TORONTO – Before Auston Matthews made it to the world’s biggest minor hockey tournament, he first had to prove his worth to the Ukrainian team that took him there.
That was the deal skills coach Boris Dorozhenko struck after receiving a call from the Druzhba-78 Kharkov organization wondering if he knew any 1997-born kids who might be worth adding for the Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament back in February 2010.
He instantly had one prized pupil in mind.
The only hitch was that the invitation required the 12-year-old to fly cross-country from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., for an exhibition game in New Jersey that basically amounted to a tryout. Dorozhenko recalls it taking a couple days for Auston’s father, Brian, to consent to the arrangement.
