Keith Aucoin - Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (AHL Hockey) - Skeptics Beware - On MLN Sports Zone

Mighty Ducks

Skeptics Beware
Undrafted and unheralded, Keith Aucoin just keeps putting up the points and proving disbelievers wrong.

Dan Hickling
MinorLeagueNews.com

Cincinnati, OH -- You can't always trust your eyes.

For instance, from the nosebleed seats at the Cincinnati Gardens, Mighty Ducks center Keith Aucoin looks like a little kid skating with the big boys.

Maybe it's his number five, normally reserved for defensemen, which seems to makes his sweater even baggier.

Or maybe it's his face, which from the rafters looks cherubic, and only a little less so when seen close up.

Certainly it's his size, generously listed at 5-9, 185 pounds.

Using his stature, or lack thereof, Aucoin darts between and around enemy defenders, twisting them in knots, before sending a linemate into the clear with a pinpoint pass.

To sell Aucoin short would be to make a major mistake, but it's one that hockey minds continually repeat.

Yet, all he does is keep proving the experts wrong.

He's doing it again by leading the Ducks in scoring through the first month of the 2003-04 AHL season.

It's a familiar spot for the third year pro from Waltham, Mass., who already has two team scoring titles under his professional belt.

"(He's) unbelievable," said Providence Bruins winger Pat Leahy, who enjoyed a breakout season last year, playing on Aucoin's line. "He's just a great playmaking centerman. Anytime you're open, he can get you the puck."

The one parlay Aucoin couldn't make though, was a new contract with the Bruins.

Providence’s top point producer in 2003 was simply allowed to walk away.

It's a slight that Aucoin flicks away as deftly as he does opposing checks, saying simply, "They had a lot of rookies coming in and wanted to go in a different direction."

That seems to be the story of his life, to avoid the roadblock and find the opening.

Overlooked by every Division-1 college program, Aucoin zigzagged over to Division-3 Norwich University.

In four years there, he ripped up the school record book (scoring 114 goals and setting up 124 others), while leading NU to the NCAA championship.

Despite his collegiate success, Keith did not find many opportunities opening up for him.

Suffice to say that a D-3 career, no matter how illustrious, isn't much of a calling card.

So, undrafted but unwilling to give up, Aucoin hooked on where he could, with the UHL's B.C. Icemen, where again his numbers (23-35-58 in 44 games) were glittering.

Last year, he wound up with Providence after signing a minor league deal, and promptly sat as a healthy scratch for the first two games.

Soon opportunity would intervene, and once Aucoin finally made it into the lineup, he never left.

Playing every game thereafter, Aucoin racked up 74 points (25 g, 49 a) while remaining the one constant in the pivot through a rash of callups and injuries.

In Providence, Aucoin showed an uncanny knack for making his linemates better.

Pat Leahy is living proof of that.

"We were able to take advantage of that last year," Leahy said. "Anytime I was going down the wing in a spot where not many people can make a pass, he'd find a way to thread it through."

Even so, it seems not everyone was paying attention.

Check out the "Prospects Register" section of this year's NHL media guide, all 66 pages of it.

You can hunt for Aucoin's name among the nearly 750 hopefuls listed, but you'll come up empty. It isn't there.

Fortunately, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim knew right where to find him and inked him to a two-way deal just before training camp.

Cincinnati coach Brad Shaw said he's thrilled to have Aucoin on hand.

"He sure fills a hole that we had," said Shaw. "With (Tony) Martensson, he gives us two solid offensive centers, and two potent power play units."

Coach Shaw appreciates the intangibles that Keith brings to the ice.

“He's got offensive instincts that you can't teach, and he's got a work ethic that is hard to replicate. You can tell he's probably had to work for everything he's gotten."

For Aucoin, the work is never done of course. Especially since he plans to become more than just another flashy career minor leaguer.

"The first few games it was hard to adjust to a new system," said Aucoin. "But now things have worked out well. This is a good opportunity for me, here. I want to prove that I can play up there in Anaheim."