Whalers forward AJ Jenks knew his senior year at the Plymouth-Canton Education Park would be filled with memories that would last a life time, but also knew he would have to make sacrifices to prepare himself for the future. Despite the Whalers getting knocked out of the playoffs by eventual OHL Champion Kitchener, AJ didn't take time off as he started training. He pushed himself to become stronger so he could impress scouts at the NHL Combine and be ready for the United States National Junior Evaluation Camp held later in the summer. The sacrifices he made paid off as AJ was drafted by the Florida Panthers and had a strong showing for Team USA. He also had a trifecta party to celebrate his graduation from high school, his 18th birthday, and getting drafted into the NHL. It might be the off-season, but AJ has had a summer full of hockey and training to prepare for the upcoming season and his career down the road.

Dear Diary-

After we got knocked out of the playoffs, I could've taken a break, but I wanted to keep training. I needed to work hard and get ready for some big events that were coming up in the summer. When I found out I was

Jenks looks on as one of the other prospects participates in the high jump testing.

going to the NHL Combine with some of the other top prospects, I got a packet of information that had the basic things that we would be tested on. Since I was still living in Plymouth and going to school, I used the facilities at Compuware Arena to train on the specific areas that I needed to test well on at the Combine.

The Combine was at the Westin Bristol Place by the Toronto Airport. My roommate was Cody Hodgson, who plays for Brampton and was drafted 10th overall by Vancouver at the draft. We did interviews and meetings with teams, which was pretty stressful. I thought my interviews went well with Florida, Colorado, Columbus, Calgary, and Anaheim.

We also did physical testing. The physical testing is a lot of strength and conditioning exercises like bench press, push-ups, sit-ups, height, weight, body fat, grip strength, Wingate, VO2 Max, high jump, agility test - all of those kinds of things. I'd like to think I did well on all of them. I just did my best, but it definitely wears you out.

(Top) Checking out the draft online with my dad. (Bottom) Getting the phone call that Florida was drafting me from my agent.

When it came time for the NHL Draft, I had a bunch of my family and friends come over to my house on the second day of the draft. We got the NHL package so we could watch it and not just follow it online, so we pulled the TV out on to the back porch, all sat around it, and waited for my name. My agent actually called a couple seconds before I was picked, so I knew ahead of time that I was getting drafted by Florida. He called to say congratulations and it was a pretty special moment for my family and friends.

I wasn't shocked to be drafted by Florida since I thought I had a good interview with them, but I didn't know a whole lot about the organization really. I knew that they had just hired a new coach - Kitchener’s old coach Pete Deboer who used to coach the Whalers - and that Dan Collins, a former Whaler that I played with, is in Florida’s system. When I found out I got drafted by Florida, I called Sherm (Collins) up and told him that I got drafted by Florida. He has been living in the Plymouth area all summer, so we decided we were going to work out together on Florida’s strength and conditioning program. It has worked out well and is great to have someone to train with.

Actually I received some good information one day when I was working out with Collins. I got back from a work out in the afternoon and the house phone rang. I never answer it, but the number was from out of state, so I answered it to see who it was. It was Jim Johannson from USA Hockey and he was calling to invite me to USA's evaluation camp and of course I accepted.

Jenks scores one of his two goals against Sweden. He finished the tournament third in scoring for Team USA with 5 points.

I flew from Detroit to Albany, and then bussed about two and a half hours to Lake Placid. We stayed at the Olympic Training Center, which is in a really nice area. There were about 50 other players there and they split us up into 3 teams. We basically practiced once a day and played once a day, sometimes we played 2 times a day. Then after a few days, they made some cuts and got us down to 2 teams. They flew over Sweden and Finland to play 2 exhibition games against each of those teams, so we could face other competition. It was a great experience.

Jeremy Smith was also at the camp, so I had a teammate and someone I knew with me. It was also good because he went through it all last year and if I didn’t know what was going on, I could always go to him and he would help me out. It was nice having him there.

Besides the USA camp, I haven't had any others this summer. I have not done anything with Florida yet, but I am going to Rookie Camp on September 11.

The summer is winding down and training camp for the Whalers is just around the corner. I am looking forward to seeing all the guys again, meeting some of the new players, and seeing how our team will stack up. I think we’re going to do well and could be a sleeper team. I think we’re going to have a strong team which will make a good playoff run, so I can't wait to end the summer and get the season started!

-AJ

-with contributions by Natalie Shaver, Summer of 2008-