By / Mike Beasley
Chris Perugini may not be the biggest guy on the ice but he’s been large for the Ottawa 67’s this season.
He’s listed at 5-10, 145 pounds but when you see the way he can stop pucks you forget about those measurements.
Perugini is huge now compared to when he first arrived in Ottawa at the beginning of the 2007/08 season after being selected in the third round (46th overall) from the Mississauga Minor Midget IceDogs at the 2008 OHL Priority Selection Draft.
The native of King City, Ontario reported to training camp that September and weighed in at 125 pounds, prompting Brian Kilrea, Ottawa’s GM and head coach to describe Perugini as smaller than a minute but similar to Darren Pang, another tiny 67’s goaltender who backstopped the team to the 1984 Memorial Cup before graduating to a pro hockey career.
The 17-year old knows he has to compensate for his lack of size by being highly skilled and working non stop to become a better goalie.
“I make up for my size with a lot of things like quickness, flexibility, smarts and being mentally tough at all times,” Perugini explained.
Making your-self look big in the nets is another key to being a successful goalie with Perugini having some deception in his netminder’s bag of tricks to achieve that goal.
“I never wear small equipment, I always try to use bulky stuff that I can move well in but will help increase my largeness,” Perugini said. “For me, speed and mobility are two of my strong points and I cannot afford to jeopardize either one.”
“As a slender goalie, there are certain things you have to do to look bigger. In my opinion, height doesn’t make a big difference in the game. There are a couple of smaller goalies that have become very successful in the OHL who are the same height as me like Trevor Cann (London Knights) and Mike Murphy (Belleville Bulls). We all do our own thing in trying to look big.”
Perugini has taken his game to another level this season and has played so well he is the third ranked OHL goalie by NHL Central Scouting for the 2009 Draft that will be held in Montreal.
Ottawa 67’s goalie coach Tom Dempsey has seen the improvement since he began working with Perugini close to a year and a half ago.
“Chris is one of the hardest working goalies I have ever worked with and that includes Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Danny Battochio when he was with the 67’s,” Dempsey admitted.
“He has really refined his game and brought it to the next level,” Dempsey said. “Chris has learned how to handle the bigger equipment and has developed into a bona fide OHL goalie.
He is a joy to work with and will only get better with time.”
As far as the draft is concerned Perugini remains focused on the job at hand, providing his team with quality goaltending whenever he gets the start.
The puck stopper knows that he must perform to the best of his ability every time he’s in goal because of his current pre draft ranking but at the same time is confident in his ability and comfortable knowing that he fits in with the upper echelon of OHL keepers.
“There were a lot of great goalies from the “O” that got drafted last summer like Thomas McCollum (Guelph), Tyler Beskorowany (Owen Sound), Michael Hutchinson (Barrie), Patrick Killeen (Brampton) and Murphy. I compare myself to them this year. I’m playing just as many games as some of them and my stats are comparable if not better so I think I possess the same skill sets and can play at the next level.” |