Well-travelled forward Adam Cracknell is the hockey embodiment of the Stompin’ Tom Connors song. He’s been everywhere, man, from the Juan de Fuca Minor Hockey Association to the Junior B Saanich Braves to Cranbrook, Omaha, Quad City, Las Vegas, Springfield, Peoria, Laval, San Diego and Bakersfield.
And now headed to Beijing as a first-time Olympian at age 36 with an incredible and unlikely opportunity that nobody saw coming in the before times when the plan was to send Canada’s best NHLers to the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The pandemic put paid to that plan. Cracknell, currently in the AHL with the Edmonton Oilers’ farm team, the Bakersfield Condors, was named Tuesday as part of the flotsam and jetsam from the NCAA, minor pros and Europe that has been put together to represent the nation in the Games.
“It’s surreal. It’s been a whirlwind,” said Cracknell, from the Canadian team training camp in Switzerland after arriving 27 hours without sleep from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to Zurich.
“Like everybody else, I was looking forward to seeing Connor McDavid play with Sidney Crosby in the Olympics. Then suddenly, that doesn’t happen, because of the pandemic situation. Somebody had to step up. I’m humbled they asked me. I will do my part in whatever role they give me and do my job the best I can to help the team win. I’m thrilled to know somebody was watching.”
They were and he’s earned the opportunity. Nothing in Hockey Canada is left to chance. You can bet Cracknell was well vetted in the AHL by the national organization.
“Adam [Cracknell] has so much character,” said Canadian Olympic team GM Shane Doan.
“He is so valuable in the room and so highly recognized inside and outside the organization. He is someone you can count on and rely on in every situation. Adam plays the game the right way. He is a big body who can shoot the puck.”
Character comes after more than 900 pro games in 16 seasons, including parts of nine seasons in the NHL with seven teams and 210 games played in the big league with 21 goals and 43 points. Cracknell was twice in the Stanley Cup playoffs as a member of the St. Louis Blues but has never won a championship, although his Las Vegas Wranglers teams were a power in the ECHL over the two seasons when he would return to Victoria to play the Salmon Kings in the Memorial Centre.
“I try to be a good person and help out the younger guys and do my job the best I can,” said Cracknell. “I made mistakes in my career and learned from them. I try to impart what I learned to the younger players.”
Cracknell has played previously in Beijing as part of his colourfully vivid career travels. The Island product skated in 2019-20 for Kunlun Red Star of the KHL under coach and former NHLer and Victoria Cougars WHL icon Curt Fraser. Never in his wildest dreams did Cracknell think he would be returning two years later to China as an Olympian in Canadian colours. Cracknell has worn the Maple Leaf only once before, in the Spengler Cup.
“There is no higher honour than putting on the national team jersey and representing your country and your family,” said the former Belmont Secondary student, whose family came to the Island from Prince Albert, Sask., when he was in Bantam.
“A lot of people in Victoria helped me get to where I am.”
Indeed, nobody gets to the Olympics alone. Cracknell and wife Teresa have three daughters below the age of four.
“None of this would be possible without her support,” he said.
Cracknell will join a starry list of Island men’s hockey players to play in the Winter Olympics when Canada opens against Germany on Feb. 9 in Beijing. Jamie Benn of Central Saanich won gold with Canada at Sochi in 2014, Kent Manderville of Victoria silver at Albertville in 1992 and former Victoria Cougars great Frank Frederickson gold at Antwerp in 1920. Rod Brind’Amour of Campbell River represented Canada at Nagano in 1998 and Russ Courtnall of Victoria at Sarajevo in 1984.
Cracknell becomes the fifth Island athlete to be selected for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, joining defending women’s ski half-pipe champion Cassie Sharpe of Comox, her brother and men’s snowboard freestyle big air/slopestyler Darcy Sharpe of Comox, men’s ski big air/slopestyler Teal Harle of Campbell River and women’s hockey team blue-liner Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton.
