"I think the plan right now is for Jermaine to go back to Kamloops for his overage year," Dallas player development coordinator Rich Peverley said. "Having said that, that can always change. Guys always impress [at Traverse City] and sign contracts."
Don Hay, who recently retired after coaching Kamloops for the past five seasons, said he hopes Loewen returns to the team.
"It's taken him a little longer [than most NHL prospects]," Hay said, "and there's nothing wrong with that."
Loewen was 3 1/2 years old when Stan and Tara Loewen, who were living in Arborg, Manitoba, noticed him among the 18 kids living at a children's home that they helped renovate in Jamaica as part of a Christian group's mission. Having discussed adoption before they were married, the Loewens began a process that took almost two years.
They were warned that an adoptee might not be immediately ready to join a new family. When Stan and Tara returned to Jamaica to bring their new son home to Canada for the first time, he was waiting on the front steps with his backpack packed.
"He was wearing his Sunday best," Stan Loewen said. "He said, 'I'm going with you.'"
Loewen, it turned out, was the only child there eligible for adoption.
"You can't just say that's chance," Loewen said. "It was meant to be."
(Stan and Tara have since adopted two other children: daughter Makeda, now 11, from Ethiopia; and Nathanael, 9, also from Jamaica.)
Stan and Tara enrolled Loewen in the local CanSkate introductory program at age 7; most of the participants were of preschool age. When he was first introduced to organized hockey, his coach noted his relatively large frame, put him at defenseman and asked him to skate backward.