Blue Jackets' draft pick Dumais hopes to follow in St. Louis' footsteps

When Martin St. Louis took to the stage to address Centre Bell before the opening of the NHL draft Thursday night, it felt like he could have been talking directly to Jordan Dumais.
The current Montreal Canadiens coach went from undrafted prospect to Hall of Famer thanks to a chip on his shoulder and relentless work ethic to match his high-level skill, an experience that gives him a critical perspective he wanted to share with the draft class.

"It took me 47 years to finally be at my first draft," St. Louis told the crowd. "And it was worth the wait. Congratulations to all the players who are going to hear their names the next two days. Understand it's just the beginning. It's probably the easy part. What's ahead of you is going to be much harder."
Patrice Dumais didn't elbow his son, Jordan, and tell him to pay attention, but he probably didn't have to.
The elder Dumais grew up in the Montreal area playing junior hockey with St. Louis, who put up tremendous point totals both in juniors and at the University of Vermont but still had to take the long way to the NHL.

So when his son grew up a smallish but driven and talented forward, Patrice could see the parallels between Jordan and his old friend.
"I knew what was going to happen with Jordan because I had been through that with Martin," Patrice said Friday, moments after Jordan was drafted by the Blue Jackets in the third round. "I was there. I lived it with him. I told Jordan when he was getting some of the rankings and stuff like that, he thought that he should have been ranked (better), maybe first or second round, but I always told him, even Marty St. Louis didn't get drafted, so don't worry if you're a third-round or fourth-round pick. It's OK.
"At the end of the day, it starts now. It's the year after the draft you need to work even harder. Marty said that on the stage last night. But yeah, I used the Marty St. Louis example with Jordan a lot."
It's not hard to see the similarities between the two players even if it's two decades or so apart. St. Louis put up comical stat lines as a youngster -- he had 87 points in 31 games his final year of juniors, plus 85 points in 35 games as a junior at the University of Vermont -- but his diminutive stature meant he not only wasn't drafted, he never played in the QMJHL and had to work his way from the minors to the NHL.
Dumais, meanwhile, is a step ahead of where St. Louis was at this point in his career. It might help that hockey has changed -- the increased speed and decreased physicality has made it a lot easier on smaller players than when St. Louis had to skate through the giant sequoia trees of yore -- but Dumais has already taken on a starring role in the Q, placing third in the league last year with 109 points in 68 games for Halifax.
That production did put him on draft boards, and Columbus used the 96th overall pick in the third round to take the high-scoring winger. But even the predraft rankings seemed to stick in Dumais' mind a little bit, as he was rated just 73rd among North American skaters in the final rankings produced by NHL Central Scouting.

Dumais
would tell Le Presse
, "These are not real recruiters who make these lists. If they were really good recruiters, they would work for an NHL team." So just like St. Louis, Dumais has a chip on his shoulder as a result of his size (5-9, 165) that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.
"I think my whole career, I have always had something to prove," he said. "I've always had that motivation. I'll never turn it off. To this day, I'm still going to have motivation and a chip on my shoulder."
In all, it seems like everything came together for Dumais at the draft, from the fact his entire family -- including his brother, Justin, who was just taken by Moncton in the QMJHL draft -- could make the short drive from their home in L'Île-Bizard in suburban Montreal, to the fact his father's old friend delivered a message on stage that surely will sink in.
"It's a dream come true for sure (for the family)," Patrice said. "When I saw that Jordan wasn't going to be a 6-foot-4 guy or 6-2 or 6-1, I was a bit worried, but he's so driven. You're going to get to know him -- he's so driven. He has a dream and he's going to do everything in his power to do it."