WEST LOOP — The only Chicago Wolves player to actually live in Chicago is on a mission to recruit more teammates to move within city limits.
"I think everyone wants to live here, but there's the commute," said center Jeremy Welsh, who resides in a rented loft in West Loop. "That adds a little added stress, and I've been a minute or two late to a video session, but this is one of the best cities in the world.
"I keep trying to sell guys on living here," Welsh said of his teammates, who all stay in the suburbs.
Welsh, 26, has more neighbors now in a few-block radius than he had growing up on a fourth-generation, 150-acre farm outside Bayfield, Ontario — population 1,023; stoplights 0. Almost all of his free time in Bayfield, about three hours west of Toronto on the shores of Lake Huron, was spent on ice. He began skating in Moms and Tots classes at age 2½, three times a week, 90 minutes a session.
By kindergarten, he was the fastest skater in the area — which is noteworthy considering Bayfield and nearby tiny towns have produced NHL players Boyd Devereaux, Justin Peters and brothers Ryan and Cal O'Reilly.
Welsh has reached hockey's highest level, too, playing 19 games last season with the Vancouver Canucks and six total games in the previous two years with the Carolina Hurricanes. But those stretches in the NHL came at a price: limited ice time when he made the gameday roster and occasional healthy scratches.
"When I was in the NHL, I wasn't playing a lot, so that's not a ton of fun," Welsh said. "To play only four or five minutes a game, after two or three months of that, I'd rather go to the minors and just play hockey."
He's loving his time in his first season with the Wolves, as the 6-foot-3 forward has 12 goals and 25 points in Chicago's first 49 games. Welsh was averaging about 17 minutes of ice time each game for the Wolves, who host Grand Rapids at 2 p.m. Sunday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.
"Everything is first class here, and the travel and everything like that, it's as good as it can be in the minors," Welsh said. "The Wolves also focus on winning. You're trying to win hockey games, and you're trying to win a [American Hockey League championship trophy] Calder Cup."
The Wolves are in the midst of seven straight games at home and won't play on the road until March 6, which is finally giving Welsh a chance to see Chicago. He wants to check out the city's museums, head to restaurants in Lincoln Park, Downtown, Old Town and his neighborhood, and he has tickets for a wine tasting event at the Drake hotel.
He also might stay in Chicago over the summer for his offseason workouts, but that will be determined by whether he's called up by the Wolves' NHL affiliate, the St. Louis Blues.
Regardless, he's planning to take a lengthy vacation similar to the one last year when he spent a month backpacking through Thailand and Cambodia. In the Far East, Welsh hung out with elephants and slept in an open-floor hut with bugs, big and small, crawling around him.
"Worst sleep I've ever had," Welsh said.
In the meantime, Welsh is hoping to return to the NHL, and if not, he realizes he's already had a chance to live his dream.
"My dad always says, you made it, you played there, and there's not many people that get to do that," Welsh said.
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