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Friends of Karl Subban were surprised when his wife, Maria, gave birth to the couple's third child and first son back on May 13, 1989, that the newborn wasn't named Guy or Serge or Larry or Ken after one of the legendary Montreal Canadiens players Karl cheered for as a youth.
When Karl visited his wife at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital shortly after the birth of P.K., as the Canadian junior defenceman now is known, the couple didn't have a name ready.
“My wife was reading one of those movie magazines,” said Karl, who along with Maria will be in attendance at the Pardubice Arena when Canada begins the world junior hockey tournament against the host Czech Republic today. “We saw the name Pernell Roberts, you know the guy who [portrayed Adam Cartwright] on Bonanza? We immediately liked the name.”
It turns out Pernell Karl was the perfect name for the now-teenage hockey talent. P.K., 18, is not only a chip off the old block, but is a young man with Hollywood-like charisma and his early life easily could be turned into a movie.
The only problem for the screenwriter would be which character would play the leading role, P.K. or his father?
When Karl Subban was 11, his parents emigrated from Jamaica to Sudbury. His uncle was an electrician working for Inco, and there were plenty of jobs in the mining industry in Northern Ontario back in the early 1970s.
The Subbans settled in the Flour Mill neighbourhood, a francophone community with lots of kids and a rink at the end of Peter Street, where the new Canadian family settled.
It didn't take long for Karl Subban to wrap his arms around the neighbourhood's passion for hockey and the Montreal Canadiens. His parents bought him a pair of skates from the local Salvation Army store and he immediately was lured to rink.
“It was a wonderful neighbourhood,” he said. “I was lucky that the other kids included me in their games.
“I was young enough to pick [the sport] up. I was Ken Dryden, the goalie, and thought I was playing in the NHL. That's all that mattered.”
He later would sneak into the Sudbury Arena and watch Dale Hunter, Ron Duguay, Mike Foligno, Hector Marini and Randy Carlyle play junior for the Sudbury Wolves. Many of these players were his classmates at Sudbury Secondary, where Karl Subban also was a big man on campus because he played basketball.
He later went to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and continued to play basketball before moving to Toronto to pursue a career as a teacher. Karl Subban, an imposing 6 foot 3 and 260 pounds, now runs Brookview Middle School in Toronto's hardscrabble Jane and Finch neighbourhood.
He and Maria, a bank quality-control analyst, have raised their family founded on education and athletics.
Oldest daughter Nastassia, 26, is a middle-school teacher and former York University basketball player. Natasha, 21, had her athletic career cut short because of a back injury and is a budding artist. Sons Malcolm, 14, and Jordan, 12, play AAA bantam and pee-wee hockey for the Toronto Marlboros, respectively.
“I believe introducing them to sport and giving them every opportunity to succeed because I believe it gives young people confidence,” Karl Subban said. “When you accomplish something or do something well you have people patting yourself on the back and that gives you a lot of self esteem.”
When Brookview resumes classes after the break, his big project is to coach a first-time hockey team. He had 50 kids sign up and has dedicated himself to find enough equipment to give the students an opportunity.
In P.K. Subban's rise to his hockey heights, he credits his parents for the opportunity. He told his parents at a young age that he wanted to be like one of those hockey guys on television. So Karl had his first-born son on outdoor rinks teaching him the fundamentals of the game, putting his kid through drills he learned from hockey school.
“My dad is a teacher, a principal,” P.K. said. “Even though he didn't have a hockey background, he studied it. A lot of the things he would work on with me were drills he researched. It's just incredible the amount of information he picked up on.
“My dad's a pretty knowledgeable guy.”
But Karl Subban said he was just copying what his hard-working father did for him.
“You are a function of your own environment,” he said. “My parents were good parents. I remember my dad taking me to the cricket field and teaching me about the game. We have five kids and we all love to boast and brag about our kids, but they have all done well academically and athletically.”
The enthusiastic P.K. was thrust into the spotlight last June, when the Belleville Bulls defenceman was selected in the second round, 43rd overall, of the NHL draft by Karl's beloved Canadiens, bringing the big man to tears. It was a surprise because P.K. had been pegged middle-to late-round selection.
The reason for P.K.'s sudden rise was because he rose to every challenge. After his rookie OHL season in Belleville, adjusting to a new level and league and a new town, there was little doubt that he was a budding offensive defenceman.
The jury of NHL scouts, however, was still deliberating whether P.K. could become a suitable defender. Then, the Bulls lost Matt Pelech to injury late in the regular season.
Belleville head coach George Burnett, who admitted he protected P.K. and used him in situations where he could succeed, all of sudden asked his offensive defenceman to move to the top pairing and play against the other team's top scorers.
Subban silenced his critics. In the playoffs, he successfully marked Ottawa 67's Jamie McGinn and his linemates. Subban shut down John Tavares and the Oshawa Generals' top unit, as well as Nick Foligno and the Wolves' best line in the OHL Eastern Conference final.
Burnett wasn't surprised. When he chose Subban in the sixth round of the 2005 OHL draft, the youngster approached his future coach and said: “I plan on making this team.”
“We weren't counting on him to make the team, but he did,” Burnett said. “He's very outgoing, he's very engaging. He doesn't have too many bad days. He's very confident and that may border on cockiness at some times, but his demeanour is a big part of who he is because he rises to each and every challenge that comes his way.
“He's always responded to the opportunity. I know there are some people who think it was a surprise that P.K. made this team, but I also know the [Canadian junior] program well and they don't name you to this team if they don't think you can get the job done. There are no free rides.”
The Subbans know that.
