"He was so crafty, skated so well and was so smooth," said Canucks defenceman Keith Ballard, who got his WCE baptism in 2005-06, as an NHL rookie in Phoenix. "He could beat you so many different ways. He had a good shot and could skate, but always had his head up and found the open guy.
"If you took a bit of a risk and tried to step up on him to make a play, he would just put the puck by you. And he was so good on the power play on the half wall coming up and rolling up high. I was nervous being out there against those [WCE] guys, they were really something."
