Hunter Brzustewicz is, make no mistake, proud to have his name engraved on this new trophy.
It’s just that the Calgary Flames’ blue-line prospect isn’t sure he should be singled out.
Brzustewicz is headed Wednesday to the Ontario Hockey League’s annual hardware hand-out at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, where the 19-year-old assists ace will be saluted as the inaugural winner of the Ted Baker Teammate of the Year Award.
“I’m really grateful that I won,” Brzustewicz told Postmedia. “But it honestly should be the Kitchener Rangers’ award, just because of how close our team was. Every single guy in that room deserves it.”
That’s top-teammate talk right there.
“This year in Kitchener, we weren’t expected to do anything at all and we just had a really close team and every guy was a good teammate,” Brzustewicz continued. “And when you have that, it just brings everyone together, makes everyone play for each other, and I think that’s a big thing as a team.
“Like I said to our media team in Kitchener, my teammates made it easy for me to come to the rink and be myself, and the coaches gave me the freedom to do that.”
Which brings us to a question that folks in Calgary have been asking since around the dinner-hour on Jan. 31, when news broke that Elias Lindholm had been traded to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a five-piece package. The inclusion of Brzustewicz was a big part of the appeal.
Flames fans know about his gaudy stat-line — the Rangers standout piled up 79 assists this winter, the highest single-season total by an OHL defenceman since the early-90s.
They have watched the highlight clips on social media, envisioning this on-the-rise right-hander as the future quarterback for the top power-play unit.
They breathed a sigh of relief when he inked an entry-level contract in mid-March, squashing any worry that he might be another American angling to skate a little further south.
But back to the question … Who is Hunter Brzustewicz? If do-you is such a crucial component to his success, what makes this talented teen tick?
He chuckles, realizing his explanation might not make sense to everyone.
“It’s funny because people always say I’m loud,” Brzustewicz replied. “I would say I’m a loud but calm person at the same time. I can be a mix of both. If I need to dial in or any sort of thing like that, I can just be calm and stay quiet. But also once you get to know me, I would like to say I’m loud and a good guy to be around.”
The belief is it will be very good to have Brzustewicz around the Saddledome, and then around whatever the new downtown event centre is ultimately called.
While he has company, especially on the back-end, this smooth playmaker is arguably Calgary’s most intriguing prospect. In a re-do of the 2023 NHL Draft, many figure he’d now be first-round material. (He was selected at No. 75 overall by the Canucks.)