Binscarth scrapper has lots of fight left

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This article was published 28/10/2016 (3355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DENVER — Cody McLeod has battled to stay in the NHL for a decade, and though he’s been in and out of the Colorado Avalanche lineup to begin the season, he isn’t ready to wave a white flag just yet.

The 32-year-old left-winger, a fixture on the Colorado roster since he broke into the league just before Christmas in 2007, was a healthy scratch Friday night in Denver as the Avalanche played host to the Winnipeg Jets in a matchup of NHL Central Division rivals.

He has watched three of the team’s first six games from the press box, a drastic change for the Binscarth, Man., product who dressed for all 82 games each of the past two seasons and has missed only 11 games since the start of the 2012-13 campaign.

The enforcer, who has amassed 1,312 penalty minutes in his 634-game career, all with the Avalanche, says the early days of the 2016-17 season have been tougher on his psyche than any toe-to-toe slugfest he’s engaged in.

“I never went through this kind of role or whatever you want to call it. It’s definitely not fun,” said the 6-2, 210-pound forward, after the Avs’ morning skate Friday — a session he started earlier and finished later than others. “I know I can still play and I still have a lot of hunger to play and, hopefully, it’s here.

“But I approach it like I have my whole career — just come to work, work hard and when you do get in there, show that you can still play and show you still belong in the lineup. It’s definitely frustrating, but I’d say everyone kind of goes through it in their career.”

Colorado first-year head coach Jared Bednar said scratching a fan favourite such as McLeod, who trails only former greats Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk and Adam Foote in career games played for the Avalanche, certainly isn’t easy.

“Because of that work ethic and attitude, we know he cares,” said Bednar. “It’s tough. He’s doing anything he can to work his way into our lineup. He plays hard and does all the right things, but these are the decisions we make on a daily basis.”

That hard-work, no-quit attitude came naturally to McLeod, a guy from a hamlet on the Yellowhead Highway in western Manitoba whose dad drove trucks while mom worked in health care.

McLeod played minor hockey in Foxwarren and was a bantam pick of the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League.

He had four solid seasons with the Oregon junior squad but, during that time, passed through the NHL Draft without any takers.

In his over-age season, he scored 31 goals and added 29 assists in 70 games, while serving 195 minutes in the penalty box.

McLeod said he was convinced he could carve out a life as a pro hockey player, even if meant being a heart-and-soul, career fourth-liner.

“My 20-year-old year there I had some good numbers, lots of scrapping along the way,” he said. “Some of my teammates that got drafted, I thought I was just as good as them. I had the work ethic, the no-quit attitude kind of thing.”

After a productive junior career, McLeod found himself in a lot of different hockey homes before he found permanent residency in Denver with the Avalanche.

Following his final season (2004-05) in Portland, he latched on with the Adirondack Frostbite of the now-defunct United Hockey League for the club’s final regular-season game as well as five playoff contests. He then split the 2005-06 season between the San Diego Gulls of the East Coast Hockey League and the Lowell Lock Monsters of the American Hockey League.

The Avalanche, the parent club of the Monsters, were clearly intrigued, signing him to his first NHL contract in the summer of 2006. He attended training camp, but was demoted to the club’s new AHL affiliate, the Albany River Rats for the 2006-07 campaign.

He started the 2007-08 with the Lake Erie Monsters of the AHL, but finally got a call from Colorado to join the big club for a game Dec. 19 against the Anaheim Ducks.

He was in Winnipeg when he received news of the promotion.

“We were there playing the Moose when I got called up, so that was pretty cool. Lots of family and friends were there with me. I got called up and never went back,” said McLeod.

He scored his first NHL goal just a week later in Denver against future Hall of Fame goalie Dominik Hasek and the Detroit Red Wings.

“I got a breakaway on Hasek and went blocker side on him,” recalled McLeod, a married dad with two young daughters.

“You don’t forget those moments. You work so hard to get there.”

Since that milestone marker, he’s registered another 64 goals and 51 assists, while answering the bell for some 120 fights, all wearing the Avs’ burgundy, blue, silver and black.

“Not many guys get to stick around on the same team for that long. You don’t look around the league and see many guys over the age of 30 doing what I’m doing,” said McLeod, who has one fighting major this season after squaring off with Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brian Boyle just two minutes into a game Oct. 20.

Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said McLeod is one of the organization’s all-time most respected and appreciated warriors.

“Every day, he gets to the rink and he’s very professional and he brings a lot of energy to his teammates, and he does his job to 100 per cent every day,” he said.

“A guy like that doesn’t come around too often any more, and the type of job he does is not easy, mentally or physically. I have a lot of respect for a guy like that.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPJasonBell