The Facebook messages were flying in China when Zach Yuen was drafted last June by the Winnipeg Jets.
The Vancouver born and raised defenceman had obviously distinguished himself as a special hockey player just being drafted 119th overall.
But for anyone of Chinese ethnicity it's just a little more special.
Yuen, 18, is the first Chinese blueliner to be drafted into the league and, according to the NHL, would, if he gets to the big league, become one of the rare few to make it all the way to the top. Larry Kwong, a resident of Vernon, was the first Chinese Canadian to play in the NHL, when he got into one game for the New York Rangers in the 1947-48 season.
"There really hasn't been any full Chinese-Canadians playing at such a high level and I hope I can be a role model and inspire other kids to pursue hockey," the 5-foot-11, 196-pound Yuen said Tuesday, before his Jets prospects team took on Edmonton.
Yuen sees a day when more players of Chinese descent are playing in the NHL.
"There's language barrier for sure," he said. "There isn't much hockey in China, although it's starting to develop there. When people immigrate over here, they don't know what hockey is. It's hard to get immersed in it because it's all in English. But right now I think it's really starting to grow.
"You see the Canucks have a huge Asian fan base and lots of Asians are starting to play hockey."
If anyone has a chance to achieve his hockey goal - and be an excellent role model - it's Yuen. He graduated with honours from Vancouver private school St. George's and is a classically trained pianist, earning a diploma from the prestigious London College of Music at 13.
Clearly, attention to detail and focus are not issues with Yuen.
"You want your kids to pick up something and want to do well," said Zach's father, Charles, who's here for the prospects tournament.
"We never pushed hockey on Zach - he played soccer and lacrosse, too - but he always loved hockey."
Charles emigrated from Hong Kong at 13 with his family in 1978. There, he met his wife, Mary, who was born in Vancouver after her parents came from Hong Kong in the late 1950s.
Charles, who's done some colour commentary in Cantonese for the 2010 Olympic hockey tournament and the Vancouver Whitecaps for Omni TV, said hockey was unknown in Asia, but that's all changed now with digital media almost everywhere.
"Now there are about 400 playing hockey in Hong Kong," said Charles. "In Hong Kong and China a lot of people follow him. This is the best league in the world so a lot of people are really excited about it."
Zach was thrilled to hear his celebrity is raising hockey's profile in China.
"I just heard it through my dad," said Zach, a mobile two-way D-man who's played two seasons with the WHL's Tri-City Americans. "Apparently, there's some discussion on the blogs in China. That's pretty neat that they are following it so closely."
From an early age, Charles took Zach and older daughter Montana to public skating. Both kids also took figure skating along with piano lessons.
Zach was on skates at 20 months, playing hockey at four - the age he started piano - and by age nine had left Vancouver Minor for the North Shore Winter Club program.
So does piano still fit in Zach's busy life? Apparently, he's instructing two youngsters in Kennewick, Wash., where he plays junior. But there's more to it than that.
"With piano, you've got to be really disciplined, sitting there for two hours practising," he said. "I think that's recently translated in general into my life, through to hockey. It's really helped my game out. Even with puck handling.
"In piano, it's all in the fingers and the wrists, so no doubt it helped me there."
jjamieson@theprovince.com
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Source: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/sports/Yuen+inspires+nation+play+hockey/5400128/story.html
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