A coveted second round draft pick by Chicago in 2007, no one really knew about Billy Sweatt until the Blackhawks unceremoniously traded the prospect to Toronto as part of a package deal with Kris Versteeg to dump salary.
"I didn't expect to get traded," he explained. "It almost kind of didn't make sense because it wasn't like we couldn't come to terms."
So, he and his agent, Scott Norton, began negotiating with the Maple Leafs. After Brian Burke put a contract on the table, Sweatt, who had exhausted his collegiate career spending four years at Colorado College, didn't turndown the contract, but asked for time to wait and see what happened with their other off-season moves. Burke wasn't interested in waiting, withdrew the contract and ceased communication making Sweatt, 21, a free agent on August 16th.
After speaking with several teams, he finally decided to sign with Vancouver.
"Every team's offer was the same so that wasn't really a factor in the decision," said Sweatt. "It was mostly the opportunity associated with each team. Looking at the depth chart, where do they see me this year? Where do they see me in three years? How quickly will I have the opportunity to have a chance to crack the lineup? So all those questions were taken into account. A lot of teams had very similar situations, but we decided to go with Vancouver because we thought they had the best opportunity for me for right now and in the future."
As he prepares for his first professional season with the Canucks organization, the question still remains...who is Billy Sweatt?
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Billy and his older brother, Lee, played football because their father, Walt, was a DI football player in college, but their mother, Dottie, was a big hockey fan. So, the boys also played hockey and one day, with sporting schedules getting a little out of hand, their parents asked them to pick one.
Lee picked hockey and Billy followed his lead figuring it would be better if they played the same sport and in some ways it brought them together, but at first it drove them apart.
"We used to have fight after fight and when we'd play shinny hockey against each other it would get heated. It'd always end up some version of I'd hit him in the face with the ball and then he'd annihilate me," laughed Sweatt. "Plus, we were three years apart. So, we were going through different phases of our life so we didn't always get along all that well, but once he went to college and he was 18 and I was 15, that's when we started to get along."
When he was in grade school, the family moved to a bigger house, further out in the suburbs - one that had a rather large unfinished basement.
"My dad would almost force us to go down there and he'd have these programs written up where we'd have to do this many wrist shots, this many snap shots, this many slap shots, this many backhands and at first it was like 'ugh...we gotta go down there and do this', but after awhile, we realized that it was actually making us better and we started going down there naturally," Sweatt explained.
"In college, my dad was always the guy that worked his butt off and did everything he could to do that little bit extra than the guy next to him so he could stay around and he transfered that mentality to my brother and I because he saw that it worked for him and that if we did it and followed in his footsteps that we could be successful too and that the sky was the limit.
"Once we started noticing that going down there and working out or shooting pucks and doing that little bit extra when most people were just sitting on their butts at home playing video games, that's when we started noticing results and that we were becoming elite players," said Sweatt. "I think that's when it became more than just a game to me because it was like uncharted territory and you began to wonder 'How far could this game take me?' You watch NHL games as a kid and the thought crosses your mind that maybe if I keep working hard like this maybe one day I could have a shot to play there or at least some college hockey and earn a scholarship. That dream is now happening for both of us."
Since he grew up in Illinois, you'd assume Sweatt was a Blackhawks fan, but it didn't work out that way.
"Growing up it was hard watching the Blackhawks because they were always blacked out - even when they played nationally on ESPN - so, it was hard to really follow them," he said. "The only games I ever got to see was after we won state championships because the winners got to go to a game and were recognized during intermission. So that's the only time I could see games which is unfortunate and that's why I could never really follow the Hawks."
Instead, Sweatt was a fan of the Colorado Avalanche and in particular, Peter Forsberg, but watching a Blackhawks game in person was a pretty big perk as Sweatt's team won the Illinois State Championship seven straight years starting in Mite AA as an eight-year-old.
