If you have watched the University of North Dakota hockey senior forward Corban Knight play over the last three and a half seasons you’ll have noticed the senior from High River, Alberta never stop smiling.
If you think I am kidding, just watch him.
As part of the credentialed blogosphere, I would have to say that Corban Knight is one of the nicest athletes that I have ever met; he’s polite, engaging and well spoken.
During his three and a half seasons at UND; Knight a center, has been a clutch in the faceoff circle. This season, Knight is (237/409 .584).
On the score sheet, Knight is leading the team in p-points (5g-12—17pts). This season Knight surpassed the 100 point mark (41g-73a—114pts) for his career. Knight has been a stalwart in the UND lineup since he arrived at UND.
Last season, Knight played most of the second half of the season with a broken hand as well.
Knight’s infectious personality rubs off on his teammates as well. Carter Rowney had this this to say about his fellow assistant caption Knight.
“He’s a good guy,” Rowney said. “He lives in the same building as me and everything. Great team player, everyone gets along with him – easy to get along with. Always positive, no matter what’s going on. He’s never down on himself, never down on anyone else, just a positive guy.”
According to Rowney; where ever he’s at, Knight never stops smiling.
“He always has a little grin on his face,” Rowney said. “Which is always a good thing to see in the locker room – no matter what it is – he’s always going to brighten your day. Just to talk to him or be around him and stuff. He’s just a positive guy.”
Since coming to UND, Knight has had a reputation of being a hard worker and this has not gone unnoticed by his teammates or his head coach.
“I like his consistency, day in, day out,” Rowney said. “Whether it’s him coming to the rink in the morning and getting better – in the gym and the weight room. Just coming every day, he’s coming to work. I think that consistently he’s just professional just willing to get better every day. Consistently he does it day in, day out.”
“He’s a mature young man in every way,” Haksol said. “That’s one of the benefits of being a junior and a senior and taking the extra time to develop at this level before you step to the pro level; is being able to have that year where physically you’re maybe a little bit ahead of the opponents that you’re playing against. Certainly, mentally he’s as toughest there is. Very quiet in the way he goes about it – but mentally as tough as anybody.”The head coach went on to say, “Corban is just a complete hockey player. “He’s good in all three zones. There’s a lot of element to his game that bring a lot of value to a team. I think one that he gets a lot of credit for is his ability in the faceoff dot. But there are a lot of areas of his game that are quietly similar to what he does in the faceoff dot. He’s a very solid, reliable two way player that consistently puts out real good solid offensive numbers – we’re seeing that again this year. He’s flown under the radar with it – he’s got a nice point scoring streak going. More importantly, I think his play is probably indicative of our team’s play. He’s very consistent player.”
The upside for this UND hockey team this season is pretty big and I expect that senior forward Corban Knight will have a big impact both on the ice and off before this season is over at UND.
