YOGAN LOOKS TO FILL VOID FOR WILD

Oct 29, 2015

By Tom Witosky | Follow Tom @toskyAHLWild

Three Floridians are spending time in Iowa this month hoping to land a good job, but only one is a hockey player.

While former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, travel the Hawkeye state campaigning for the Republican Party nomination for president, Andrew Yogan, the first person born and raised in Florida to be drafted by a National Hockey League team, is getting an unexpected shot at joining the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League for the rest of the season.

Yogan arrived last week in Des Moines after signing a professional tryout contract with the Wild after playing only one game for the Cincinnati Cyclones in the ECHL. But, in that game, Yogan, who was injured at the end of last season while playing for the San Antonio Rampage, provided solid evidence he has recovered with three assists.

At 6-foot, 3-inches and 203-pounds, the 23-year-old old Coral Springs native caught the eye of Iowa General Manager Brent Flahr after early season injuries put centers Zac Dalpe and Grayson Dowling on potentially long-term hiatus.

“I am happy with this opportunity and  I appreciate that they are interested in me,” Yogan said. “I am going to keep working and hope it works out.”

John Torchetti, Iowa’s head coach, said the decision to sign Yogan as well as forward Kellen Lain last Sunday is significant for two reasons. First, Yogan and Lain, a 6-foot, 6-inch, 215-pound forward, are part of the effort to get a bigger front line attacking the goal. Second, the Wild’s management is committed to putting players on the ice who are hard to play against.

 “Bottom line is that you have to fight for your job. We aren’t going to go through what we did last year when we had some guys here who thought they were going to be able to play every night,” Torchetti said. “They are going to have to fight for their ice. It doesn’t matter who you are.”

Torchetti was pleased overall with the weekend split with Texas in which the Wild won their first home game of the season, 3-2, but lost the Sunday rematch 4-1. In fact, he said, the second period of the Sunday match was “our best period of the year system wise. We played fast and hard.”

But Torchetti said that a review of Sunday’s game disclosed that “we can’t be giving up scoring chances because we are trying to cheat to create offense. That just means we are going to be playing defense more.” 

He added: “There is only one person who can allow that and that’s me. And if I keep allowing it, we aren’t going to get any better.”

Of Yogan’s chances of landing full-time with the Wild, Torchetti said the Floridian has to show he can use his size in a system that emphasizes defense then offense.

“We need our centers to play a two-way game,” Torchetti said. “He needs to play as a solid two-way center with a defense-first mentality and use his size.”

Drafted by the New York Rangers in 2010 in the fourth round, Yogan initially was considered by many to have first-round potential. Among those interested in Yogan was then Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who called to congratulate him after the Rangers drafted him.

“He called my Dad first, then got a hold of me by phone because I was going to Los Angeles,” he said. “I also got a letter from him.”

How did he begin to play hockey in Florida?

“Well, some neighbors asked me one day, if I wanted to learn how to skate. They were from Michigan,” he remembered. “I fell in love with it right away.”

Yogan said that getting ice time as he grew-up wasn’t difficult at all. “There weren’t many people who skated and I had three rinks near me. I had less trouble getting ice time than a lot of people up north.”

As he grew along with his hockey skills, Yogan’s father, an American Airlines pilot who grew up in the Chicago suburbs, decided to let his son learn if he could play hockey in the north.

“I stayed with some family friends in Chicago for a couple of months and just played hockey to find out how they played it up north,” Yogan said. “It really helped.”

Scouts noticed Yogan in a series of youth camps and tournaments in Toronto and other places leading to his being drafted into the Ontario Hockey League.

But injuries, including concussions, a broken leg and a shoulder injury thwarted him during much of his major junior hockey career with Erie.  But, in his final year with Peterborough, Yogan began to live up to his potential with 41 goals and 38 assists in 66 games.

Since beginning his professional career, Yogan played three seasons with the Rangers AHL affiliates, then was traded before last season to the Florida Panthers with former Wild defenseman Steve Kampfer, where both played for San Antonio.

In 43 games last season, Yogan had eight goals, one assist and 46 minutes in penalties.

Again injured at the end of last season, Yogan became a free agent and signed with Cincinnati before inking a PTO with Iowa.

Out of all of this, Yogan said he’s learned one thing – he can only control how he plays.

“When I was younger, I would try to analyze what was going on or what was going wrong,” he said. “What I have learned is that you come to the rink every day to work hard and everything else will handle itself.  It is really the only thing that you can control.”

Yogan also said he believes he can make a major contribution to the Wild and its push to improve its play during the AHL season. He thinks the rest of the team believes it as well.

“Everyone knows what has to be done here,” he said. “It really is pretty simple thing. We have to play for each other. You want to win and you want to be here every day. It is really pretty simple. “