Feature Story
Hudson rookie a Payne for rest of league
By
Nick Clark
MnJHL Director of Media Relations
Ted Urschel allowed the question
to sink in for just a moment before allowing his senses to take over.
The bottom line was this – there was no way the Hudson
Crusaders head coach was about to even attempt to figure out where his team
would be if not for rookie Travis Payne.
“I really don’t even want to think about it,” Urschel said. “He’s meant an awful lot to us, and it’s
funny, because we were kind of lucky to get him, but I’m sure glad he’s here.”
For now that is, which is something the coach said is
obvious and that Payne himself said is the goal.
But if there’s anything that the fans in
“I’ve been around,” Payne admitted, “and I’ve played a lot
of hockey. I think that’s really helped me become the player I am. I just love
to play.”
Payne grew up in
A year ago, Payne was familiar with that route, as he
spent it playing AAA Midget hockey for the Soo
Indians, a team based out of Sault Ste. Marie, a border town between the
northern tip of
This season, Payne half expected to be either on the other
side of that border and playing in the Ontario Junior Hockey League or skating
somewhere in the North American Hockey League.
The Crusaders understood that much, but as the summer
tryout process worked itself along,
“They had recruited me from the end of the season last
year,” Payne said. “They called me probably once a week and asked me how my
tryouts were going and that I still had a spot if I wanted to come out and
visit and check it out. It was nice to always have this as an option, and
obviously it’s worked out.”
When Payne didn’t make a final roster in the OJHL or the
NAHL, he decided to give
“He’s been our best player, and really, he carries us,”
said Urschel “I’ve told him, if he doesn’t score at
least two points, we probably aren’t going to win. He understands that, and as
a rookie, he’s stepped up to the plate more than I could have asked any
rookie.”
Thus far, Payne has handled that responsibility with
veteran-like qualities. Through last weekend he was seventh in the Minnesota
Junior Hockey League with 58 points, and his 30 goals were sixth most.
Even more impressive is the fact that he’s done it with
little help. Roommate Brock Raffaele has 47 points
and Cody Crouch has 17 goals, but for the most part, it’s been Payne.
Take January for example.
“He accounted for 68 percent of our scoring that month,” Urschel said. “That’s pretty remarkable.”
It also leads to the obvious fact that this will most
likely be Payne’s one and only season in the MnJHL.
He was born in 1991, which gives him two years of junior hockey eligibility
left. He’s already played 47 MnJHL league games, and
in all but 15, he’s found the score sheet.
That type of consistency doesn’t hang around Tier
“Honestly, I’d love to have him back, but he doesn’t need
to play in our league anymore,” Urschel said. “He’s
ready for the next level.”
And that, in itself, was the one goal Payne carried with
him into the 2009-10 season.
“I got cut at one of the last camps with a team in the
Ontario Junior Hockey League,” he said. “When you get cut or you don’t get
picked up, you can either take it as I’m not good enough and I’m not going to
go anywhere, or you use it as a drive and determination to get better. I wanted
to get better, so I came here and worked hard and it’s worked out for the
best.”
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