Adam Cracknell. (Submitted photo/Bakersfield Condors)

By Jeff D’Andrea

Prince Albert Proud

P.A.’s Cracknell didn’t even dream he’d play for Canada at the Olympics, but here he is

Jan 27, 2022 | 1:31 PM

Hockey has taken Prince Albert’s Adam Cracknell just about everywhere. He won a silver medal with Team Canada in 2018-19 at the Spengler Cup in Switzerland.

Cracknell has played for 21 teams at the NHL, AHL and ECHL levels in Las Vegas, Quad City, Peoria, St. Louis, Chicago, Columbus, Springfield, Vancouver, Edmonton, Dallas, New York, Hartford, Laval, Toronto, Anaheim, San Diego, Beijing, Esbjerg in Denmark, and most recently, Bakersfield where he has nine goals and 23 points in 28 games as an assistant captain with the Condors.

But never did the 36-year-old ever think he’d end up on Hockey Canada’s Men’s Olympic Team. On Tuesday, Cracknell was added to the 25-man roster heading to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and will play their first game on Feb. 10.

“Who would have thought something like this in the world would happen, and to have the opportunity to do it?” Cracknell said on a media zoom conference, put on by Hockey Canada. “I’m just happy playing hockey. I’m happy with the life that it’s given me and the travel experience, I just love hockey. I’ve played this long just because I love it.

“To play for Team Canada at the Olympics, it’s a great milestone for myself. To play for Canada is an honour. I’m just looking forward to get going,” Cracknell added. “It’s something I can look back on for the rest of my life, it’s going to be an amazing experience. It’s been a long journey, but I’m happy I made it this far.”

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Cracknell is the only player on the roster that hails from Saskatchewan. His family was big into the hockey community. When they weren’t doing bottle drives to help raise money to take Cracknell to tournaments, or taking them, they billeted with the Raiders. They even billeted now-Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar, who later coached Cracknell in the AHL with the Peoria Rivermen.

Growing up in Prince Albert, Cracknell was always on an ice surface of some kind. If he wasn’t in an indoor arena playing a game, he was probably out with his friends on an outdoor rink.

“That’s where I started. It was a lot of outdoor hockey. We probably practiced more outdoors than indoors, that’s just how we did it in Saskatchewan,” Cracknell said. “You’d ride your sled out to the rink, your parents would drop off soup throughout the day and we’d be out there for seven hours a day just playing and having fun, and pretending we were NHL players. Our minor hockey team would be out there and they wouldn’t even have to schedule practices, it was just our friends playing hockey.”

Adam Cracknell. (Submitted photo/Bakersfield Condors)

Out of all of Team Canada, Cracknell probably knows the host city the best, as he played a season with the Kunlun Red Star, the Beijing-based team in the KHL in the 2019-20 season.

“We got to travel, see the great wall, the forbidden city, things like that. I was looking forward to travelling and seeing a part of the league I’d never go to be, never thought I’d be playing hockey there especially,” Cracknell said. “We had a nice facility, a great group of guys and had as many fans as we could, maybe 2,000 (each game). Going there for the Olympics is going to be special, it’s a place I’ve been there before and am very familiar with.”

When asked if he was going to be the unofficial tour guide for the team, Cracknell laughed and said “yeah, I know where the Cheesecake Factory is, and the grocery store, so I’m good to go.”

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Jeff.dandrea@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW