Light bulb moment for Chiarot

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This article was published 11/12/2014 (3933 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DENVER — For a man who has looked so at home in what has been his NHL coming-out party this month, it is surprising to learn there was a time not so long ago when the Winnipeg Jets brain trust had serious reservations about whether Ben Chiarot had what it took to play in the AHL, much less the NHL.

As St. John’s IceCaps head coach Keith McCambridge tells it, Chiarot was not working hard enough last season — especially at practice — and the young defenceman “needed to realize that you’re getting paid to do this for a living and when you come to the rink for three hours a day for practice, you need to get around quickly from A to B and you can’t be non-chalant about it.”

McCambridge said it had been a similar problem with Chiarot throughout his three seasons in St. John’s — a big, quick and talented kid, but one who just didn’t seem to have the intensity necessary to take his game to the next level.

“That was something that’s always been a work in progress with Ben Chiarot,” said McCambridge. “And we finally sat down and had a heart-to-heart about it last year, right about this time. His game wasn’t very good, to be honest. He was just being too nonchalant and casual about the way he was playing and practising.

“And I remembered driving into the rink that day and thinking about the possibility of him being a healthy scratch for that game.”

But instead of scratching Chiarot, McCambrdge sat the young man down and laid all the cards on the table. “I just told him we take things very seriously down here and there’s a lot of money at stake,” McCambridge recalls. “And I told him he needed to start to do the things we’d been talking about.”

Maybe it was the sobering prospect of being a healthy scratch. Maybe it was the fact the Jets had been more patient with him than almost any other player, taking their time and nursing along a player they inherited from the Atlanta Thrashers as a 2009 fourth-round draft pick.

Or maybe it was just a respected hockey man such as McCambridge sitting Chiarot down, looking him in the eye and telling him how it had to be.

Whatever it was, a light bulb finally went on for Chiarot that day in McCambridge’s office. His game changed, his practice habits changed and when the IceCaps’ season drew to a close after a long playoff run, Chiarot had played 86 games in 2013-14, finished an eye-popping plus-37 and was named the IceCaps defenceman of the year.

Flash forward a year and Chiarot says all the remarkable things that have happened to him since that day, including an NHL coming out the last two weeks that has turned heads around the Jets organization, also began that day in McCambridge’s office.

“It was just Keith believing in me and showing confidence in me and sticking with me and relying on me,” the 23-year-old Hamilton native reflected this week. “And that’s all you want as a player is to have a coach relying on you and believing in you. I wouldn’t be here today without Keith’s help.”

Chiarot had a forgettable one-game NHL debut last season, but has really come into his own after being called up from St. John’s on Dec. 2.

Paired with Dustin Byfuglien, Chiarot has logged huge minutes for a green rookie — posting over 20 minutes of ice time in three of the four games he’s played the last two weeks.

Toss in a pair of assists, including one Tuesday night in a 5-2 Jets win in Dallas, and a plus-5 rating and suddenly Chiarot is being regarded by the Jets brain trust as maybe something more than just a stop-gap measure until injured defencemen Toby Enstrom, Zach Bogosian and Grant Clitsome heal up.

Sure, patience is a virtue, but it also comes with its own rewards. And the reward for the Jets in showing so much patience with Chiarot is that the youngster has risen to the occasion at a time the Jets needed him most.

“The first game he got here, he was just in a rhythm and playing good,” said Jets assistant-coach Charlie Huddy. “And so there was no point in not playing him. Him and Buff work good together and they’re going good…

“Sometimes it just takes guys a little longer to get their feet wet. Playing at that American league level, it’s a huge step coming up here… especially for a defenceman.”

Jets head coach Paul Maurice says he loves the consistency in Chiarot’s game.

“His shifts all look the same. He’s real physical, moves the puck quick. I’m pleased that I’ve seen him go down the wall a few times and do some things in a really tight gap, which you worry about with young defencemen. They don’t want to make a mistake, so they don’t want to get beat so they’re a little conservative in how they position themselves on the way up ice.

“But Benny’s picked up the systems… I’ve really liked his gap and his overall consistency.”

And Chiarot? Well, he was disappointed he got sent back down to St. John’s after Jets training camp in September.

He promised himself when he got called up this month he would take fullest advantage of the opportunity to prove himself ready to finally take the next big step in his game.

“You have to treat it like it’s your last opportunity,” says Chiarot, “because you never know if you’ll get another one. This is the first real extended look I got.

“And I think I’m doing well with it.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek