Ducks’ Chris Stewart has come a long way and is still battling

Chris Stewart can’t imagine where he would be if he had stuck to his resolve to quit hockey, but he knows it wouldn’t be a good place.

Stewart, 27, loved the game from the time he started playing, when he was 4 years old. He’d trail after his older brother, Anthony, and their father, Norman, a Jamaican immigrant, as they walked to Anthony’s practices because they couldn’t afford a car or bus fare.

But recognizing the heavy burden on the family’s finances — and experiencing a bout of teenage rebellion after Anthony left home to advance his career — Chris gave up hockey for football at 16.

“For that little bit of money that my parents were making, I wasn’t going to ask them to spend it on me and hockey,” said Stewart, who spent much of his childhood living with his parents, brother and five younger sisters in a government-subsidized hotel room in a seedy part of east Toronto.

“I just said I was going to play football. It was cheaper. You bought a pair of cleats and shoulder pads and your helmet and you got out there and you got to play.”

That lasted a year and a half, until Anthony came home and urged Chris to try out for a midget hockey team and, later, the junior team in Kingston. Chris’ natural abilities were obvious, as was the ferocity the brothers developed when they realized hockey could be a ticket to better things.

“We were playing for our lives,” Anthony said in a 2013 ESPN.com story about their struggles.

Both became first-round NHL draft picks, Anthony chosen by Florida in 2003 and Chris by Colorado three years later. Both have since traveled a bumpy road: Anthony has toiled in Europe, and Chris signed a one-year contract with the Ducks as a free agent in July after splitting last season between flailing Buffalo and Minnesota. Chris, who peaked at 28 goals and 64 points with Colorado in 2009-10, produced 14 goals and 36 points last season.

Chris’ career hasn’t gone as planned but it’s still going. And who knows what might have happened if he’d hung up his skates for good?

“I don’t know,” he said last week after a long day’s training at Anaheim Ice. “You’re at that age where you’re from a rough neighborhood, some of your friends are getting in trouble, and things like that. And my dad always said if you’re not going to have anything to do, he’d find something for me to do, so I always had that in the back of my mind.

“He built pools for 18 years. I watched him make $10 an hour working in a hole all day just to try to make ends meet for the family, so I knew the true meaning of the dollar and I knew how hard the other route was and I had to put everything I had into hockey. I didn’t have a choice.”

He’s getting every chance to win a spot with the Ducks. During the first few days of camp he usually skated alongside No. 1 center Ryan Getzlaf and winger Jiri Sekac, using his 6-foot-2, 230-pound body to battle for the puck along the boards and create havoc in front of the net. At his best, he can be a force.

“Once we got into the physical aspects of the game you could see how he can handle the puck down low and he protects it,” Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “That’s pretty well the mantra of our team — board battles and winning those things. I’ve really liked the way he’s come along.”

Getzlaf, who played with Anthony Stewart and appreciates what the brothers endured, sees a place Chris can fit in.

“When he wants to fly down that wing he can skate,” Getzlaf said. “He obviously has a knack around that net, which is a good thing when you’re talking about putting a big body in front of the net, controlling the puck. He’s going to have to compete and play his game, play down low and lug the puck.”

Competing comes naturally to Stewart, now a husband and father of 16-month-old twins who love their mini-sticks. He’s grateful he can give them a more comfortable childhood than he had.

“The window is so short now, you’ve got to grab it by the horns,” he said. “You look at the guys who have been here for a while and they’re in the prime of their career. They want to win now. There’s no tomorrow. You never know when you’re going to get another chance, and we’ve got to maximize this opportunity.”

Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelen