Submitted photo Jim Christian, shown here playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, was one of Youngstown’s most popular players.

What do you do when you need a player to draw a crowd to your budding Central Hockey League franchise in northeast Ohio?

You get a former second-round draft pick with NHL experience who spent a large portion of his pro career in Cleveland.

That guy was Jeff Christian, and for their first two seasons, he was the face of the Youngstown SteelHounds.

It almost didn’t happen, however. Christian had an agreement with the Toledo Storm of the East Coast Hockey League, but at the last minute, Toledo backed out without an explanation.

Luckily, Jock Callander, a friend and former teammate of Christian, was hosting a barbecue where another friend informed Christian that Youngstown was looking for a player just like him — an older player to fill the player/assistant coach role.

When it became apparent that Toledo had pulled the deal, Christian drove to Youngstown to negotiate a new one.

Upon signing, Christian and then-coach Jean Laforest began building the SteelHounds. At the minor league levels, building a hockey team is not too far off from staffing a regular business.

“It’s just a matter of beating the bushes and reaching out,” Christian said. “You get your core guys that you want, then reaching out to them and saying, ‘Who do you know? Who have you heard? Who’s a good player? Who’s a good guy?’

“You want competition for jobs and things like that, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to have that good nucleus coming into camp.”

Christian was the 23rd overall pick in the 1988 NHL Draft, spending NHL time with the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins. With him he brought a physical game that put fans in the stands, as well as a scoring edge.

He brought both of those to Youngstown from day one, scoring four goals in the team’s first home game against Oklahoma City.

“I actually have a picture of it on my wall, the opening faceoff of the first home game of the SteelHounds against Oklahoma City,” Christian said. “(It was with) a guy named Marty Standish. He was a little rat, and I like Marty a lot. He’s a good dude. But he jumped me and I beat him up, and then I scored four that night. I missed the empty-netter for five and we won, 4-3.”

That individual success continued throughout the season as Christian finished with 107 points (55 goals, 52 assists), but the team wasn’t as successful. The SteelHounds missed the playoffs, and Laforest was fired.

New coach Kevin Kaminski wasn’t hired by the team until the middle of September, so Christian and teammate Chris Richards spent the summer trying to prepare for the next season and fill up the roster.

“When Laforest was fired (team owner) Herb Washington came to me and immediately said, ‘Start recruiting. Take inventory of what we have left and start recruiting a team,’ and I did,” Christian said. “All we did was we started talking about the players we wanted back from last season and then reaching out to them and asking ‘Who do you know?’ Because of the long bus rides, we wanted a close group of guys.”

The team Christian and Richards helped assemble for the 2006-07 season was a dramatic turnaround from the year prior, and the pair put up a combined 222 points between them.

Christian played in 22 cities during his professional career. His two most successful seasons were his two seasons in Youngstown, and that connection with Richards may have been why.

He and Richards formed one of the strongest duos in the CHL. It hit the point where Christian was so comfortable playing off Richards that Christian didn’t even have to think about what he’s doing.

“We would go out and we would do our thing on the ice,” Christian said. “We would make plays or score goals or do whatever. We would come off the ice and he would say, ‘In this situation, do this or that,’ and I would look at him like, ‘Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just out there playing.’ ”

The two were a perfect complement for each other. Christian spent so many years at the Triple-A level, that coming down to the slower Double-A level gave him an edge.

This also gave Richards a prime shooter to pass to, which helped them both tremendously.

“When I went to the Central League, I was anticipating a little bit ahead of the play, and I slowed my game down and realized that I have more time to make plays,” Christian said. “I was one of the bigger guys on the ice, and they weren’t going to take the puck off of me.

“Richie and I kind of played the game at the same pace. Neither one of us were great skaters, and that’s why we worked so well together was because we played at the same pace.”

That success led to Christian receiving the league MVP just in time for him to be up for a new contract. His role with the team led Christian to being paid during the summer, which was a privilege for only one player per team.

“I was getting paid in the summer to help recruit, to do promotional events, all the stuff that I felt was vital to the SteelHounds,” he said. “I was the face of the team, promoting the team as much as I was called to do.”

Combine that with coming off a 116-point season, and it was apparent that Christian would have an expensive contract, and Washington wasn’t interested in that.

“He wanted me to take a pay cut, like basically cut my salary in half to stay in Youngstown,” Christian said. “I’ve got a family. My wife’s working at a law firm, she’s not making much money. We need this money … He said ‘We’re not gonna do that.’ So I told him I’m leaving.

“The rules weren’t really clear (about my contract) if I was a free agent or under contract,” Christian added. “I basically gave them an ultimatum. I told them to trade me to Tulsa, make a deal with them or I’m just going to sign with them.”

The SteelHounds made the trade, acquiring forwards Mike Wiggins and Bryan Lachapelle along with defensemen Kurtis Dulle and Terry Virtue. Wiggins and Virtue never wore SteelHounds jerseys.

After two years in Tulsa, Christian took on the same role he did in Youngstown, this time with the Missouri Mavericks. The chemistry-first approach he took was the same as it was in Youngstown.

“I was the first player again, and I did what I did in Youngstown, help build the team from scratch,” Christian said. “It’s a process like a job interview. You’ve got to get your references, three or four references for every guy. Got to get good team guys.

“Anybody can look at the stats, and a lot of coaches I felt made the mistake of just going by stats and numbers, but chemistry was more important.”

Christian ended the season as the team’s leader in goals and assists while leading the team to a playoff berth and a series win over the Mississippi Riverkings.

Despite the success he had with the team, Missouri decided to let him go after the season. During that season, Christian’s daughter, Ryan, was diagnosed with Stage IV adrenal cortical carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.

They were spending time at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis as Christian was looking for a job for the upcoming season. The hospital was not too far from the Mississippi Riverkings’ arena.

At that time, the Riverkings were coached by Kaminski, so it took “about five minutes” for Christian to find himself signing with Mississippi.

Christian and Kaminski were joined by Richards, hoping to rekindle some of that past magic. But the magic wasn’t there, and midway through the season, Kaminski was fired and Christian was traded to Evansville.

“I’ll be honest, I shouldn’t have played that year. My heart wasn’t into it anymore,” Christian said. “I was so worried about my kid. and we took the job there in Mississippi to be close to St. Jude.”

After the season, Christian called it a career. He spent 367 games in the Central Hockey League, finishing with 518 total points (195 goals, 323 assists).

Since hanging up the skates, Christian briefly took up a job coaching the Wheeling Nailers, but decided it’s not for him. Now he’s living in the Columbus area where he’s a real estate agent, coaching a youth hockey team, the Northeast Storm. He is the founder of the Team Ryan Charitable Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research, named in honor of his daughter who passed away in 2013 after a three-year battle with cancer.

The city of Youngstown and the SteelHounds will always hold a special place in the heart of Christian. With his two best seasons coming in the blue and rusty orange, he said he would have been satisfied if that’s how he decided to end his career.

“Had I ended my career after the two years in Youngstown or taken a paycut the third year and then called it a career, I’d be satisfied with that,” Christian said. “I never thought in my life I’d score 100 points in one season until I did it in Youngstown with Richie. We were just doing our thing.”