EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Yes, he wears a double number. No,
it's not 66. Pittsburgh has another hockey star on the horizon --
and this one might not play for the Penguins.
|  | | Mario Lemieux has been in the inspiration of R.J. Umberger, who may be Pittsburgh's first first-round pick. |
R.J. Umberger, a freshman center at Ohio State, is rated fifth
among North American skater prospects by the NHL's Central Scouting
Bureau and thus is a virtual lock to be a first-round pick in the
NHL entry draft June 23-24.
If he is, the kid who grew up wearing No. 22 -- he wanted a
double number, but didn't dare wear No. 66 -- could become to young
Pittsburgh athletes what Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett were a
generation ago to the area's football players.
Despite having a franchise for 34 years and winning two Stanley
Cups, Pittsburgh has never sent a single homegrown athlete to the
NHL during the draft era. Only six from southwestern Pennsylvania
have been drafted, none in the first round, and none has played a
game in an NHL uniform.
Umberger, who said his ultimate dream would be to play
a game alongside Mario Lemieux before the Hall of Famer retires again,
could be the first.
"Pittsburgh is a football town," Umberger said. "I had to quit
playing football and baseball to play hockey, and it was tough.
People said, 'Why do you want to do that for?"'
Now, they're finding out.
Umberger left his home in Plum, just outside Pittsburgh, at age
16 to enter the U.S. National Team Developmental Program, playing 57
games during his senior year in high school. The 6-foot-2,
200-pounder also played in the World Junior Championships in Moscow
in December, then returned to Ohio State, where he had 14 goals and
23 assists in 32 games last season despite playing with a broken
jaw.
"It's tough when you're 16 and you have to leave behind your
family and friends and go somewhere else and start living with
another family and make new friends," Umberger said. "That's why
making the transition to college was so easy. The Ohio State
coaches want me to come back and play again, but it will be tough
if I get drafted high."
Umberger, who began playing hockey mostly because he idolized
Lemieux, might have to hurry to be the first Pittsburgh player to
reach the NHL.
"Hockey is definitely getting a lot better there," he said.
"There are a lot of guys right behind me in school who grew up
Mario Lemieux fans and are playing now, too. I'm already starting
to run into some of them all over the country."
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