"That was the first huge moment where I thought to myself 'This is a lot of fun'," he said. "We made it all the way to the State Championship Game and they did this huge introduction thing with a laser show and music and it was a lot of fun. We were really young and just waiting along the boards to go on the ice and the seats were packed and you were just in awe of the whole atmosphere and I realized that this was a pretty big deal."
The next year he moved up to Squirt AA, won the State Championship, then went to AAA and won five more for a total of seven straight State Championships.
"The only one I didn't win was in my final year when we went to the championship game and kinda got upset...but I don't really want to talk about that game," laughed Sweatt.
His success earned him a spot in the US National Team Development Program based in Ann Arbor, MI.
"My first year I didn't do all that great," he said. "For the most part, I was nervous. I was wearing that USA sweater every single night and it was kind of intimidating. I didn't want to mess anything up. I didn't want to disgrace that jersey. I think I was almost thinking about it too much and maybe being away from home had something to do with it."
With a birthday in late September, he was young for his birth-year and only 15 at the start of his junior year of high school and first with the NTDP. His parents thought he was too young to go away by himself, so his mom went with him and the two of them stayed in an apartment style hotel for the duration of the school year, but his senior year and second with the NTDP was a different story.
"My second year, I had a good summer of training and I ended up living with one of my teammates at his billet house and that worked out really well because it was a great home environment," said Sweatt. "They had a really nice house and two kids who were unbelieveable. They were 5 and 8 and had so much energy. They always wanted to play video games or shinny hockey. It was just a really fun environment and I had a complete turn around on the team production wise.
"I was second on the team in scoring, right behind Patrick Kane - well not right behind, he had a lot more points than I did, but I was still second!" he explained. "It was a complete turnaround year for me though and I think being away from home, and more importantly my parents, made me grow up a little bit more and helped me prepare for college and the next step. It was a very positive experience on the whole."
That year, Sweatt was part of the US team that won gold at the U-18 World Championships.
"The 87 birth year just had unbelieveable talent like Kessel, Jack Johnson, etc and our team had Kane and Erik Johnson, which is not to take anything away from them, but as a whole we just weren't as skilled as they were and no one expected us to do well," he said. "But our coach had a good game plan and we had to work really hard to execute it, but we ended up winning the gold medal. It was a great experience because not only did I get to represent my country, I got to win a gold medal and not many people get to do that in their lifetime. It was a really great honor and I'll never forget it."
All that time battling with Lee in the basement was paying off and opening more doors than they thought.
"It might not even be a conscious competition, but whenever you see your brother do something you always want to one up them," he said. "You want to be the bigger better brother and I think that natural competition actually fueled both of us to be better players. We had a big basement growing up and we would spend countless hours and hours in that basement and that's another place where competition came in. The basement was so big that we could rollerblade in it, full speed and everything. So Lee being a defenseman and me being a forward, we would always play against each other and just progress our skills that way playing in the basement."
But when summer came and they didn't have a team to play on or a place to skate, they turned to roller hockey to fill the void and get more practice time in.
"It's a little bit different. There's no checking so it works more on your skillset - your hands and the ability to create plays - because it's 4-on-4 so there's more room and you're going to be put in more offensive situations which allows you to practice your scoring and stickhandling skills," he explained. "We just kept doing it in the summer and because we were really good at it, one day my mom suggested to Lee that he try out for the men's national team and see what happens and maybe he'd get to go to Europe for a bit and experience something new and maybe even win a medal at the World Championships.
"We both always loved inline hockey. even though it was used to prepare for ice hockey it was still very fresh for us - more relaxing, not as much pressure," he continued. "Lee played for two years before I tried out. We won bronze my first year and then gold the second, but it all started because we wanted more opportunities to practice and work on our skills for ice hockey."
Next on Sweatt's list of things to do was decide on a college to attend and play for. Playing Juniors in Canada was never an option for him.
