What did you this summer?
If you’re Coda Gordon, a lot.
The 19-year-old Cochrane Minor Hockey product just wrapped up his first main training camp with the Calgary Flames. He’s now back in Swift Current, resuming his Western Hockey League career with the Broncos.
This comes after attending the Flames prospect camp at Calgary’s WinSport centre in mid-July and a western prospects tournament in Penticton, B.C., in early September.
“It was good. It was exciting and new,” Gordon said in a telephone interview from Swift Current. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound forward was drafted in the sixth round (165th overall) by the Calgary Flames in the 2012 National Hockey League entry draft, which was followed by a lockout that knocked out main camp last fall and half a season of NHL hockey.
“My first year, the lockout happened,” Gordon, 19, recalled. “So this was my first year at main camp. It was definitely nerve-wracking starting off and meeting all the NHLers and everything.
“But it went well.”
He missed a couple of days at Flames main camp after team medical staff discovered an irregular heartbeat following a rigorous training session.
“They found something with my heart,” he said. “There was something wrong with my heart, but it obviously wasn’t enough to stop me. I ended up coming back and playing an exhibition game. It wasn’t serious enough to be too big of a concern.
“They call it athlete’s heart. All the exercise and stress you put on it kind of affects it.”
He was cleared to play and took part in Calgary’s Sept. 17 exhibition tilt against the New York Islanders at Calgary’s Saddledome.
“It was unbelievable. It was awesome,” he said of his first taste of NHL hockey, which saw him play nine minutes. “I felt a little out of place there. It was fun though.
“For my first game, it was all right. It took me a little bit to adjust to the pace. There are bigger guys and everyone’s faster. It’s unreal to be here. To get a little taste of it and know you’re getting closer – it’s pretty cool.”
So he got a taste, and now he’s back with his major junior club in Swift Current starting his third full season in the WHL. As one of just three 19-year-olds on a young club, he’s now expected to lead rather than follow.
“So far, we look pretty good,” Gordon offered. “We’re definitely young. All the young guys are stepping up and doing their part. Us older guys are trying to take on a greater leadership role in the dressing room.
“It’s definitely cool to be on the other side of it now. It didn’t seem like that long ago I was a young guy looking up to the older guys. Now I’m one of the oldest.
“It’s definitely different and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with it and get in a leadership spot on the team.
“So far it’s been going well.”
