Mike Brophy

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday on Sportsnet.ca and appears regularly on Hockeycentral.

Dan Sexton has shown his upside since being promoted to the big leagues.

Dan Sexton rode the bus for countless miles before finding a home in Anaheim.

Dan Sexton can't take a hint.

A lot of 18-year-olds who were cut by a USHL team would immediately consider a career change, but not Sexton. Smallish by hockey standards at 5'9 and 165 pounds, Sexton forged ahead … to the NHL.

His meteoric rise to the best league in the world is one of the amazing stories of the season, and it dates back to the 2005-06 when the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the USHL let him go.

"I didn't think I was at the end of the line," said Sexton. "Maybe I was too young to think that way. I just knew there was a team in the North American League that wanted me: the Wichita Falls Wildcats."

He wound up playing that season in the NAHL with Wichita, scoring 22 goals and 59 points in 58 games. Those numbers were good enough for second in team scoring to Kyle Kraemer (who now plays for Northeastern University). Sexton's numbers were good enough to attract another USHL team, the Sioux Falls Stampede, whom he played for the following season; albeit as a third-liner. After the stop in Sioux Falls it was off to Bowling Green University where he played for two years.

Incredibly, his journey has taken him all the way to Anaheim where, in five NHL games, he has scored four goals. Not bad for a guy who, by time he got to Bowling Green University a few years back, thought he had won the lottery.

"The NHL was so far in the distance, it wasn't even on my radar," Sexton added. "I just never imagined I'd be playing Division I hockey. It was a huge goal of mine to play in Division I. By that point I figured if I ever got the chance to play pro, I'd jump at it, but I was quite happy to be where I was."

Anaheim Ducks senior vice-president of hockey operations David McNab, who has a reputation for finding diamonds in the rough, such as Dustin Penner and Andy McDonald, stumbled upon Sexton one night when he went to watch Bowling Green play Ohio State.

"I was there to see another player, but Dan just stood out," McNab says. "He was the best player in the game."

The Ducks, whose cupboards were a little bare after hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2006-07, talked Sexton into turning pro. The club saw something in the player that the rest of the world was missing.

"Dan is like a lot of players who aren't drafted; they have flaws and Dan's flaw is his size," McNab says. "We are still living in a world where size matters. The first time I saw him it was easy to like him because he was a great player. It's pretty easy to like a great player. If you can skate and you have courage you can play. Well, he can skate and he is creative."

The only problem is that the Ducks do not have its own American League affiliate and when sent to San Antonio, the farm team for the Phoenix Coyotes, he was the odd man out and never dressed for a game. Sexton was ultimately shipped to Bakersfield of the ECHL where he scored 13 goals and 26 points in 18 games.

"To be honest, I wasn't thrilled in the summer when I was told I might have to play in the ECHL, but when I got there, I realized there was plenty I could learn," Sexton says.

Adds McNab: "He got the opportunity to play the power play, penalty kill and regular shifts. He got his confidence back."

Did he ever. Sexton was ultimately promoted to Manitoba of the AHL where he had a goal and three points in five games before getting the call from the Ducks. A few weeks earlier he was skating on a line with Shawn Weller and MacGregor Sharp in Bakersfield, but Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle decided Sexton needed to play with good players if he was going to be able to show what he could do and immediately teamed him with Bobby Ryan and veteran Saku Koivu. The results have been amazing.

The best part of all for Sexton is the fact he made his NHL debut in Minnesota, about 15 minutes from his home in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

"My mom and dad and about 40 friends were at the game," Sexton says. "It was amazing. I was pretty nervous at the start and I was actually quite tired because I didn't get much sleep the night before. But as the game wore on I started to feel comfortable."

Sexton didn't register appoint in his first two games, but scored twice against Dallas in Game 3 and has since scored in back-to-back games against Detroit and Columbus.

The journey continues when sexton and the Ducks face the Vancouver Canucks tonight. No matter how the story goes from here, Sexton says he'll never forget his first game.

"Just looking up into the crowd and seeing my family and friends was amazing," he says.

No more amazing than getting cut by a USHL team and making it to the NHL a few years later.