"The average NHL player's career is only about 4 or 5 years max and that's even if you get there. Some people might not accept this or agree with it or might not
want to agree with it, but there
is life after hockey," he explained. "You can't play until you're 60 and then retire. So, that was always a hugh factor and my mom and my dad instilled in both Lee and I that this wasn't always going to be there. You're going to get too old or your skills are going to deterioriate and that was the biggest factor in choosing college over juniors."
Sweatt had several schools looking to add him to their roster and in the end he decided to follow his brother, Lee, to Colorado College.
"It was a really hard decision and was based a lot on where my brother was," Sweatt explained. "I knew a lot more about CC than other schools because of my brother so I knew how everything worked. It was a very successful program, having been to the Frozen Four and the NCAA tournament. So, I knew they were a winning program and I heard from my brother that it was a beautiful area and a great school - a tough school but a great one - so all of that came into play.
"There was another school I was seriously considering, but CC won out because of my brother. Since I was going to college so young, I think I needed someone there to kind of guide me so I didn't get lost being a 17 year old freshman."
Moving on to the college ranks, Sweatt really just wanted to continue the lessons he had learned in Ann Arbor.
"I was only relied on for scoring when I was younger, but then I went to the National Team and found out that there are two sides to the game," he said. "Coach Hynes started my development there and CC continued it and I was able to play in all situations. So, between those two places I learned to be a more complete player and am able now to play defense as well as offense. That's the area where I really grew as a player."
Sweatt earned a spot on Team USA's World Junior Championship team in 2007 and 2008 winning a bronze in 2007 to add to his already impressive medal collection. Each time, he returned to Colorado College, eager to to get back to work and ready for the challenge of playing college hockey.
"In college, you're playing against 22, 23, 24 year old men and they have...
man strength," Sweatt explained. "If you were going to the next level like in the AHL that's the kind of strength those guys have. They have
man strength. In junior hockey, the kids are so young and many of them have yet to develop all of their physical strength just because they're not old enough yet. So, in that respect college is great, getting to compete against older, bigger players will prepare you more for the next level and you get a little bit more time to work on your skills and strength in the weight room."
Last summer, he contemplated leaving school and making the jump to the pros as a 20 year old but decided to stay at Colorado College for his senior year and finish his education. He now has a degree in mathematical economics and recently took the GMAT, the standardized test required for admission into MBA programs, so he could have the option to pursue a masters in business in the future.
As much as he developed as a player in Colorado Springs, he also developed as a person.
"I learned that at times I was a little closed minded. I wasn't open to all sides before. CC was a very liberal school and it opened my mind a bit and changes your perspective on things and I now see more of both sides," said Sweatt. "I do things a bit differently than I would have in the past. That was the biggest thing I learned about myself, I could be pretty closed minded, pretty stubborn when it came to views on things whether it be political or economical or whatever, but CC made me more aware of the other side of the argument and made me a more logical thinker and not as much emotional. I was able to respect other people's opinions and am more willing to hear them out."
That life lesson helped prepare him for the decision he'd make this summer as a free agent.
"Fans from Colorado College and other people from the outside are going to think Lee was part of my decision but he wasn't." Sweatt explained. "I tried to take my brother out of the equation. I went to CC and he was only there for a year with me which really helped, but now, he's only on a one year contract and who knows what could happen after that. He could be going elsewhere. So I wasn't going to make a decision with my brother in the equation.
"When you have the ability to choose and you have a lot of great teams out there, you have to take emotions out of it and really make the best decisions for you. It's not personal...it's just business."
After all of the hours spent practicing in the basement and all the sacrifices his parents made both with their time and money to help him succeed, Sweatt is ready to take the next step in his hockey career.
"It's going to be great and I'm excited to get into pro hockey and get to camp and hopefully have a good showing there and possibly make the team."
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Sweatt joined the Twitterverse a few weeks ago. You can follow his feed at
@billysweatt
Julie
[email protected]
@JulieRobenhymer
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