Getting to Know: Jake Sanderson

In January, Sanderson played in the 2020 BioSteel All-American Game, which had two teams with the top American-born prospects eligible for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.Sanderson was named MVP of the game after recording two assists as Team Knuble defeated Team Gomez, 6-1.In February, Sanderson competed in the Five Nations Tournament in Chomutov, Czech Republic and had a tournament-high seven points (3-4-7).”He’s our guy, he’s our rock,” Appert said. “He drives our team, he’s our captain, he’s our best player and he plays the game the right way. The beauty of Jake is Jake could be considered the best offensive defenseman in this first year, in this class around the world, but he doesn’t cheat the game at all. So what Jake is is Jake is a savage defender. He eats up people.”He just went a full tournament playing against the best players in the world, he was not on the ice for a goal-against 5-on-5, the whole tournament against the best players. Now he produced offense, I think he tied for the tournament lead in scoring. He scores, he’s starting to score a lot. He still produces a ton of offense for us. He does it with real minimal risk and without sacrificing the defensive integrity of our team.”Geoff Sanderson was a forward who played 1,104 games for the Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, Vancouver Canucks, Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets, Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers.Appert said while the two Sandersons played different positions, he can see some of Geoff in his son.”Geoff played 1,100-some games in the NHL without being a superstar,” Appert said. “That’s not easy to do. Superstars can play 1,100 games in the NHL without having to do everything the right way. When you’re more of a secondary offensive guy like Geoff Sanderson was, to play 1,100 games, you’re doing things the right way, you’re taking care of your body, you’re a good teammate, you’re playing both sides of the puck. All the things that then get passed down to his son.”So not only did he get the experience of growing up and being around it and learning that from the locker room, from his dad, from those experiences, his dad was an unbelievable NHLer without being a superstar. That’s even a more important skill to pass on because superstar, non-superstar, that’s more genetically driven. The habits and the details to your game, the way you live your life, those are things that are more learned and Jake has certainly learned those things from his dad.”Sanderson credits his dad for one of his best assets — his skating.”I think I get my skating from him because he was a little speedster out there so I think we’re both pretty strong skaters,” Sanderson said. One thing Sanderson didn’t follow in his dad’s footsteps was being a forward. “When I was younger, around my bantam age, I’d kind of go back and forth between forward and defense,” Sanderson said. “But at the time, the next year I had to make a decision because I had a tryout, so I chose defense because at the time I was pretty good at skating backwards and I had really good patience with the puck when I was younger.”Now that Sanderson is older, he’s watched the league change and evolve, especially for defensemen.”I think you gotta be mobile,” Sanderson said. “I think the game’s changing. There still is a lot of those big, strong defensemen but you look at a guy like (Vancouver’s) Quinn Hughes or (Colorado’s) Cale Makar, they can dance at the blue line and stuff and can also play that strong game so I think having a mixture of strength and mobility is good.”Hughes and Makar, who just won the Calder Memorial Trophy, are not the only fine young defensemen that Sanderson enjoys watching these days.”I like watching (Dallas Stars’) Miro Heiskanen right now just because he’s a young, coming-up star defenseman,” Sanderson said. “I see similarities between our games just because kind of the way we’re built and stuff, longer, lengthier guys. He kind of has that long stride, pretty strong. He’s an unreal, two-way defenseman. I love watching him.”Sanderson joined Lafrenière, Byfield, Stützle and defenseman Jamie Drysdale on a video conference call with Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky on May 6.