Peterborough Petes' Connor Boland throws massive check in NHL rookie camp game (VIDEO)

To get that pro contract, Connor Boland will have to make a lot of solid contact. Within the Ontario Hockey League, the Peterborough Petes overage captain has earned respect for playing that uncompromising, no-nonsence game. On Friday, while playing for the Edmonton Oilers rookie team at the Young Stars toiurnament in Penticton, B.C., the 19-year-old made a big impression by laying out Vancouver Canucks hopeful Cordell James at centre ice with a shoulder-to-chest check.

Two words for that: text book.

Apparently OHL-seasoned players can still learn how to check cleanly and thoroughly despite the league's strict rules against head contact. Who knew?

(As an aside, if it's a clean check, why does there have to be a fight afterward?)

Time will tell what this yields for Boland, who is due to helm a brawny blueline with the likes of fellow 20-year-old Brandon Devlin and 17-year-old NHL draft hopeful Matthew Spencer if the Oilers return him to the OHL's Petes. The 6-foot-3, 198-pound native of Whitby, Ont., was not taken in his two cracks at the NHL draft. Along the way, though, Boland has helped raise the Petes' fortunes, providing a big presence last season when the club became just the fourth OHL team to overcome a 3-0 playoff series deficit.