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Duddy · 03-23-2013, 11:18 AM

The Story of...

Las Vegas, Nevada
March 23rd 2013

In our series "the story of" we take a look at Las Vegas Kings Dman and GM, Jason Due.
He is perceived around the league as a good guy, who loves Lobster and Spiderman, would Spiderman and a Lobster have a child its name would be Jason Due. It would be weird looking, but we can't go into details right now.

Early Life

Born and raised in St. Louis, Mo in the good ol' United States of America, Due was a hockey fanatic. Jason played nearly all his early years for the Affton Americans, he put up record after record. He still holds the single season record for points (178), goals (55) and assists (123) by a Dman in the history of the Americans. His former coach Craig Harrison described Due as a hard working, standup guy, a man amongst boys, that he had to order off the ice after practice or else he would have trained for hours every day. He was well liked by his teammates; he held himself and his teammates to a high accountability. It was a pleasure coaching this young man, his former coach added. His jersey number 45, has since been retired league wide.

The NWJHL and Due

But being a shark in a small pond wasn't enough for Jason, he declared for the Season 4 NWJHL Draft. His shady off ice issues kept him from being a top 10 pick, so he fell all the way to number 13 and to the Anaheim Outlaws. It was love at first sight for both parties, unfortunately we couldn't get our hands on the stats for young Due, and so we just have to make some up. He probably scored at least 20 points playing against way better competition than he ever faced down in St. Louis. The season 4 All Star Game featured the young mans own team (Team Due) against another team, as you can expect Due was captain. He really caught the eye of the Vancouver GM in this game; "we have to draft this kid" was said.
Every game had scouts from all SHL teams watching Due and his Outlaws, one scout said he reminded him of a bigger version of Scott Niedermayer.
Generational Defender, one of a kind talent all attributes never said about Due, still the Vancouver Nightmare (now Las Vegas Kings) saw something in Due and drafted him 15th overall in the Season 5 Draft.

The Path to Greatness

In his first SHL season, the young Dman from St. Louis put up 7 points in 40 points and just came shot of winning a cup with the Nightmare going all the way to the finals but coming up short. In the 17 Playoff games, Due had 5 points and showed flashes of his scoring talent as a Defenseman. He was named captain right after season 5 till season 7, in which he took over as General Manager, handing reigns to Thomas Duddy, who has been the Kings captain since that point. From Season 6 on till season 8, he constantly put up exactly 18 points a season. People though his development was done and he plateaued as a Dman just short of 20 points a season. People wrote him off, but hold your horses; Mr. Lobster had another ace up his sleeve. Rumor had it that he was doing some sort of PED, but the truth is Due was playing left handed while he in realty was a right handed shot. It took him and his coaches only 4 seasons to find out about that. From now on it was only up for Jason, in Season 9, he put up 49 points in 50 games, putting him right into the top Defensemen in the league and winning the Scott Stevens Trophy as the best Dman.
He had another 12 point jump in season 10 and in Season 11, Due took it one step further, scoring a tremendous 77 points in 50 games. He also added a mind numbing 179 hits to his incredible point totals. But even with those point totals, Due and the Kings missed the playoffs after a disappointing season. Season 12 should've been better, the Kings added 2 high profile draftees, but still came up short in the playoff race, but Jason still put up 42 points, leading his team in points.

Usa

International Hockey Usa

Jason Due also has a tremendous International Career, winning multiple gold, silver and bronze medals at the WHC and the Olympics as well as an award for best Dman at the Season 9 IHF tournament. He likes to represent his country and do his part on leading the Americans to glory.

Mr. All Star

The All star games, his home away from home; he played in every All star game from his junior days on till last season. But we expect he'll be part of the team once again this season, would be a incredibly big oversight shouldn't he make it on the squad.

All in all we can say, Jason Due is a one of a kind player, a leader on and off the ice, a great teammate and a man I like to call my friend. This article was brought to you by Thomas Duddy and the Kings Korner.