The Making of Sam Dickinson (+)

TORONTO — The San Jose Sharks can thank Max Mahoney for Sam Dickinson.

The 19-year-old Toronto native will play his first NHL game in his hometown on Thursday, when the Sharks visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But if not for Dickinson’s childhood friend, the big defenseman might not even be playing hockey.

“You hear these stories, especially up here, ‘I was on the ice at two.’ Sam as a young kid — five, six — hockey didn’t stick with him. He didn’t like it,” Steve Dickinson, Sam’s father, told San Jose Hockey Now.

So what did Dickinson like as a boy?