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With a roller hockey background, Jason Zucker is thriving in his freshman season for the Pioneer hockey team.
“I started playing [roller hockey] when I was 3, because of my brothers, and I just played in Las Vegas,” Zucker said about his unique upbringing with roller hockey in the desert where ice is hard to find. Within a few years, he was playing ice hockey.
Zucker, a graduate from Pioneer High School in Plymouth, Mich., was the first player from Nevada to be chosen in the NHL draft and currently leads the Pioneers in goals with 16 so far this season.
He also has 24 points in 22 games this season, which is No. 2 on the team. In addition, he is leading the team with three game-winning goals and 89 shots on net. He leads the WCHA in goals with 16 in 16 league games.
He says that he owes this success to his development in the game of roller hockey.
“I still play in the summers and I think that it has definitely helped me a lot with skill development and things like that. I played NARCh (North American Roller Hockey Championships) my whole life,” said Zucker of the biggest roller hockey tournament in the country.
“I think that [the coaches] are 100 percent wrong [when they say roller hockey players cannot play ice],” said Zucker. “I know a ton of kids that have played roller their whole entire life and you can’t tell me that they are bad players, including Rhett Rakhshani.”
Before Zucker arrived at DU he played in Ann Arbor, Mich. for the United States National Team Development Program, a team that two of his current teammates, Drew and Nick Shore, played on. With that club, Zucker tallied 43 points in 51 games.
Zucker said the success that he has had throughout the season so far is not surprising to him due to the hard training that he put in preparing for the season.
“I can’t say that I knew I was going to have 21 points right now,” said Zucker. “I feel great about it. It’s been a lot of fun; the team has been doing well, so that makes it better and I couldn’t have done it without the line mates that I have and the team that I have around me.”
Zucker, the 2010 second-round draft pick of the Minnesota Wild, is looking to continue his success as the season progresses, but you will not see him pulling any moves that he reserves for the roller rink.
“I try not to dangle people because I would get yelled at or I would get hit, but roller is what keeps the game fun during the summer. It makes sure you have fun during the summer,” said Zucker.
For the Pioneers to continue their success throughout the rest of the season and into the tournament, they are going to need the consistent play of Zucker in league play and to contribute at both ends of the ice.
