Published: Thursday, April 1, 2010
Silvertips for life
In their five seasons with Everett, Shane Harper and Zack Dailey forged a tight friendship off the ice and a powerhouse partnership on it, creating an unforgettable legacy for the team and bonding them together
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Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Kelowna’s Spencer Main (16) trips up Everett’s Zack Dailey during a faceoff in the second period of the teams’ March 20 playoff game.
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Matthew Williams / The Herald
Everett’s Shane Harper shoots in the Silvertips’ game against the Kamloops Blazers on Jan. 30.
EVERETT — The first encounter between Shane Harper and Zack Dailey didn’t occur with the Everett Silvertips. It happened a year earlier when Harper’s team met Dailey’s at a midget tournament in Kamloops.
“He was the best player on the other team, and our coach was just telling me to take that kid out,” Harper recalled with a laugh. “Take that little guy out.”
When they both arrived in Everett for training camp in 2005 as 16-year-olds trying to make the team, their first interactions weren’t the warmest, either.
“(Dailey) told me, ‘I didn’t like you,’ because when I first got here (equipment manager James) Stucky gave me all green equipment and guys like Dailey didn’t have it yet,” Harper explained. “He was like, ‘I didn’t like you at all because I thought you were going to take my spot.’ We look back on that now and just laugh so hard.”
But five seasons later Harper and Dailey depart Everett as best friends and the tightest unit the team’s ever seen.
The two overage forwards saw their Silvertip careers come to an end when Everett was eliminated from the playoffs Monday. But during their five seasons with the Tips, Harper and Dailey became not only standout performers, but also forever linked as a pair.
“They’re inseparable,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “The longer they were here the tighter they became.”
Said Harper: “It’s pretty funny. If I get noticed somewhere they’re like, ‘How’s it going. Where’s Dailey?’ They just expect him to be with me because that’s the way it’s been. It’s really neat because everyone knows we’re really good friends.”
But the legacy Harper and Dailey leave behind goes far beyond their friendship.
Harper and Dailey are just the third and fourth players to play a full five seasons in Everett. They join defensemen Taylor Ellington and Graham Potuer, who both graduated last season after five seasons with the Tips.
Both etched their names in Silvertips lore. Harper, from Valencia, Calif., became the franchise’s greatest ever goal scorer, setting team records for goals in a season (42) and a career (100). Dailey, who hails from Healy, Alaska, became the team’s first and only two-year captain. They sit 1-2 in career games played for Everett.
And they both created a distinct image as a Silvertip.
Dailey was the little guy playing a big man’s game. At 5-foot-6 Dailey was always the smallest player on the ice, yet he played with a reckless abandon that made him so much bigger than his actual size.
Harper became the poster child for improvement. In each and every season Harper’s game took another step forward, so much so that this season he earned a free-agent contract with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers.
“They’ve been big contributors to our organization on and off the ice,” Soetaert said. “They’re Silvertips for life.”
Harper and Dailey saw their share of success during their time in Everett. They were part of the teams that won the U.S. Division championship in 2005-06 and 2006-07. That 2006-07 team also won the Scotty Munro Trophy for the league’s best record.
This season they capped their careers by leading the Tips to a 97-point season, which tied for the best record in the Western Conference and was the second-best record in franchise history.
It was fitting that their reunion on the ice played a huge role in Everett’s midseason turnaround. The Tips languished through December and slipped into sixth place in the Western Conference. On Jan. 2 Everett coach Craig Hartsburg shuffled his lines, moving Dailey onto a line with Harper. The move rejuvenated both players and Everett won its next 14 games and made a sustained charge for first in the conference.
Hartsburg credited much of the team’s success to the leadership provided by Dailey and Harper.
“Practice wise I’ve had teams where overagers don’t like to practice,” Hartsburg said. “Those kids were the best practice players. They worked harder than anybody, and that’s a big part of why our team’s work habits were good, because our overage kids were our hardest working kids in practice.”
Now that their Everett careers are over, Harper and Dailey must part ways, at least as far as hockey is concerned. Harper is already headed to Glenn Falls, N.Y., where he’ll join the Flyers’ Americans Hockey League affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms. Dailey will play collegiately in Canada, either for the University of Calgary or the University of Alberta, with an eye toward playing professionally in Europe afterwards.
