Height: 6-1
Weight: 185
Shoot: -
Born: 19 Jul 1954, Summit NJ
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1974-75 | Vancouver | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Given a Versatile Prospect • no byline • The Calgary Herald • September 21, 1976
The Calgary Cowboys' tralning camp guide lists David Given as a right winger. There's a possibility, though, that when they finally get squared away, Given may be on the regular roster. As a defenseman. At 22 years of age, David has done more than the average bit of travelling. He'd like nothing better than to settle down permanently with tlhe Cowboys — be it on defense, right wing or center. The fact that he can play all three positions may in the final analysis determine his destination. With WHA rosters reduced to 18 players this season, it becomes a plus if a performer can play more than one position. Calgary head scout Al Millar, who scouted Given personally when he was in the employ of the Buffalo Sabres and then signed him when he switched his allegiance to the Vancouver Blazers, agrees the youngster has the potential to make it with the Cowboys. "He could have been with us two years ago if he'd gone the normal route of playing good junior hockey," insists Millar. "He went the college route and as a result his hockey did not progress as quickly as it might have otherwise." If this sounds like a condemnation of college hockey, it isn't. Millar, in fact, has great respect for the hockey programs in U.S. colleges. It's merely a case that Given chose to play his hockey at Brown University and it is Millar's frank assessment that the Ivy League of recent vintage is the weakest of any on the U.S. college scene. Throughout his young !ife, Given has taken a strange route in becoming a hockey professional. Born Stateside in the New York area, he moved to Edmonton with his family while still a pre-schooler and got his early hockey training there. At 11 he moved again to, of all places, Atlanta, Georgia. Geography alone made it a mite difficult for him to continue his hockev career but it was to his credit that he qualified for a scholarship at Brown and the rest of it is quickly becoming history. Though he was drafted in 1971 (he was the sixth pick right after Peter Driscol) he went back to college to get his degree and did not turn pro until last year when he attended the Cowboys' initial camp. Actually, Given saw most of his early camp action at center ice with the Tidewater entry. Sunday he was shunted on to the Cowboys' squad for workout purposes as a blue liner. Quite possibly he'll still be there when the Cowboys meet Pittsburgh Penguins in their opening exhibition Thursday at the Corral. "His ability to do a lot of things well is to his advantage in this camp," added Millar. "You can look at him as your fourth center or right winger or your sixth defenseman if he can do the job. Because of this versatility, he becomes a pretty valuable man." The key part of that appraisal, of course, is "if he can do the job." Thus far he's shown a good shot from the point, an ability to move the puck and, as much as anything else, a willingness to work. The Cowboys scored a total of nine goals in Monday's scrimmage and teamed with John Miszuk, they had the highest plus-minus rating of anybody at three. He was the only defenseman to get a point. Training camp is a critical period in the life of a young pro. It's a time when a lot of young pros become ex-pros. That's not likely to happen to David Given. |
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