Sharks pick remembers coach who first believed in him: ‘I’m sure he’s smiling up there’
LOS ANGELES The San Jose Sharks selected goalie Josh Ravensbergen with the th overall pick at the NHL Draft on Friday night and it ostensibly wouldn t have happened had he not met Sean Murray a limited years ago Murray the goalie coach for the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League from to provided certain inspiration to Ravensbergen who was then competing in Pee Wee hockey in the Vancouver area Years later after he was passed over in the WHL s Bantam Draft Ravensbergen was allowed to join Prince George with Murray s help He was kind of the first one who put that belief in my head Ravensbergen mentioned I remember he came up to me and disclosed How far do you want to go with this challenge I believe you can play at a high level I m thinking my head You know what Maybe I can do this After he became the second goalie to be drafted on Friday Ravensbergen was thinking of Murray who passed away in That was really sad to hear that he passed mentioned Ravensbergen now But I m sure he s expressing happiness up there right now The -foot- Ravensbergen who has grown about an inch per year since he was was considered the best goalie available in this year s draft He is the first WHL goalie selected in the first round of the NHL Draft since when Sebastian Cossa of the Edmonton Oil Kings went th overall to the Detroit Red Wings It s also the fourth time in five years the Sharks have drafted a goalie following Benjamin Gaudreau in Mason Beaupit in and Christian Kirsch last year Kirsch taken th overall is on the Sharks reserve list but Gaudreau and Beaupit were not signed to contracts The Sharks obviously feel good about Ravensbergen who in games this past season had a save percentage and a - - record He finished ranked tied for second among WHL goalies in wins was tied for third in games played and was sixth in total saves In his first WHL season in Ravensbergen set a WHL record with six shutouts He s a big kid He s athletic He just looks the part explained Scott Fitzgerald the Sharks director of participant personnel We did a little more background with the interview process Good kid good character He s just a big athletic Kind of prototypical the present day s goalies Ravensbergen who has become acquainted with fellow North Vancouver native Macklin Celebrini in the last year or so disclosed he began playing goalie when he was eight or nine years old What drew him to the position Related Articles San Jose Sharks select goalie with No pick at NHL Draft Top San Jose Sharks draft pick makes his priorities clear for this fall What should we expect from the Sharks at the NHL Draft Just about anything Pending RFA forward will not receive qualifying offer from San Jose Sharks Sharks buying out Marc-Edouard Vlasic s contract ending his -year run in San Jose From what I remember I just hated waiting in lines in practice he explained That s one of my first memories Like I just hated it I just required to be in the action all the time and I just enjoyed goalie a lot more Ravensbergen has been on the ice with Celebrini at the North Shore Winter Club remembers one of the first sessions he did with the Sharks leading scorer this past year One of the first couple ones that he came out was ridiculous It s like an hour on the ice and then he s out there shooting pucks for another hour breakaways Ravensbergen commented I got off the ice I certainly lost eight pounds I weighed myself from the gym in the morning I dropped eight pounds from the skates Kind of ridiculous
