Jordan Hill: Epitome of a Grinder

LA Kings' Prospect and Sarnia Native Jordan Hill

Jordan Hill, a 23-year-old defenseman in the Los Angeles Kings’ system says he was a chunkier kid growing up and throws that around as a reason for maybe never having been drafted into the OHL. But there’s no way he’d use that as an excuse for not pursuing his passion. Hill is a steady two way, grinding defenseman who played a full season with the Manchester (New Hampshire) Monarchs of the American Hockey League this past season, scoring 1 goal and adding two assists to go along with 35 penalty minutes in 41 games. Barring a lock out this year, Hill will report to the Los Angeles Kings’ camp in the fall hoping maybe to grab a spot in the NHL. However the road to this point has been a long one.

As a 16 year old, Jordan Hill wasn’t drafted into the OHL due to some flaws in his game and a self-proclaimed chunkiness that held him back. But it didn’t stop him and after splitting time between the Junior B Sarnia Blast (now Legionnaires) and the Junior C Wallaceburg Lakers, Hill was invited to training camp for the OHL’s Sarnia Sting in the summer of 2007 and never looked back. Hill became a leader with the club, eventually going on to wear the ‘C’ while playing alongside NHL bound players like Steven Stamkos, Ryan Wilson and Matt Martin. Hill, being a Sarnia native loved the opportunity to play for and represent his hometown, and develop his play in a familiar area. Hill was traded to in conference rival Saginaw at the trade deadline of his overage year, and while disappointed to leave Sarnia, he said “it was an opportunity to benefit my career and it also gave Sarnia some draft picks, so it was the right move”. Hill, who was never drafted into the OHL, nor the NHL said that both were shots to his confidence and that he “can’t imagine what it must feel like for those kids to have that opportunity, but some kids do get drafted and never make it, and some kids don’t get drafted and do make it”. He was determined to be the latter, and made his professional debut with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose following the completion of his final season in the OHL.

Hill went from that stint with the Moose to a professional try out contract with the Los Angeles Kings and split time between the Ontario (California) Reign of the ECHL and the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL in 2010-2011 before making the transition to being a full time defenseman in the AHL this past season with the Monarchs. When asked about the emotions of being part of a team that went through such a roller coaster year having what seemed like a parade of players being shuffled between the NHL and the AHL, Hill said it was “bittersweet. You can’t help but be happy for those guys, but we lost Loktionov, Slava Voynov who is a great Russian defenseman, Dwight King who had a big role in the King’s playoff run, and Jordan Nolan. It hurt us and we got knocked out of the playoffs early, but it’s awesome seeing those guys do well”.  Being in that environment and knowing that it could be you who gets the call up next is motivation enough to push yourself to be better and that’s what Hill is doing this offseason.

“I’ve always been weak with my power skating, and it wasn’t something I really started to work on until I made it to the OHL, but that’s my focus this offseason” Hill said. He added that he enjoys being a steady shutdown, two way defenseman, but knows that there are areas of his game he has to improve if he wants to keep progressing, going so far to say that “if there are things that Sidney Crosby feels he needs to work on in the off season, then there are things I need to work on as well”. This season the focus is his skating, and Hill is making the three hour trek back and forth from Sarnia to Toronto during the week to see a power skating instructor and develop that area of his game a little bit more, but aside from that he’s lucky to have been raised in and played in such a hockey hotbed as Sarnia.

His offseason workout buddies include Matt Martin of the New York Islanders who led the NHL in hits this past season, as well as led the Islanders in fighting majors (17), the Abbot twins who played collegiate hockey at the NCAA’s Cornell and are now professionals over in Europe, and Mark Katic who just signed a contract to play in the professional league in Germany. “Working out with a guy like Marty is great. You learn a lot from someone like that who goes 110% every minute, and is really just a massive man helps. Getting to be around guys like him and Dustin Jeffrey (Pittsburgh Penguins centreman) helps in the learning process”. The skills he develops this summer will be crucial when he reports to NHL camp this fall, if there is one. “The CBA hasn’t been signed yet, so who knows what’s going to happen with that. Hopefully it gets signed. If it doesn’t, all guys with 2-way contracts will be able to play in the AHL. The supserstars like Crosby and Stamkos won’t, but it’ll be a trickle down affect and guys from the NHL will go to the AHL, and guys from the AHL will go to the ECHL”, Hill said.

For now though, Jordan is focusing on developing his own skills, while also developing those of tomorrow’s future hockey stars. Hill runs the Jordan Hill Hockey School, which is based out of the RBC Centre in Sarnia and aims at developing the skills that hockey camps Jordan attended in the past didn’t focus on. “All I did was go to the Aaron Brand camps when I was younger, and they were awesome, but they didn’t focus on certain aspects that it took me longer to develop. And if I’m making the trip to Toronto to develop my skating, I figured why not take some of these drills that the pro’s are doing and give kids the opportunity to become better”. The hockey camp has guest coaches like Matt Martin, and also focuses on off ice training as well, giving these aspiring NHL stars a glimpse of what is involved in becoming an elite hockey player.

There are stories of players going undrafted in the OHL and NHL, like current Edmonton Oilers right winger Ryan Jones, also a native of south-western Ontario, and there is nothing to suggest that one day Jordan Hill might not be another player on the list of NHL players to come out of the Sarnia Sting system.