Bobby Hull happy to have number recycled

By: Tim Campbell Posted: 2:44 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 17, 2011

WINNIPEG -- Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was the go-between this summer when left-winger Evander Kane decided he'd like to wear No. 9 for the coming NHL season.

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WINNIPEG -- Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was the go-between this summer when left-winger Evander Kane decided he'd like to wear No. 9 for the coming NHL season.

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WINNIPEG — Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was the go-between this summer when left-winger Evander Kane decided he’d like to wear No. 9 for the coming NHL season.

So said Jets icon Bobby Hull this afternoon in Winnipeg. Hull was in the city to support a new provincial program for battery recycling.

Hull’s story makes perfect sense, given that Cheveldayoff worked as the Chicago Blackhawks’ assistant GM for two seasons before being appointed to his post in Winnipeg.

Joe Bryksa / Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Jets Legends Bobby Hull, left, and Dale Hawerchuk were at Portage and Main today in Winnipeg to kick off a battery recycling program. — Joe Bryksa / Winnipeg Free Press Winnipeg Jets Legends Bobby Hull, left, and Dale Hawerchuk were at Portage and Main today in Winnipeg to kick off a battery recycling program.

“I didn’t talk to (Kane) this summer,” Hull said today. “Mr. Cheveldayoff, who was in Chicago last year, called the Blackhawks office … and they said, ‘Bobby, there’s a young man in Winnipeg by the name of Kane and he wants to wear No. 9. So they said, ‘Would you feel badly if the number was taken down?’

“I said, ‘Heck, no, if the young man wants to forge his career here in Winnipeg and wear my number, all the more power to him.”

Hull eventually did meet Kane last Thursday when the new Jets paid their first visit to Chicago. Hull, who was in attendance, went down to the dressing room to meet the young forward after the game and made it sound today like he won’t feel badly if Kane eventually changes his mind.

“Then the other night in Chicago I went down to see him after the game,” Hull reported. “And I said, ‘Listen young man, this could get a little heavy as the year goes on. If you fail to score in the first dozen or so games, it could get a little heavy, so don’t feel bad if you want to shed it.'”

Also present for the program announcement today was another Jets legend, centre Dale Hawerchuk.

Hawerchuk is the current coach of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts and he was asked today what he’s thought so far of the play of Winnipeg’s first-round draft pick Mark Scheifele, who played for the Colts last season.

“I haven’t seen a lot but he’s done very well,” Hawerchuk said. “I find that when he’s around the puck, he does so many good things. The biggest challenge is always picking up the speed a step away from the puck. That’s always the biggest, and that doesn’t come overnight. With some guys it takes awhile.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca