ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – As a player who quit baseball to focus on hockey only 2 ½ years ago, Vancouver Canucks draft pick Brooks Rogowski understands that his learning “curve” at this stage is more like a cliff face.

But the 18-year-old centre from Brighton, Mich., also knows better than most teenagers about the challenge of the climb ahead of him.

His father, Casey Rogowski, was a Chicago White Sox draft pick who spent the entirety of his 10-year professional baseball career in the minors, trying in vain to find a path to the Major Leagues. Surely, there are lessons there for the son, even if Brooks wields a stick instead of a bat.

“He was a 14th-round pick,” Brooks said Saturday about his dad after making his Canucks debut in a prospects game against the Seattle Kraken. “But back then (in 1999) there was 40 rounds, so that was a considerably high pick. He understands how the minors work. He kind of got shafted. But I think it helps me a lot (knowing) that getting drafted is just a start.

“It kind of resets everything you work towards. I worked really hard in the OHL to be a player (with the Oshawa Generals), and now that I’m drafted in the NHL, that just resets everything. I'm starting from square one. I think that mentality has helped me a lot – not being too full of myself or too cocky and kind of just staying grounded. I’ve got to keep building blocks. It's just building that staircase again to hopefully reach the top eventually.”

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