The moment his family pulled into the city limits, Gianluca Curcuruto knew Sault Ste. Marie was where he wanted to be.
“I’ve been treated really well already,” Curcuruto said. “Right from when we drove into town. I saw my name up at the hotel. I was blown away. I was overwhelmed. I went to the hotel room and there was a gift basket (from the team). My whole family was overwhelmed.”
OHL Central Scouting called Curcuruto a defenseman who can control the tempo of a game. The mobile blueliner, who suited up for the Mississauga Reps last season, provides an offensive element as evidenced by his 38 goals with the minor midget Reps. The Richmond Hill resident noted that he can chip in on the defensive side of the puck as well.
“The main thing I try to work on is being a shutdown defenseman,” Curcuruto said. “And just making sure I’m playing my role as a defenseman and making sure that pucks don’t go in our net.”
“I really love to rush with the puck a lot,” he added. “That’s another thing I really love to do. My coach in Mississauga (Frank Pietrangelo) put me on the power play a lot. That’s where I scored most of my goals.”
Friday marked the Greyhounds chance to meet extensively face-to-face with Curcuruto. The Greyhounds didn’t interview the 16-year-old prior to the draft due to the expectation that he would be gone by the time the Greyhounds made their first selection with the 14th pick.
“We got to watch him all winter, you get to know them and see them as hockey players only,” Torrie said. “This was a different draft. We didn’t have time to spend some one-on-one time with the Curcuruto family and Gianluca in particular before the draft based on the fact that we didn’t believe he was going to be available at fourteen. It’s been an opportunity for myself and the rest of the organization to meet them.”
Torrie added that Friday was an opportunity to show the Curcuruto family what the Greyhounds are all about.
“That’s our goals for the weekend,” Torrie said.
Greyhounds coach Denny Lambert is looking forward to getting his first chance to see Curcuruto on the ice live this weekend.
“He’s another piece to the puzzle here, adding him to the Beukeboom’s and Archibald’s,” Lambert said. “He’s another great piece that we were able to get. I haven’t had the opportunity to see him play (live) but I know in talking to Dave that he slipped in the draft for whatever reason. We didn’t even have him on our board because we didn’t think we would get him.”
“It’s a great situation for him to slide into,” Lambert added. “Our team’s not an older team full of 19- and 20-year-old kids but it’s a group that’s growing. He’s going to fit right in there nicely. I think part of the reason for the slide was something that happened earlier in the draft. Someone taking a player that maybe wasn’t supposed to go that high, and that ended up pushing (Curcuruto) down to us.”
Curcuruto is coming off an injury he suffered during the Telus Cup that saw him blindsided and falling awkwardly. The injury, to his left shoulder, has healed and Curcuruto said he was cleared to skate in the Greyhounds orientation camp earlier this week.