But they’ll always have those bonds formed during their years in Everett.
“It’s been great,” Dailey said. “When we were younger and he was going through the exact same thing — we were both 16 and away from home — he was someone to share that with. Over the years we grew as friends and we have a lot of great memories. We’ll be lifelong friends, to be sure.”
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
“He was the best player on the other team, and our coach was just telling me to take that kid out,” Harper recalled with a laugh. “Take that little guy out.”
When they both arrived in Everett for training camp in 2005 as 16-year-olds trying to make the team, their first interactions weren’t the warmest, either.
“(Dailey) told me, ‘I didn’t like you,’ because when I first got here (equipment manager James) Stucky gave me all green equipment and guys like Dailey didn’t have it yet,” Harper explained. “He was like, ‘I didn’t like you at all because I thought you were going to take my spot.’ We look back on that now and just laugh so hard.”
But five seasons later Harper and Dailey depart Everett as best friends and the tightest unit the team’s ever seen.
The two overage forwards saw their Silvertip careers come to an end when Everett was eliminated from the playoffs Monday. But during their five seasons with the Tips, Harper and Dailey became not only standout performers, but also forever linked as a pair.
“They’re inseparable,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “The longer they were here the tighter they became.”
Said Harper: “It’s pretty funny. If I get noticed somewhere they’re like, ‘How’s it going. Where’s Dailey?’ They just expect him to be with me because that’s the way it’s been. It’s really neat because everyone knows we’re really good friends.”
But the legacy Harper and Dailey leave behind goes far beyond their friendship.
Harper and Dailey are just the third and fourth players to play a full five seasons in Everett. They join defensemen Taylor Ellington and Graham Potuer, who both graduated last season after five seasons with the Tips.
Both etched their names in Silvertips lore. Harper, from Valencia, Calif., became the franchise’s greatest ever goal scorer, setting team records for goals in a season (42) and a career (100). Dailey, who hails from Healy, Alaska, became the team’s first and only two-year captain. They sit 1-2 in career games played for Everett.
And they both created a distinct image as a Silvertip.
Dailey was the little guy playing a big man’s game. At 5-foot-6 Dailey was always the smallest player on the ice, yet he played with a reckless abandon that made him so much bigger than his actual size.
Harper became the poster child for improvement. In each and every season Harper’s game took another step forward, so much so that this season he earned a free-agent contract with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers.
“They’ve been big contributors to our organization on and off the ice,” Soetaert said. “They’re Silvertips for life.”
Harper and Dailey saw their share of success during their time in Everett. They were part of the teams that won the U.S. Division championship in 2005-06 and 2006-07. That 2006-07 team also won the Scotty Munro Trophy for the league’s best record.
This season they capped their careers by leading the Tips to a 97-point season, which tied for the best record in the Western Conference and was the second-best record in franchise history.
It was fitting that their reunion on the ice played a huge role in Everett’s midseason turnaround. The Tips languished through December and slipped into sixth place in the Western Conference. On Jan. 2 Everett coach Craig Hartsburg shuffled his lines, moving Dailey onto a line with Harper. The move rejuvenated both players and Everett won its next 14 games and made a sustained charge for first in the conference.
Hartsburg credited much of the team’s success to the leadership provided by Dailey and Harper.
“Practice wise I’ve had teams where overagers don’t like to practice,” Hartsburg said. “Those kids were the best practice players. They worked harder than anybody, and that’s a big part of why our team’s work habits were good, because our overage kids were our hardest working kids in practice.”
Now that their Everett careers are over, Harper and Dailey must part ways, at least as far as hockey is concerned. Harper is already headed to Glenn Falls, N.Y., where he’ll join the Flyers’ Americans Hockey League affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms. Dailey will play collegiately in Canada, either for the University of Calgary or the University of Alberta, with an eye toward playing professionally in Europe afterwards.
But they’ll always have those bonds formed during their years in Everett.
“It’s been great,” Dailey said. “When we were younger and he was going through the exact same thing — we were both 16 and away from home — he was someone to share that with. Over the years we grew as friends and we have a lot of great memories. We’ll be lifelong friends, to be sure.”
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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