Mission accomplished

Nick Christensen

Monday, April 5, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

In the midst of his final season playing hockey at major-junior Spokane, Jonathan Shockey had a decision to make.

NHL or LDS.

Shockey, an 19-year-old defenseman at the time, had an offer on the table to sign with the NHL's Florida Panthers and advance his career. And he had an obligation far away, to fulfill his two-year Mormon mission, something almost unheard of in the world of hockey.

The sport isn't quite like basketball or football, where LDS players post- mission are actually an asset to college teams due to their age and maturity. In fact, Shockey said he was told his career would be over if he gave up the two years his faith asked of him.

"It made me really motivated to prove them wrong," Shockey said. "For the last year of my mission, I trained hard, was able to get on the ice with the kids, and came back bigger and stronger."

Shockey spent those two years in Sydney, Australia, sharing his faith with adults and his love of hockey with kids, as part of his required community service. He taught Australian youth how to skate and play hockey, and used the ice time to stay in shape himself.

He said it was the best thing he ever did.

When he came back in 1998, he found then Idaho Steelheads and former Las Vegas Thunder coach Clint Malarchuk, who signed him to the then Double-A expansion team. Shockey's most notable stat from his rookie year was his career-high 244 penalty minutes.

Shockey likes to fight. His present coach with the Las Vegas Wranglers, Glen Gulutzan, said that Shockey has an uncanny ability to agitate and get under an opponent's skin. A perfect example of that was before Tuesday's game against his old team Idaho, when the Steelheads' Lance Galbraith was shooting pucks at Shockey's head and later fell over the red line at center ice flinching from a faked punch from Shockey.

His wrist is occasionally injured from punches, he's known to have a gash on his chin or a black eye, and between those and his long brown hair, he doesn't exactly fit the mold of the stereotypical Mormon. He's turned a few heads walking into church on Sundays.

"After a while, people find out I'm a hockey player," he said. "They're happy to see I still have all my teeth."

That's the kind of carefree attitude that personifies Shockey, now 28. Hockey may be his career, a career that's taken him as far as playing part of the 2000-01 season in Triple-A Cleveland, but his interests are as diverse as his past.

"We have a lot of down time on days off, and a lot of time to kill... to do other things," Shockey said. "It's important to keep busy, keep an eye on goals we want to accomplish."

When he's not practicing, he's writing a book. That's only because he doesn't have time during the season to work on his motorcycle, a hockey-type chopper he built inspired by watching the Discovery Channel.

He said he saw West Coast Choppers and thought he could do just as well. So he did.

"It's similar to an Orange County Chopper type bike, with a big motor and 135 horsepower," he said, adding he's not quite sure how fast it goes because it lacks a speedometer. "But my brother on a Harley was going 100, and I blew by him. I don't know how fast I was going, but well over 100 miles per hour."

And then there's the book, a tome about things he wishes he had known as a young athlete that he knows now. Four chapters are done, and he hopes to pitch it to publishers this summer.

Or maybe he'll call it a career and follow his girlfriend in the mortgage industry. Or maybe he'll keep working on the bike.

"At this point, I just take it one year at a time with the opportunity I have," Shockey said. "I knew I wanted to come and play here, I thought it was a great opportunity."

Gulutzan said he respects Shockey's risk from eight years ago.

"Anytime a player decides to take two years off, it's hard on him," he said. "He had opportunities to play at different levels, he stayed in shape, when he was still young, he could take two years off and still be at the same level."