specialty.
Sautner was born in Flin Flon on May 27, 1994 to mother Kim and father Blaine Sautner, then the assistant coach of the Flin Flon Bombers.
As a youngster he grew up in Creighton next door to grandparents Harland and Fran Garinger, whose backyard rink was the perfect hockey training ground.
“That’s kind of where I learned the ropes, I guess you could say, skating on my grandpa’s rink, learning how to shoot,” says Sautner.
Given his love for hockey and his father’s position with the Bombers, Sautner became a die-hard fan of the Maroon and White. He would even visit the dressing room after games and help the Flin Flon goalie take off his pads.
When his family left Flin Flon in 2001, Sautner had two years of minor hockey under his belt. He wasn’t about to give up the game.
By the time he was 14, an age when many players begin to assess whether they have a future in the game, Sautner was a standout defenceman.
But not a big standout.
When he was chosen in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft, his name wasn’t called out until the eighth round, placing him in the bottom third of the players selected that year.
“It was maybe a bit of a long shot to even make the WHL,” concedes Sautner, whose family now lives in Flaxcombe, Saskatchewan, west of Kindersley.
To counteract the odds against him, Sautner did what all good hockey players do: He buckled down, worked hard and believed in himself.
At 16, he nearly made the roster of the club that drafted him, the Edmonton Oil Kings, but was ultimately sent back to the Moose Jaw Generals, his AAA midget team.
The next season Sautner, now 17, bigger and stronger, showed the Oil Kings what he was made of.
They welcomed him aboard for the 2011-12 campaign.
Playing largely a defensive role, Sautner managed a dozen points in 59 games along with a solid plus-29 rating. He continued his steady play in the postseason, helping the Oil Kings to the WHL championship.
Sautner was also a key cog in the Oil Kings machine that went to the league final the following season.
By 2013-14, Sautner was seen as a bona fide leader. Having worked his way up the Oil Kings blueline, he had also unleashed his dormant offensive prowess.
That season he scored 42 points in 72 regularseason games to go along with a WHL-leading plus-59 rating. He added 12 points in 20 playoff games.
More importantly, Sautner’s Oil Kings captured both the league championship and the Memorial Cup as the dominant CHL team.
Despite such success, Sautner was passed over in the NHL draft. And while he attended the Arizona Coyotes prospect camp in 2014, he was not offered a contract.
This season, his last with the Oil Kings, Sautner was handed the C, a sign of the respect he commands on and off the ice.
His Oil Kings aren’t expected to repeat as league champions, but Sautner received the ultimate consolation prize on March 14 when he signed a three year entry-level contract with the Canucks.
“Coming into this year I knew there was some interest from some teams from our Memorial Cup run last year, so it was just kind of an important year to focus on trying to get a contract,” says Sautner.
“Throughout this year, there were teams talking to myself and to my agent and then in the end Vancouver started to make some noise with my agent and then ultimately had the deal.”
Sautner, who stands 6’1” and weighs nearly 200 pounds, will finish his season in Edmonton before attending the Canucks’ development camp in July and their training camp in September.
He will work to crack the Canucks roster but knows it’s more likely he will report to the club’s farm team, the Utica Comets, in New York State – at least to start.
“It’s obviously a goal and a dream of everyone’s when you start playing hockey at a young age, to sign a contract [with an NHL team],” says Sautner.
“I’ve accomplished that goal and now obviously it’s to try and make the Vancouver Canucks team at some point. It’s definitely a lot of hard work and you’re not anywhere near close to doing it [by] signing a contract.”
As he looks ahead to a promising future in the sport, Sautner hasn’t forgotten where it all began.
“To have ties to Flin Flon, just to say that’s kind of where things started, is something that is held close to my heart,” he says.
