By Jeff D'Andrea

Manson reflects on trying to crack Raiders squad; jersey retirement tonight

Feb 12, 2016 | 11:52 AM

Dave Manson grew up watching the Prince Albert Raiders in their SJHL days in the Art Hauser Centre—looking up to greats like Robin Bartell and Dean Burles.

Now, every game the Raiders play, they can look up to the Art Hauser Centre rafters and see Manson’s No. 4 hanging. The Raiders will honour Manson with the jersey retirement before Friday’s game, Feb. 12, against the Regina Pats.

Since this ceremony was initially announced by the team on Dec. 3, 2015, Manson has had a chance to reflect on his time with his hometown Raiders.

Before Friday’s jersey retirement, before his 16-year NHL career and before his three years with the Raiders, Manson had to start out like any other major junior hockey player does—trying to make the team and avoid getting cut.

“I remember the first time I came to training camp, just a young kid trying to make the team. The fret and the worry about when the cuts come out,” said Manson. “‘What does he want to talk to me for?’ Those types of things,” he explained.

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“The first game, the first time you play at home. The bumps and bruises you have along the way, the ups, the downs, working towards championships. We had brawls, we had 5-on-5’s, the goals—all that. It’s been 30 years. But this last month, you start thinking about those.”

Manson still remembers the first game he played as a Raider. He was called up as an affiliate during his 15-year-old season and the Raiders’ WHL inaugural year in 1982-1983.

“It’s numbing. You tingle, you’re nervous, you’re all wrapped up [with] all the emotions that can run through a young man,” said Manson. “It’s similar to the first time I stepped on the ice at Chicago Stadium, my first NHL game. Those feelings are good feelings.”

Manson said he anticipates a lot of those feeling to resurface and return for the ceremony, but it will be different as he can’t go out and play to work off the nerves.

After playing 218 games for the Raiders across three full seasons and winning the Memorial Cup, Manson went on to play 16 years in the NHL, playing 1103 games and recording 390 points, and a whopping 2,792 penalty minutes. Since Manson retired from professional hockey after the 2002 season, he has coached in his hometown of Prince Albert ever since. He has been an assistant or associate coach with the Raiders for 12 of those years and was also a coach with the Prince Albert Mintos Midget AAA club from 2009 to 2012.

“The Raiders have meant a lot. I used to come and watch. To play in my hometown and to have success in my hometown and to come back, P.A. has always been a part of me and my family,” said Manson. “It was just a good fit for us to come back with my family here.”

“You think it’s short term, but one year turns into 15 pretty quickly. To be a part of hockey again, it’s something that I’ve grown up doing, with the organization that I grew up with, it’s pretty special,” he added.

But being the no-nonsense type of guy he is, Manson isn’t thinking about the night as a man getting his jersey retired—he’s thinking about it as the associate coach of the Prince Albert Raiders.

“For us, we have time to think about it here and there, but as a coach, you have a job to do and that’s to get our team to the playoffs. That’s still the main focus,” Manson said before he started to chuckle. “Today, we have to win a hockey game. We’ll get through the ceremony tonight and it’s back to business as usual.”

The Raiders will play the Regina Pats after the ceremony ends.

The only other time the Raiders retired a jersey was when they retired Mike Modano’s No. 9 jersey into the rafters on Nov. 1, 2013. They also played the Regina Pats that day and defeated them 7-1.

The Raiders have a 4-1 record over the Pats this year in the season series.

The ‘Roast of Dave Manson’ will take place on Saturday at the Ches Leach Lounge.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea