30 Favorites from 30 Different Teams: Cam Fowler (Anaheim Ducks)

NHL Franchise: Anaheim Ducks

The duck print and wing logo of the Anaheim Ducks, since Donald didn’t inspire enough terror in the hearts of hockey foes throughout the NHL…Dun, Dun, the Wild Wing approaches..

Favorite Player: Cam Fowler

Cam and an adoring, orange home arena celebrate a goal against the Nashville Predators. Number four wants to give free hugs to everyone, obviously. Get your number and stand in line.

There he is, looking as cute as a button in his home jersey, but that’s far too superficial to be the only motive why I chose him, so let’s examine some other reasons why.

On the powerplay, he can score goals, a useful and necessary talent in a defenseman manning the point, even recording  powerplay goals against teams like the St. Louis Blues, which not every player can claim:

When he skates, he’s pure poetry in motion:

After he gets those legs in gear, he makes the wind seem slow by comparison, so it’s no wonder he could win the Ducks’ Fastest Skater Event at their Skills Showdown:

Back when he was a rookie, he also was lucky enough to live with Scott Niedermayer (possibly my all-time favorite Devil), who taught him not to subsist solely on a diet of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, chocolate milk, and cookie dough ice cream:

From this chapter of Cam’s life, there is also video documentation of him and Scott Niedermayer passing a puck to one another, which is good wish-fulfillment for those hockey fans who dream of seeing Scott Niedermayer play again:

Now that Cam has attained the ripe old age of twenty-two and has moved into his own place (unlike Sidney Crosby who still basically lives with Mario Lemieux like an adopted son although he pretends to have gotten his own mansion), he’s expected to be a more mature veteran anchoring Anaheim’s youthful blueline, but that doesn’t stop him from being a dope about things like line changes:

In case you’re wondering, the defenseman next to Cam who was laughing his lungs out was rookie Hampus Lindholm. That’s right. Even the rookie thought his mistake was hilarious, but Hampus should be careful about at who’s expense his chuckles come, since Cam is an American superhero:

In all seriousness, though, Cam Fowler, a player whom I always had a soft spot for because he seems to have a calm, genuinely nice personality to match his smooth skating and perfect passing, had a breakout season this year. He received attention for both his offensive and defensive play. He worked his way onto the United States Olympic team, where he played top four minutes. He was a major reason why the Ducks finished as Pacific Division Champions.

At twenty-two, he still has many wonderful experiences to look forward to on and off the ice, and, as he continues to develop, he should contribute more and more to his team. Granted, he is one of the least physical players in the league, so much so that I know he is feeling feisty when he brushes elbows with an opposing player, but he is not hesitant about blocking shots, and his play along the boards has improved noticeably. His positioning and stickwork compensate defensively for much of his lack of physicality.

In the final analysis, he also has two of the skills-smooth, swift skating and excellent puck movement—that are most valuable to modern defensemen. Sometimes in our haste to criticize his shooting ability or his physicality, we forget how incredible his skating is, how amazing his vision of the ice is, and how subtly powerful an offensive catalyst he can be to his team. He is not without his flaws, but there aren’t that many twenty-two-year-old defenseman in the NHL who play team-leading minutes in all situations as well as Cam Fowler does. Of course, not being divine, he does stuff wrong, but it shouldn’t detract from all that he does right, especially when the good far outweighs the bad. He deserves to be respected for that, so I thank him for making hockey fun to watch with his considerable talents and for being a classy individual kids would be fine emulating, which isn’t all that common among professional athletes.