CALGARY -- Others have done it before him and made the quantum leap from NHL player to playing for a Canadian university hockey team.
But no one has done it quite like Jared Aulin, whose résumé is full of quirks, highlights and setbacks.
Condensed to a single sentence, Aulin is the former 2002 world junior star who spent time with the Los Angeles Kings, dated Paris Hilton and who was recently hit by a stick-swinging rival who left the Calgary-born Aulin convulsing on the ice.
That happened in a Non-Contact Hockey League game, by the way. And Aulin said he still intends to file criminal charges against his assailant. But let's start with yesterday's news: Aulin has joined the University of Calgary Dinos for what will be both a debut and farewell season since he has only one year of Canadian Interuniversity Sport eligibility after playing four seasons as a pro.
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It's not often a former NHL draft pick (Colorado Avalanche, second round, 47th overall in 2000) skates in the other direction and enrolls at a Canadian school. The last to do it was Eric Calder, a Washington Capitals pick who spent three seasons at Wilfrid Laurier in the late 1980s.
The 25-year-old Aulin said he was stuck in the AHL and was losing his love for the game when ...
Wait a second.
He dated Paris Hilton? What was that all about?
"I was out with Sean Avery and Brad Norton [of the Kings]," Aulin said. "I was good friends with some publicists. They brought me to events to try and get celebrities to come to hockey games. Paris was there and she wanted to meet the three of us. We hung out for a month. I wouldn't say it was anything serious."
Well, it was serious enough for Star magazine to run a photograph of the two together and for a certain Canadian TV host to talk about Paris dating a member of the Kings.
"My parents were sitting at home watching The Mike Bullard Show and he talked about Paris Hilton dating a Canadian hockey player and my folks went, 'Here we go,' " Aulin said. "It was good for a laugh."
Aulin spent 17 games with the Kings then ended up with Manchester in the AHL. He thought he'd be back in the NHL but he tore up a shoulder in a fight and was lost for the balance of the 2003-04 season.
Traded to the Washington Capitals, he found himself back in the AHL, only this time he was told a new batch of prospects was headed his way and, well, he was getting old. "I was 24," Aulin recalled. "I said to myself, 'I don't want to sit and waste my life.' "
So a friend of Aulin's contacted Dinos' coach Scott Atkinson, who remembered Aulin from the WHL's Kamloops Blazers and world juniors. With the help of U of C athletic director Don Wilson, who researched the CIS rulebook regarding eligibility, Aulin was told he could play a season but not until a full year had passed from his last pro game.
Unfortunately, it looked as though Aulin was done with hockey before he would play for the Dinos.
In a July Non-Contact Hockey League game in Calgary, Aulin was coming to a teammate's defence when he was struck on the side of the neck by a stick-wielding opponent. Aulin fell to the ice and convulsed for almost a minute.
The force of the blow damaged his carotid artery, a major artery that supplies blood to the brain. Aulin was later told by a doctor he was lucky; he could have suffered a stroke.
"It was scary, especially since I was getting headaches and dizziness and I wasn't sure why," Aulin said. "I wasn't hit on the head. But it was because the carotid artery was swollen [and not properly supplying blood to the brain]."
As for filing criminal charges, Aulin said: "It's still being investigated. [The police] called and asked if I wanted to pursue it and I said yes."
For now, Aulin is delighted to be skating with the Dinos and getting to know his teammates. To comply with CIS rules, he will not play in the U of C's first 10 games. That leaves him 18 league games and the Canada West playoffs to rekindle his affections for a game that was no longer enjoyable.
"Most people can't say they're having fun practising, but I am," Aulin said. "I'm being allowed to play my game, which is more offensive. I like being back at the rink and I like being around motivated people.
"It feels good. I'm excited."
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