How Johnathan Kovacevic’s Family Story Helps Put His Hockey Hobby in Perspective – The Athletic

“Don’t sleep on Johnathan Kovacevic.”

Former Jets scout Dan Shrader sent me this as a text message in 2019. I had just written a report from the best possible people, and I had covered up the Winnipeg third round selection for 2017.

Kovacevic had been separated from two OHL camps and overtook the NHL in the draft twice before Winnipeg took him over. He played at the unprecedented Merrimack College of Hockey East before becoming a depth defender for Manitoba Moose in early 2019-2020.

“What’s so special about this kid?” I wondered.

Shrader told me about Kovacevic’s intelligence both on and off the ice and the way he had been a rock to Merrimack’s struggling program. He called Kovacevic a classic late florist and said the Manitoba coaching staff was in love with him. We had never spoken before, but Shrader praised Kovacevic’s work ethic and attitude.

At least the phone call was worth it. Maybe Kovacevic had long-term NHL potential.

That’s when Shrader shared the first details of the story of the Kovacevic family.

What Johnny had to experience – getting rid of the junior hockey teams – had nothing to do with his parents ’travels to Canada from the former Yugoslavia.

But the perspective they conveyed has given him everything.

The road to Kovacevic’s first NHL match, which the 24-year-old played in the Jets on Thursday, begins outside a remote village in Bosnia, where his mother Angie was born and raised without electricity or running water.