Now with his fifth junior team in three seasons, defenceman Joseph Leonidas is determined to make a home with the Flin Flon Bombers.
“I want this to be my last and final stop,” said Leonidas, 19, whose hockey journey has taken him from his hometown of Calgary all the way down to Texas and now to Flin Flon.
When the Bombers acquired Leonidas this fall, Joel Webb had opted to return home to Alberta and the team needed an offensive defenceman.
“He’s come in there and done that,” Bombers head coach and general manager Mike Reagan said. “He’s an offensive defenceman and those guys are tough to find.”
Heading into last night’s game against Estevan, Leonidas ranked fifth in team scoring despite missing six games. In 19 games, the 6-foot, 185-pounder had accumulated 12 points (2G, 10A).
Leonidas has enjoyed his time with the Bombers since joining the club. The best part?
“Honestly of all the teams I’ve played on, the teammates have been fantastic. … The overall atmosphere I’ve gotten from everyone.”
Leonidas also has been thrilled with the opportunity to play in the historic Whitney Forum and to have great community support.
“You think of all the great players who came out of here,” Leonidas said.
“You aren’t just playing for yourself. You are playing for the town.”
He loves the atmosphere of home games.
“It gets loud in there. … It makes you feel like you are in a stadium of 10,000,” said Leonidas, who broke his thumb in August and got a late start to the season because of it.
Growing up, Leonidas always wanted to a defenceman. Sometimes coaches wanted to use his skills up front, but Leonidas felt more comfortable on the blue line.
“It is like a chess game. … Playing defence I can kind of paint my own picture,” he said.
Reagan praises Leonidas’ vision, creativity and patience.
“He is poised with the puck,” Reagan said. “He doesn’t panic.”
While he often scored in minor hockey, Leonidas said a big adjustment to the junior level was his drop in goal output. Now he revels in recording assists.
“I think I get more of a rush when I set up a kid back door than before,” Leonidas said. “It is a sense of satisfaction.”
Leonidas believes that each stop on his journey has played a role in his development.
“Positive and negative things…have been able to help me grow as a hockey player,” he said.
“Wherever I went, I tried to be a sponge.”
Leonidas suited up for five games with the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Calgary Mustangs as a 15-year-old while playing midget hockey. The next season he played the complete year with the Mustangs.
His season as a 16-year-old was an eye-opener. Leonidas said he had great mentors from whom he learned, and now he passes those lessons on.
In 2013-14, Leonidas split the season between the Mustangs and their AJHL foe the Whitecourt Wolverines. He started last season with the AJHL’s Drayton Valley Thunder and then headed to Texas to play for the Amarillo Bulls of the North American Hockey League.
“It was honestly phenomenal,” Leonidas said of his time in Texas. “I loved it. I am not exaggerating – in January I went to practice in flip-flops. As far as the weather goes, I was living the dream.”
Leonidas said the atmosphere at each game was great and that the coaching staff, including former NHLer Mike Watt, a Bulls assistant, brought out the best in him and made him work on the defensive side of the game.
“I’m not going to lie, it was hard,” Leonidas said. “I diligently worked at it. … I knew it was what was going to get me to the next level.”
Leonidas now wants to earn an opportunity at the NCAA Division I level. He plans to pursue a degree in commerce. Later he’d like to earn a master of business administration and then go into law.
