NHL scouts didn’t pay any attention to Akito Hirose in his draft year.
They didn’t have any reason to. Hirose had just 10 points in 44 games for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in the BCHL in his first year of draft eligibility — not typically a sign that a player has an NHL future.
In his second year in the BCHL, however, Hirose made a major decision that changed the course of his hockey career: he switched from forward to defence.
That’s not a decision a player normally makes when they're 18 years old, but it’s one that had been suggested to Hirose for years.
“Scott Atkinson, he was my coach growing up, like, my whole life and then he came to Salmon Arm,” said Hirose. “He was always pestering me to switch to defence and then I finally did it in junior. I was like, ‘Yeah, I'll give it a go,’ and I guess it worked out.”
"I think the game is basically positionless."
Atkinson was the head coach at Edge School Prep in Calgary, coaching both Akito and his brother Taro Hirose, who is currently in the Detroit Red Wings organization, from a young age. Hirose was one of the top players at the school but there was always a sense that he could be even better if he wasn’t a forward.
“His brother was a very successful player, so he was kind of following in his footsteps,” said Atkinson, who now coaches the Olds Grizzlys in the AJHL. “He was going to be a good player anyway — he’s super-skilled and he sees the game well — but if you look at his scoring stats, he actually produces way more as a D-man than as a forward. Which is kind of odd, but it’s simply the case.”
When coaching kids, Atkinson requires every player to try every position to create a greater overall understanding of the game. It’s part of his overall philosophy of hockey.
“Number one: I think the game is basically positionless except for the goalie,” said Atkinson. “I think that’s what you see now in the higher levels — a very skilled defenceman and a very skilled centre, what’s the difference? They basically play the same way and have the same skillset, they just take the draws in a different place and maybe have some different structural responsibilities, but they’re basically the same player.
“That’s the base of my philosophy and I’ve had quite a bit of success changing guys from defence to forward, forward to defence. To me, it’s just how they see the game.”
"It’s dealing with the cognitive aspect of the game."
Hirose touched on that aspect in his first media availability with the Canucks: there was a difference between how his brother, Taro, saw the game and how he saw the game.
“He was trying to talk about my game and my brother's game and he would explain it as my brother sees the game as if he were on the TV and I would see the game as if I was watching the TV,” said Hirose. “So, kind of explaining it from like, you can see it better from behind the play, kind of thing. So, I guess that's what sold me on it.”
Atkinson was pleased to hear that Hirose remembered that metaphor, which is still one of the ways he explains seeing the game to the kids he coaches.
“It’s dealing with the cognitive aspect of the game or the neuroscience of the game — that decision-making, spatial orientation, navigation, all that kind of problem-solving, perceptual stuff that everybody refers to, in simple terms, as hockey IQ,” said Atkinson. “Basically, the way I put it is when you’re playing the game, is it like you’re on TV, one of the actors in the play? Or is it like you’re in the audience watching the play or watching on TV.
“That answer pretty well tells me whether a kid should be a forward or a D-man.”
"For my money, he was the most valuable player."
Still, Hirose resisted the suggestion to move to defence for years. Atkinson said that he felt Hirose was the best player with the highest ceiling on his Bantam AAA team at the Edge School, but he was massively outscored by Jaret Anderson-Dolan, now with the Los Angeles Kings. Anderson-Dolan had 126 points, while Hirose had less than half that at 59.
“For all the skill and all the understanding of the game, he was much less productive as a forward and always has been,” said Atkinson. But, after he struggled at forward in his draft year with the Silverbacks, Hirose was more open to the idea when Atkinson joined the Silverbacks as their new head coach.
“I hounded him about it,” said Atkinson. “And then he had a lot better results. Then he skyrocketed [in his third year as a defenceman]. Not many defencemen have a point per game in the BCHL, but he did. For my money, he was the most valuable player. I can appreciate Kent Johnson, but at the end of the day, there was nobody more valuable to his team than Akito was.”
The late switch to defence meant a bit of a learning curve for Hirose, however, as aspects of the defensive side of the game weren’t quite instinctual to him immediately. Spending three years at Minnesota State University (Mankato) helped him improve that aspect.
“I think I've always had the offensive game,” said Hirose. “I used to be a forward in junior, so that's always been there for me, but I think it's been just my growth in Mankato with the coaches that we had there that helped me get into the fine details of playing defence, whether it's inside ice, getting your bump on a guy, or having a good stick. I think that really helped me grow my game.”
"Akito was basically a hockey nerd."
Hirose’s well-rounded game earned him an NHL contract, something that seemed far away when he had just 10 points in his draft year. But Atkinson said that Hirose showed the potential to be an elite player right from a young age.
“One of the things that I always talked to Akito and Taro about is that they’re kind of lucky because other kids like to fool around and do other stuff — when they fool around, they like to do skill work and athletic development,” said Atkinson. “They fool around like athletes…It wasn’t hard to get them on the ice or get them in the gym.”
More than just the physical skills and conditioning, Hirose always had a great mind for the game.
“Akito was basically a hockey nerd,” said Atkinson. “He was very thirsty to learn. That didn’t just involve me or the programs I was running — he was very inquisitive and watched games in detail. That’s another factor of guys that get to understand the game better or have a high hockey IQ, whatever you want to call it — he actually watches the game, he doesn’t just watch highlights. He watches in detail…At a very young age, he was very interested in detail and saw things in a more detailed way relative to his age.”
“You have to use an inquiry style and ask questions — ask and pull rather than push and tell,” he added. “When you get a guy like Akito, you sometimes spend a lot of time talking to him because he's so involved mentally that he'll ask you questions ad nauseam.”
Now Atkinson is hoping he can watch Hirose take his mind and talent and translate that into an NHL career. The Canucks are hoping for the same.
