Gaborik: 18 Going On Great

                 Glancing over at his Minnesota Wild linemate, the teen-age prodigy Marian Gaborik,
                 Jim Dowd, suddenly old at 32, shakes his head with a mixture of envy and respect.

                 "At 18," he muses, "I was getting ready for my first year of school (Lake Superior
                 State). I could no more have played in this league than guided a rocket ship to the
                 moon. At 18, most guys are thinking about girls or cars or where they can get a
                 summer job maybe bagging groceries to make a little extra money.

                 "All this guy thinks about is playing in the NHL.

                 "He's got NHL speed. An NHL shot. NHL poise.

                 "I think my nephew's a pretty good player at 18. Then
                 I watch Marian Gaborik play. And it blows me away."

                 Blows defensemen away, too.

                 Gaborik is making the biggest splash of all the
                 wunderkinds snapped up in last June's NHL entry draft
                 at Calgary. Isles goalie prospect Rick DiPietro, chosen
                 first, is with Chicago of the IHL to prep. Second
                 choice Dany Heatley is back at Wisconsin, playing
                 with the college boys.

                 Minnesota's expansion peer, Columbus, just sent defenseman Rostislav Klesla back
                 to juniors Friday. Left winger Raffi Torres had a cup of coffee on Long Island.

                 That leaves Gaborik.

                 "It's easier for expansion teams to keep a guy like Marian," explains Wild general
                 manager Doug Risebrough. "Because, in situations such as ours, we're looking down
                 the road to a point where the team will be stronger and deeper. In a lot of cases you
                 want your young, talented players to make the journey there with you."

                 Many scouts had Gaborik, who played in the Slovakian Sr. league with
                 Dukla-Trencin when he was a mere 16-years old, rated as the No. 1 prospect in the
                 draft. Many more had him pegged as the most talented player available.

                 "It took me a while in training camp to get over how different it is here," concedes
                 Gaborik, in his polite but halting English. "Smaller rink. Red line. But I want to stay
                 here. If I play good, I score goals, there's no reason they send me down."

                 No reason whatsoever.

                 But -- and this is the mechanical rabbit dangling just in front of the greyhound to keep
                 him running flat-out -- there's always that possibility.

                 "I've told Marian this: There is a chance he'll go to Cleveland for a while this season,
                 if we think it's in his best interests," said Risebrough in the team's offices in the swank
                 old Minnesota Club, adjacent to the Xcel Energy Center. "To be honest, we had no
                 intention of him being here at all. But since the criteria for making this team from the
                 outset has been how hard you work, how well you're willing to listen and adapt, and
                 as he's done those things as well as anyone we've got, it'd be blatantly unfair to make
                 an exception for all the wrong reasons."

                 It requires a tremendous amount of self-assurance for an 18-year-old to step into the
                 NHL at all, much less be an immediate contributing factor. Oh, every generation or
                 so there comes along a Mario Lemieux or an Eric Lindros -- freaks of nature. These
                 rarities are not only able to cope with the landscape, they actually dominate it.

                 But most wind up back in junior or are left an extra season or two in Europe -- not
                 mature enough in body or mind to make such an intimidating jump. Often, teams are
                 leery about keeping players so young, fearing the possible repercussions of placing
                 them in a situation they're ill-prepared for.

                 Many who do stick around, struggle. Consult Boston's Joe Thornton for confirmation.
                 Thornton is just now, in his fourth season, beginning to emerge as a force.

                 He managed just seven points in 55 games as an 18-year-old rookie.

                 "In baseball," points out Dowd, "it's almost unheard-of for an 18-year-old to step
                 into a big-league team. In football and basketball, it happens all the time. Why?
                 Because Division I college for those guys is their minor leagues -- an incredible level
                 that gets them ready for the NFL or NBA, just a cut below the big boys."

                 The fact that the Twin Cities area had the North Stars for so long is benefiting the
                 Wild in the public's understanding of what to expect from high draft choices. In other
                 non-hockey markets, fans might simply assume that, like in football or basketball,
                 first-rounders can step right in and make an impact on their teams.

                 "Here, they know 18-year-olds aren't necessarily going to play right off the bat," said
                 Risebrough. "They've seen before how rushing them in too fast can set them back, or
                 ruin them. They're willing to be more patient, which is a definite advantage for us in
                 building the type of team we want."

                 NHL rules stipulate that a team dressing a
                 junior-age player for 10 games has an
                 official year on the books -- a major issue
                 for clubs when it comes to things such as
                 salary arbitration or qualifying offers. He
                 still can be returned to junior after 12
                 games or 24 games or whatever, but that
                 year will be lost to his NHL rightsholder.

                 But since Gaborik is European, he can be sent to the minors.

                 "(That's) a huge luxury for us," Risebrough points out. "The IHL is a good league, a
                 good option. Obviously, Marian is far too skilled to go back to an amateur level. He
                 wouldn't get anything out of that. In fact, it might slow his progress. So the IHL, a
                 league of men, is a great alternative.

                 "But who's to say he won't stick around with us all season."

                 Dowd, the streetsmart guy from Brick, N.J., figures that's a pretty good possibility.
                 He calls Gaborik "wise beyond his years" and commends the young Slovak's
                 willingness to listen and learn. He isn't too grand to roll up his sleeves and battle
                 without the puck. And in coach Jacques Lemaire's stringent defensive system, if
                 someone -- doesn't matter who they are -- can't at least play adequate defense, they
                 won't play at all.

                 At the moment, Gaborik is manning the left side on Minnesota's No. 1 line, which
                 also includes Dowd and right winger Scott Pellerin.

                 "What sold me on this kid was the only time I saw him play live," Risebrough
                 recounts. "He was playing for the Slovakian national team in a tournament in
                 Switzerland. At that level, he was just a fourth-line player. But he worked his butt off
                 to make that team. Now remember, this is a kid who's been a star all his life. But he
                 didn't sulk or pout or feel it was beneath him to be a fourth-liner.

                 "He just wanted to be on that team so badly. And whenever he got on the ice, he
                 was just flying around out there. So I thought to myself 'If this guy's talent matches his
                 heart, we could have ourselves a pretty good player here.'"

                 Could have?

                 Do have.

                 George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Herald. His NHL column
                 appears every week during the season on ESPN.com.