By Ryan Van Horne

Sidney Crosby. Remember that name. If it isn’t a household name in your home, it will be soon.

The precocious 16-year-old hockey player plays for the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and has already grabbed the attention of Wayne Gretzky, who has tabbed Crosby as a likely candidate to challenge his scoring records.

“It was a huge compliment,” Crosby said. “But there isn’t going to be another Wayne Gretzky and no one is going to break his records. For him to say that though, I’m doing something right and I just want to keep doing it.”

Crosby has dreams of playing in the NHL, but he’s so close to realizing it that he doesn’t talk about it.

“I don’t think that far ahead,” Crosby said. “I just want to enjoy it. The older guys, they say enjoy it while you can because it goes fast.”

“It’s serious hockey,” said Crosby. “A lot of people are going to go on and play professional hockey. It makes you want to play that much more.”

Crosby’s immediate success in major junior surprised some, but not his former midget coach, Brad Crossley, who coached him with the Dartmouth Subways in 2001-02. That was the year Crosby skated into the spotlight at the tender age of 14 by leading the Air Canada Cup in scoring, garnering most valuable player honors and leading Dartmouth to a silver medal. He was the youngest player at the tournament and it was the best finish yet by a Nova Scotia team at the Canadian AAA midget championship.

“He’s a revelation to everyone else, but he’s fitting in just the way I expected him to,” Crossley said. “He just has the ability to raise his game to another level and he has an innate understanding of what’s going to happen a play ahead. He’s head and shoulders above everyone else.”

Crosby has a passion for the game that he inherited from his family. His dad was a major junior goalie and a draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens and his uncles and cousins also played high-caliber hockey.

They introduced him to hockey, teaching him to skate when he was three. Crosby started playing when he was five.

“He just loved it,” his mother, Trina Crosby, said. “It was like he couldn’t get enough of it.”

But it’s not unusual for kids to start so young, or show such zeal. What makes Crosby special is that he combines skill and a strong work ethic. Take it from Michael Chiasson, a teammate of Crosby’s for seven years. Whenever Crosby would invite Chiasson and his other friends over, it was never to play with toys or video games.

“It was always hockey,” Chiasson said. “He was always the hardest worker on and off the ice. He always thinks he can do better. He wants to improve his game even if he’s on top. There’s been all kinds of people who are good hockey players who have hit the wall, but I knew Sidney wasn’t going to.”

Hockey isn’t the only thing at which Crosby directs his energy; he is also a straight A student.

“He’s an amazing role model,” said Karen Dale, the vice-principle at Astral Drive Junior High School in Cole Harbour. “He’s kind to people. He was really kind to students in the learning center and to special needs kids.”

Despite the prestige of being featured on Hockey Night in Canada and written about in Sports Illustrated, Crosby remains humble and Dale doesn’t see it changing.

“He is one of the nicest kids I’ve ever seen go through here,” Dale said.

Though he had his share of fans and supporters, Crosby wasn’t really appreciated in his hometown. So when the opportunity came for Crosby to move away at the age of 15, it wasn’t a difficult decision and he left to play for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, a prep school in Faribault, Minn.

“It was good for him,” said Trina Crosby. “He developed as a hockey player and as a human being.”

After that season he was picked first overall by Rimouski in the QMJHL draft. It was the first time a Nova Scotian has been selected first overall.

He’s not all grace, though.

“He’s got more grit than Gretzky and he’s not scared of the corners,” said Dennis MacInnis of the International Scouting Service. “He reminds me of Peter Forsberg. He’s got that grit that you don’t normally see in a finesse player.”

MacInnis and ISS rank Crosby as the best prospect for the 2005 NHL draft.

“There’s nobody that brings everything to the table that he does,” said MacInnis. “He’s truly a special player.”