By Canadian Press

World junior hockey captains Dube, Valimaki crack Calgary Flames roster

Oct 2, 2018 | 4:15 PM

CALGARY — Dillon Dube’s choice of number drew a few comments from his Calgary Flames teammates. But he didn’t care.

The directive from Flames general manager Brad Treliving for Dube to trade his training camp number for a new digits meant the 20-year-old winger from Cochrane, Alta., will play in Wednesday’s season-opener in Vancouver.

“I don’t even know if 29 is that great of a number, but just to have a number that’s mine is awesome,” Dube said Tuesday at Scotiabank Saddledome.

“Guys are chirping me that it’s a backup goalie number, but I like it.”

Dube and 19-year-old Finnish defenceman Juuso Valimaki both cracked Calgary’s opening day lineup and will play in Vancouver against the Canucks. Dube and Valimaki were captains of Canada and Finland respectively at this year’s world junior hockey championships.

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Valimaki, Calgary’s first-round pick in the 2017 draft, said there weren’t a lot of numbers available, but had a compelling reason to select No. 8.

“It’s kind of a big number back in Finland when (Teemu) Selanne wore it for a long, long time,” Valimaki explained. “I thought it would be cool to kind of honour him.”

He’s partnered with Mike Stone on Calgary’s third defensive pairing. Dube has been playing on the left side of centre Derek Ryan and right-winger James Neal.

“Dillon brings speed to whatever line he’s on,” Flames head coach Bill Peters said. “He knows how to play. He plays responsible and he’s hard on the puck. He gets pucks back to those guys. Juuso moves the puck and is solid defensively.”

Dube, five foot 11 and 183 pounds, was a second-round pick by the Flames in 2016 and is a graduate of the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets. 

He was born in Golden, B.C., but grew up and played his minor hockey in Cochrane, just outside of Calgary.

Valimaki, six foot two and 204 pounds, spent the last three seasons with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans.

“What they’re going to face tomorrow is the hardest competition they’ve ever faced,” Treliving said. “This is a real NHL game. The last two pre-season games were closer to NHL lineups, but it wasn’t full NHL pace, it wasn’t NHL intensity. They’re going to see that tomorrow.”

Neither Dube nor Valimaki travelled with Flames veterans to China for a pair of pre-season games in September.

They remained in Calgary with rookies and minor-leaguers, but they made an impression when the main group returned.

Treliving said both players demonstrated a “respectful disrespect” in the pre-season in that they were not overawed by who they played with and against.

“They’ve had a respect for their teammates, a respect of the competition, but not to the point of not competing and playing,” the GM explained.

“It’s not like these kids were sheltered. They were playing in all situations and by design. There was a plan coming in of playing them a lot and playing them against everybody.”

Dube captained Canada to a gold medal at the world junior tournament in Buffalo, N.Y., in January. The Finns were eliminated in a shootout loss to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

Dube believes the role of captain in a high-pressure tournament helped him and Valimaki at Flames training camp.

“Both of us have dealt with pressure,” Dube said. “It might have helped us playing on a stage like that. In Calgary, there’s lots of attention here. It’s a big-market team.

“Especially for me being from here, there’s going to be a lot of pressure. Your lucky if you get to play with pressure because it’s means you’re in a good city and organization.”

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press

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