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Stephane Legault’s odd decision to leave Edmonton Oil Kings shouldn’t be treated in isolation

neate sager

Over the last two seasons, Stephane Legault played 162 games for the Edmonton Oil Kings. That doesn't factor in long bus trips, preseason games, practices, public appearances, summer hockey, workouts and everything else wrapped up in being a junior hockey player that the general public doesn't fully consider.

In a couple of weeks, presuming Legault stands by it, his decision to pass on an overage season where he projected to be a core player for Edmonton might have been forgotten. Someone else will fill that spot and the hockey machinery will keep whirring. That doesn't mean it should be taken as an isolated incident. It is one thing when a 20-year-old sizes up his playing prospects and determines he will have a bigger role in Junior A. Or decides it's time to get on with his post-secondary education while playing for university team (or a college team in Alberta, Legault's home province). Yet Legault, who announced this week he would start his higher education at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, isn't joining the NAIT Ooks at this writing. That would seem highly unusual for a player who has been to NHL camps with Washington Capitals and Edmonton Oil Kings.

It's bizarre. Legault, in an interview Tuesday, denied there was a conflict with the team, which recently gave coach Derek Laxdal a a two-year contract extension. Other parts of his explanation seem rather illuminating, presuming that is the case.

From Guy Flaming (@TPS_Guy)

I started to have, maybe, second thoughts about what I was doing. I think it was kind of a warning sign for me. So I thought about my future lots last year and had lots of talks with people close to me and my parents. This summer, I brought it to the attention of the team and word gets around. Throughout the season, I kind of refocused and I gave it 100 per cent because I knew if I was sticking with the way I was feeling and it ended up being my last kick at the can, I knew I wanted to go out with a bang." ... In a way, I wish I could [provide an explanation]. Maybe if I would have caught it early enough, I would have been able to turn things around. It's something I've done for 16 years. I was three or four years old when I started skating and started playing after that. It definitely it wasn't an easy summer for me. It's probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make ... for something you've done for so long and next thing you know, you start to feel that maybe every day, you're not 100 per cent excited to be going to a game. For me, it was a warning sign... it kind of made reconsider things." (The Pipeline Show)

One would hope people can respect this is a young man figuring life out, although people will wonder what caused him to "reconsider things." It's not like Edmonton is a backwater in the WHL.

Five years ago, when two-time world junior gold medallist Stefan Legein (same initials, eh) walked away from the sport, he was hit with all sorts of wild rumours about his sudden reluctance to play. (Bob McKenzie subtly suggested that might have been compensation for Canadians' inability to comprehend someone with a high level of hockey ability might not want to chase the dream, or be burned out. Legein, who was a second-round pick, did eventually return, but is still in the AHL.)

It is hypocritical to go the other way by indulging dollar-store psychology and say this reads like a classic case of burnout, too. That's not for your nor I to say. Legault's words, presuming he's on the level, do sort of hit at the concerns that the way hockey is structured in Canada sucks the enjoyment out of the sport for young people. That usually centres around children, but it can certainly percolate inside someone until they reach early adulthood, where it becomes second nature to be more questioning of one's habitat. It can also happen at the junior level where everything is predicated on winning and on the product. Sometimes the personal aspect gets lost.

No doubt any Canada West team would be happy to have him, but as he told Flaming, "For me to play hockey, if I still had the passion to do it, I would have continued to do it with the Oil Kings." Credit Legault for taking a decisive action. Perhaps it was as simple as not liking his circumstances. That doesn't mean automatically striking out what environmental factors might have influenced the decision.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.