Yann Sauve made Saint John Sea Dogs history when he became the first ex-Dog to play in the NHL.

Sauve got the call in his rookie pro season, when he was asked to join the Vancouver Canucks on the road against the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 15, 2011. The four-year veteran of the Sea Dogs played 18 shifts, logging 12:16 of ice time in his NHL debut.

“We had so many defencemen injured we had three call-ups and three regulars (in the lineup that night). It was a bit of everybody was everywhere but we ended up winning that game,” Sauve recalls. “I can’t remember really, it just happened so fast. It’s your first game in the NHL and you fell like you achieved something, but it’s only one game. That sensation you have playing your first NHL game is amazing.”

It’s even more amazing that Sauve got the call so soon after an accident in Canucks training camp that sent his season on a detour. Sauve was struck by a vehicle and spent nearly two months doing next to nothing as he recovered from a concussion. When he was ready to return, the Canucks dispatched him to their ECHL affiliate, the Victoria Salmon Kings. For Sauve, a second-round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, it wasn’t exactly how he envisioned starting his pro career.

“At that time I was a bit (upset) going to (Victoria), but when I look at it right now I’m pretty happy they did that just to get me started, get me back in shape and make sure I was all right with my head and all that,” Sauve says. “Any player, when they tell you you’re going to the (ECHL) you’re not happy, but I wasn’t able to say anything about that because I didn’t play since training camp.”

At one point he was rumoured to be on his way back to Saint John for a stint as an overager, but instead he was promoted to the Manitoba Moose of the American League after just eight games in the ECHL. From there he got the call to Vancouver when a rash of injuries hit the blueline, and played five NHL games over three separate call-ups. Within the span of about a year, Sauve had a sampling of the various levels of the hockey world, going from Saint John to Vancouver’s camp, to Victoria, shuttling between Manitoba and Vancouver, and now moving to the Chicago Wolves, Vancouver’s new AHL affiliate.

“I think for the most part it’s a good thing. I went up, I visited every league,” Sauve says. "Chicago’s pretty good, it’s a good town and our practice facility is pretty sick."

Sauve has a goal and six points, 63 penalty minutes and a plus-8 rating through 37 games with the Wolves this season, and he hopes a return to the NHL is in the near future. That may not be too far off, as Canucks general manager Mike Gillis recently told the Vancouver Sun that “Yann Sauve has made big strides” in an analysis of the team’s AHL prospects.

“The NHL is always on my mind but you can’t always think about that,” Sauve says. “My approach right now is just to get better every day. We have a good coaching staff here with Craig MacTavish and Karl Taylor. Craig MacTavish played in the NHL a lot of years and coached in the NHL a few years too so he knows a lot. I’m just trying to make sure I improve every day, make sure I polish my game every day and every game to get ready for the next level.”

Karen Losier, who was Sauve’s billet mother in Saint John, says he has the mental makeup to make it in the pros.

“His personality, his drive, his work ethic, his mindset - he always had that,” Losier recalls of the young man she considers almost family.

Losier says she, her husband Dave and three children – sons Dawson, 17, and Parker, seven, and daughter Maranda, 15, - are “very close” with Sauve, keeping in touch via Skype and text messaging. In addition to his big-league attitude, she also vividly remembers the six-foot-three, 209-pound defenceman’s big-league appetite.

“How much could he eat? Holy Dear God, the kid would get up, have at least two bowls of cereal, four things of yogurt, and toast. Then he would take probably three sandwiches for lunch with him and then whatever else he ate out there I don’t know,” Losier says. “He’d have at least two plates of supper, then four more yogurt, a couple apples and oranges, then dessert and then he’d come back up and eat before he’d go to bed.”

Sauve says he has fond memories of the Losiers, and Saint John in general.

“For sure the facilities there, the team and the organization helped me a lot to get (to the pro level). They gave me a good environment to get better every day and I have good things to say about Saint John, starting with my billets Karen and Dave Losier, to the organization on top, to the trainers and all this. It’s been a good journey there.”