San Jose Sharks forward Joe Paves was in Waterloo over the weekend where his jersey number eight became the fifth to be retired by the Waterloo Black Hawks. Pavelski helped turn the franchise around and in 2004 led the Black Hawks to a national championship and was named U.S.A. Hockey’s junior player of the year.
Pavelski says this is the place where it all started as he saw this is where hockey became serious for him and he saw what he could do. Pavelski says there were a lot of good players on those teams. He says he didn’t accomplish things by himself and the players on the team helped him get where he is.
Pavelski says he was proud to be part of the turnaround for the franchise. He says there were a lot of questions when he came in about what would happen and things fell into place and he had "one of the times of my life." Pavelski went on to star at the University of Wisconsin before embarking on a professional career.